Former state senator charged with violating state ethics laws

Former state Sen. Dean Tran was indicted Friday by a Suffolk County grand jury and charged with two counts of violating state ethics laws, Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced.

The newest charges against Tran, who was indicted by then-Attorney General Maura Healey in July 2022 on charges that he stole a Colt .45 gun from an elderly constituent and then misled the investigation into the incident, stem from the Massachusetts Senate Committee on Ethics' 2020 finding that Tran inappropriately used his Senate staff to conduct campaign activities. Campbell's office said the matter was referred to it by the Office of Campaign and Political Finance following the Senate committee's report.

Campbell alleged that the 47-year-old Fitchburg Republican, who served in the Massachusetts Senate from late 2017 until early 2021, "used members of his Senate staff to campaign for him while those staff members were on state time, state payroll, and purportedly working for the Legislature" during campaigns in 2018 and 2020. The impermissible work is alleged to have taken place during official work hours at the MassGOP campaign regional field office in Fitchburg, the AG's office said.

Massachusetts ethics laws prohibit state, county and municipal public employees from using public resources in connection with political campaigns or other private political activity, including engaging in political activity on public work time, Campbell's office said.

Attorneys representing Tran in the gun charge matter — which is ongoing and slated to go to a jury trial in February — did not immediately return a call seeking a response to the latest indictment of their client Friday afternoon. Tran is to be arraigned on the latest charges in Suffolk County Superior Court at a later date, Campbell's office said Friday.

Tran is also a subject in a federal investigation, the Boston Globe reported in June after the FBI raided his home.

The Massachusetts Senate sanctioned Tran in 2020 after the Senate Ethics Committee found his office staff had been performing campaign work with public resources during business hours. He denied the charges. He was removed from his position as assistant minority whip and banned from interacting with his staff except through official emails.

Tran narrowly lost his 2020 reelection bid to Sen. John Cronin, a Democrat. Last year, he ran for Congress against U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan and garnered more than 88,500 votes in his loss.

Campbell's office this week also entered into a settlement agreement with the Massachusetts Republican Party to resolve allegations that the party received more than $137,000 in impermissible contributions from Sen. Ryan Fattman's campaign to be used to benefit his wife, Stephanie Fattman, and her 2020 Worcester County Register of Probate reelection campaign.

MassGOP will pay the state $15,000 as part of the settlement but "does not admit that it has violated any law or legal obligation," the agreement says. MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale said the party's role in the matter is now over.

"I inherited a party that was under grand jury investigation for campaign finance violations, involved in multiple lawsuits, but most importantly a desire from Republicans to move the party forward," Carnevale, who defeated former chair Jim Lyons to assume leadership of the party earlier this year, said in a statement. "This week's settlement, and the earlier resolution of four inherited lawsuits, allows the party to focus on the future."