Reid campaign was advised by partner in his law firm that PAC scheme was legal, claims SOS signoff

Friday, March 4, 2011 | 11:52 a.m.

Paul Larsen, in a memo to Reid campaign manager David Cohen, says he is "comfortable" that the 91 shell PACs scheme was legal. He also claims -- contradicting what Secretary of State Ross Miller said his deputies told him -- that he was given a green light from the SOS.

Of course the point here is less whether it actually was legal -- and an SOS deputy can only advise -- but whether it should be.

I have posted Larsen's letter at right He and Reid are partners at Lionel, Sawyer & Collins.

UPDATE: Larsen's memo incorrectly identifies Kristi Geiser as a deputy secretary of state. She is not. She is a program officer. And the deputy at the time, Matt Griffin, tells me she had no authority to give opinions -- only he or Ross Miller did. Also, if you read carefully, it's also clear Larsen did not lay out the entire scenario of what the scheme was.