Court Date Set for Lawsuit Against Former Presidential Candidate Michele Bachmann

A  court date has been set in the Iowa lawsuit against former 2012 presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, the Des Moines Register reports.

On Wednesday, the seven-day trial in Heki v. Bachmann was scheduled for May 14, 2014, the article said. The Register also reports that Bachmann will not seek re-election in 2014. In a videotaped message, she said “this decision was not impacted in any way by the recent inquiries into the activities of my former presidential campaign or my former presidential staff.”

Last week, the FBI launched an investigation into Bachmann's 2012 presidential campaign, according to KCCI Channel 8 in Des Moines. Urbandale police, the Polk County Attorneys Office, the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee, the Federal Elections Commission and the Office of Congressional Ethics are already investigating claims ranging from ethics violations to criminal activity in Bachmann's 2012 presidential bid, the television station reported.

One allegation claims Republican Sen. Kent Sorenson, of Milo, was paid for campaign work on behalf of Bachmann, who won the Ames Straw Poll in August 2011 but finished last in the January 2012 Iowa Caucuses.

Iowa Senate ethics rules bar paid employment with political campaigns.Sorenson denies payment and says the investigation is a political witch hunt.Also, a volunteer from Johnston who worked on the campaign, sued Bachmann over a stolen email list used by the presidential campaign.

Barb Heki served as a coordinator of home-school supporters for Bachmann’s presidential campaign that participated in the January 2012 Iowa caucuses. She claimed Sorenson stole an email list from her computer in Bachmann’s Urbandale campaign office in 2011.

Sorenson's attorney told Patch last year he committed no crime, but Bachmann campaign adviser Eric Woolson said in a sworn affidavit that Sorenson admitted taking the email list from Heki.

Mark Weinhardt, a Des Moines attorney, was appointed to the case as independent special counsel in May. The Iowa State Senate Ethics Committee voted May 1 to seek a special investigator to look into the claims.