Ethics Commission finds Hickenlooper twice violated gift rules

The commission was considering a complaint by a conservative group claiming that Hickenlooper violated the state's gift ban while he was governor. Hickenlooper had denied the charges.

The commission on Friday tossed out four of the six allegations against Hickenlooper, but found that he had violated the rules against accepting gifts when he accepted a flight and fancy dinners, the Denver Post reported.

The ruling comes the day after Hickenlooper was found in contempt for declining to appear at the ethics hearing and several weeks before he faces a June 30 Democratic primary against former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff. The winner will face Republican Sen. Cory Gardner in one of the most competitive elections of the year. In 2016, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump in the state by 5 points.

Hickenlooper's campaign celebrated most of the allegations being dismissed and attacked them as "political smears" from Republicans.

"We fully expect the special interests who've exploited this process to continue to mislead Coloradans with negative attacks because they know John Hickenlooper will be an independent voice in the U.S. Senate," Melissa Miller, a spokeswoman for Hickenlooper's campaign, said in a statement Friday evening.

National Republicans having been using the ethics complaint to attack Hickenlooper. "He is guilty of shrugging off the state's ethics rules and violating the trust taxpayers had placed in him as Governor," Joanna Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement Friday.

The panel unanimously voted on Thursday for the Colorado Attorney General's office to enforce its subpoena. That office then filed a motion requesting that the Denver District Court order Hickenlooper to remotely testify before the commission this week. Hickenlooper had offered dates to appear in person before the commission in August.

"The Commission found Gov. Hickenlooper in contempt for his failure to appear in connection with a validly issued subpoena. The hearing has been continued until tomorrow," Dino Ioannides, executive director of the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission, said in an email Thursday.

The former governor opposed the motion and "has made clear he will testify in person," Miller said Thursday.

"Today's debacle of a hearing has made clear that WebEx doesn't work for a legal proceeding like this," said Miller, referring to the video conferencing program.

"In order to put an end to the partisan political circus orchestrated by a dark money Republican group, Gov. Hickenlooper offered to testify, and though that was rejected, he remains ready to appear," Miller added.

President Donald Trump on Friday night weighed in on Hickenlooper not appearing for the Thursday hearing, writing on Twitter that Hickenlooper "Got caught big time with his hand in the cookie jar. Should be the end of his Colorado Senate bid. Makes no difference, we already have a GREAT Senator!"

This story has been updated Friday with the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission's ruling, a statement from the Commission and additional statements from the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Hickenlooper's campaign.