Hughes filed the complaint after Riesen provided a reporter with a draft of an ethics complaint, alleging potentially criminal misconduct by Hughes. Hughes alleged Riesen had defamed him and shamed the body.

"The complaint, sadly, appears to be an effort to divert attention from the larger concerns - allegations of real corruption, bribery, and extortion - which are the subject matter of the complaint filed against Hughes," says Riesen's request to have the complaint dismissed. The request was filed Saturday night.

In the process, Riesen's lawyers painted a picture of a private meeting on Sept. 30 in which he claims legislative leaders, including House Speaker Greg Curtis, berated House members for filing a complaint against Hughes, repeatedly calling Democratic Rep. Roz McGee "disgusting" and stated that contributions are tied to votes "all the time."

And the filing says Curtis' chief of staff, Chris Bleak, tried to persuade former Rep. Susan Lawrence to recant a claim that Hughes offered her, by her recollection, $50,000 to drop her opposition to school vouchers.

Riesen was not in the meeting. Curtis said in an interview Friday he did not refer to McGee, D-Salt Lake City, as disgusting, but said it was wrong to file the complaint so near the election and that "the process was disgusting."

Bleak said that he was asked by House Majority Leader Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, to help Lawrence draft a statement to help clarify her position after she told Clark she was not accusing Hughes of bribery and never intended her claim to be made public. Bleak sent her suggested statements, but she did not use them, he said, although she said essentially the same thing to the media last week.

Lawrence could not be reached for comment regarding her conversations with Bleak.

The House Ethics Committee scheduled a preliminary hearing on the complaints against Hughes and Riesen for Wednesday and Friday to determine if there is merit to the allegations. They will be closed to the public, although Hughes says he wants them open.

"I am incredulous that this hearing is not going to be open to the public," he said. "All the allegations about me have been public in every medium in this valley - newspaper, radio, television - and my ability to defend myself is, against my will, closed."

In Riesen's request, filed by attorneys Pat Shea, David Irvine and Alan Smith, he argues that he had an obligation to the public to reveal ethical misdeeds and a First Amendment right to do so, and the information was in no way protected legislative material.

The fact that Hughes sought sanctions against Riesen for the disclosure points up a major flaw in the Legislature's ethics system, the request says.

"Where there is a climate of fear - fear of reprisal, political, economic, or otherwise - we lose openness and honesty in government," it states.

It is that "climate of fear" that is touched on in the portrayal of the meeting last week between legislative leadership and those with concerns about Hughes' actions and the House ethics process in general.

Those in the meeting say it was tense and bordering on confrontational. McGee and Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, presented Curtis with a draft of a complaint against Hughes, hoping he would join in signing it.

Curtis said he was annoyed with the approach his colleagues took. It seemed, he said, the decision to file the complaint had been made. And there were questions about why the allegations, which reach back to 2006, could not have been brought forward sooner and whether it was politically motivated. He also was puzzled when he learned they had shared the information with Utah Democratic Party Executive Director Todd Taylor.

But Curtis said he never attacked McGee.

"I told her it was very disappointing. I told her I thought it was politics at its worst," Curtis said. "I told her I thought the process was disgusting, an abuse of the process and disgusting."

After about 45 minutes, Bleak told Curtis that a KSL camera crew, alerted to the meeting by Riesen, was waiting outside. Curtis said he and others felt they had been set up and the meeting quickly ended.

Curtis met privately with Allen afterward. She would not discuss what was said, but ultimately she did not sign the complaint against Hughes.

gehrke@sltrib.com