WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Metropolitan Airport Commission has spent over 28,000 dollars on the prosecution and appeal of Idaho Senator Larry Craig, MAC spokesman Patrick Hogan told CNN in a phone interview.
Hogan said that the legal fees spent on Sen. Craig's case account for 20 percent of the 2007 budget used to prosecute cases at the airport. "This is one of the highest amounts of money ever spent on prosecuting a misdemeanor," Hogan added.
The MAC gets ist funds from airlines, parking and other airport concessions. It oversees the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota airport where Craig was arrested in June.
Craig, 62, was arrested by an undercover officer in a public restroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
He pleaded guilty in August to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. A soliciting charge was dropped.
Craig has since denied the charges - saying he was not soliciting sex in the bathroom and is not gay. He has since appealed a state courts decision not to let him change his guilty plea. A Minnesota appellate court has not made a ruling to date.
- CNN Senior Producer Eric Fiegel