Indicted Washington State Auditor Troy Kelley is scheduled to be back in court Tuesday. He’s fighting to get back nearly $1 million the feds seized in September.
Kelley had entrusted more than $900,000 to his previous lawyer’s law firm. When Kelley switched lawyers in September, the feds pounced. They got a civil warrant to seize the funds on grounds the money could be ill-gotten gains.
Kelley’s new attorney argued the funds are not “tainted” and said the seizure was an overreach. The judge in the case seems sympathetic, writing in October that prosecutors’ tactics “present due process concerns.”
The judge will also hear Kelley’s attorney, Angelo Calfo, make the case for breaking apart the lengthy, 17-count indictment. Calfo argued the allegations contained in the indictment are not part of a “single scheme,” as the feds maintain.
Calfo wants charges that Kelley made false declarations and filed false income tax returns separated from charges he possessed stolen money and engaged in money laundering.
Kelley has pleaded not guilty to all counts and faces a March trial.
