LAS VEGAS (AP) — A lawyer for a Nevada automated phone call lobbyist is waging a federal court fight against warrants he says amount to a fishing expedition in a state Legislature bribery and extortion investigation.
Attorney David Otto declares in documents filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas that his client, political consultant Tony Dane, has committed no crime.
Otto says searches of properties in Virginia, Utah and Nevada amount to political intimidation and an attempt to shut Dane up.
The investigation started when Republican Nevada state Assemblyman Chris Edwards reported last year that he'd been offered money to change his vote on a key issue in the Legislature.
Las Vegas police labeled the investigation an extortion probe, and announced last week that no members of the state Legislature are targets.