The anonymous owners of the controversial “Cutler Files” website issued a short statement via a third-party political blogger Monday saying their site was taken down under the threat of “imminent legal action.”
The statement, issued via the pro-Democratic blog Dirigo Blue by Michael Blessing, a pen name for one of the people behind the Cutler Files, also said the $4.99 monthly charge for hosting the website was going to put them close to the $100 threshold, that under Maine campaign finance laws, requires disclosure of who is behind campaign-related political activity.
“(Cutler) and his lawyers have argued before the Maine Ethics Commission that an expenditure of $100 or more by Cutler Files would trigger a requirement to disclose the names of those who produced it since it would be considered under Maine law to be an independent expenditure,” Blessing wrote. “While we don’t necessarily agree, our expenditures to date have been less than $100. However, November’s hosting fee of $4.99 would have brought us close to that threshold, so we decided to take the site down to stay below the $100 spending limit.”
At Cutler’s request, the website, www.cutlerfiles.com, recently became the focus of a Maine Ethics Commission investigation.
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