Kucinich discloses $20,000 speaking fee from pro-Syrian group

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

After initially not including details in his financial-disclosure forms about the payments he had received for speeches, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dennis Kucinich revealed Tuesday that he was paid $20,000 for traveling to England last year for a speech to a group sympathetic to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Paul Nick, executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission, which handles the disclosure forms, wrote Kucinich on Friday, asking him to correct last week's "incomplete" filing by identifying the person or entity paying him for what he had listed only as "paid speeches."

Kucinich, a U.S. House member from 1997 to 2013 and a former Cleveland mayor, responded Tuesday by listing three speaking fees totaling $33,000, including $20,000 from the Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees, of El Cerrito, California.

The group is listed in federal records as holding the trademark to the Syria Solidarity Movement, which opposes "imperial interests" intervening in the Syrian civil war. As both a congressman, and again last year, Kucinich visited Syria to meet with its president, attracting criticism in some circles. Kucinich says he supports efforts to bring peace to the war-torn nation.

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