Sullivan now says he won't try to collect the $500,000 he voted to give himself

Sen. Dan Sullivan voted to accept a $500,000 gift to himself Monday, but his spokeswoman now says he won’t make a move to collect it.

It appears he is trying to say that he didn’t know he was voting to allow himself to collect $500,000 simply by filing a lawsuit. Most of the other senators who voted to give themselves cash are also saying they had no clue of the payout plan.

On Wednesday, Sullivan released a long statement about some of the Alaska provisions in the bill, but failed to take time away from his busy schedule attacking the Democrats to mention the $500,000 for Sullivan.

On Thursday, his spokeswoman, Amanda Coyne, said no one had told Sullivan the bill would reward him with $500,000 for simply filing a complaint in court. He didn’t find out until Monday, the same day he voted to approve the bill. With Trump’s signature, the provision is now in federal law. It was part of the bill to reopen the government.

Sullivan’s office is being vague as to whether Sullivan discovered the $500,000 bonus before or after Sullivan voted to approve it. Either way it’s bad.

If he knew about the provision, why did he wait until after it became a national scandal to object to it and announce that he would not try to collect?

And why did he fail to call for a Senate measure to overturn the free money plan, instead of saying he will wait until the House enacts a bill and sends it to the Senate?

It appears from the prepared statement quoting Coyne, not Sullivan, that Sullivan voted on the bill without knowing he could collect the cash. Most of the other GOP senators, all of whom had their phone records checked to see who they called during the January 6th insurrection, are also saying they had no idea they would get $500,000 or more, depending upon how many phones they had.