TOPEKA, Kan. _ Prosecutors allege Kansas Congressman Steve Watkins lied to a Shawnee County Sheriff's detective on Feb. 10, according to court documents that reveal fresh details about the illegal voting case against him.
A criminal complaint accuses Watkins of providing the detective, Stephanie Dicken, information "knowing that such information is false and intending to influence, impede or obstruct" the detective's duty.
Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay's office charged Watkins on Tuesday afternoon with three felonies and one misdemeanor related to allegations that he illegally voted in a 2019 Topeka municipal election.
Kagay released news of the charges half-an-hour before Watkins participated in a televised primary debate, where the first-term Republican called the timing of the announcement "hyper-political."
Watkins used a Topeka UPS store as his registration address for the election and allegedly voted in the wrong city council district. Sources say Watkins was living with his parents at the time, but used the UPS address to obscure that fact.
The criminal complaint against Watkins lists 21 individuals and organizations that prosecutors may call in the case. They include Topeka city council member Spencer Duncan, who won the election Watkins is alleged to have improperly voted in last year. In December, Duncan said he has known Watkins since childhood but that the two are not close and that they hadn't spoken since 2018.
Duncan said Wednesday that he was interviewed by detectives early this year, likely in February. He said the detectives asked whether there was any coordination and that he replied there had not been and that he hadn't spoken to Watkins since before his election to Congress.
"I told them, when that news first came out I was as shocked as everybody and my first reaction has always been, 'please, I have nothing to do with this, please leave me out of it,'" Duncan said.
Shawnee County Election Commissioner Andrew Howell and Adam Linhos, co-owner of the UPS Store, are listed as possible witnesses. Personnel from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation lab, records custodians at two apartment complexes and a second Shawnee County Sheriff's detective, in addition to Dicken, are also named.
Watkins said during Tuesday's debate that he has been cooperating with the investigation and looks forward to clearing his name. His office did not immediately comment Wednesday on allegations regarding the Feb. 10 incident.
Todd Graves, former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is representing Watkins' in the case. Graves, a former chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, is the brother of Rep. Sam Graves, R-Missouri, who serves alongside Watkins in Washington.
Graves did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charging document.
The allegation that the Republican congressman voted illegally comes as President Donald Trump has been warning, without evidence, that there will be massive voter fraud in the 2020 election.
In the Republican primary for Kansas' 2nd Congressional District, Watkins faces Kansas Treasurer Jake LaTurner and Dennis Taylor, a former cabinet official under Gov. Sam Brownback. The winner will take on the likely Democratic nominee, Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla.
"This is a day that many of us have felt for a long time was inevitable," LaTurner said in a statement reacting to the charges.
Kansas Republican Party leaders held a conference call Wednesday morning following the filing of the charges the previous night, but Shannon Golden, the party's executive director, downplayed the significance of the call. "We frequently have calls with our party leaders especially with the election quickly approaching," she said in a text message.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's office did not immediately respond to a question about whether Watkins would retain his committee assignments.
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan in 2018 stripped two Republican lawmakers, Duncan Hunter of California and Chris Collins of New York, of their committee assignments after they faced federal felony charges in separate cases.
The House GOP conference amended its rules that year to require any lawmaker facing a felony charge that could carry a prison sentence of two or more years to give up their committee assignments. Watkins' felony charges could surpass that threshold if the potential sentences for each count are added together.
The House Committee on Ethics, which investigates allegations of wrongdoing by lawmakers, declined to comment Wednesday.
