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Allegations that Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, is misusing campaign funds are "uninformed and petty attacks" by his opponent, his lawyer said Friday.

The three-page letter from attorney Matthew T. Sanderson to Chia-Chi Teng puts Chaffetz's opponent in the GOP primary on notice that his claims are false, but it reads more like a political counterpunch than a legal document. Among other slaps, Sanderson accuses Teng of being uninformed, desperate and trying to prop up a doomed campaign with wads of personal cash.

Teng, a Brigham Young University professor of information technology and a former Microsoft developer, filed a complaint this week with the Federal Election Commission asserting that Chaffetz has been sloppy with his campaign accounts and may have used the funds for personal gain.

Sanderson wrote that Teng asserted that Chaffetz apparently charged his campaign for a family Park City hotel stay on Thanksgiving, but "Chaffetz was at home that day cooking with his family."

He said Teng apparently mistook payments Chaffetz made that day that "were advance deposits for a successful campaign fundraising event at the St. Regis in late February 2015 that was attended by over 100 individuals. A little diligence on your part in reviewing the campaign's reports would have made it clear."

He said Teng had asserted, as proof for his claim, that a photo Chaffetz posted online of his family's Thanksgiving turkey was in a small oven similar to the kind the St. Regis has in its suites.

"This basted turkey is no smoking gun," Sanderson wrote. "This is because most oven interiors look alike or maybe even because manufacturers, in some crazy scheme to turn a profit, make more than one oven."

Sanderson said allegations that Chaffetz improperly used campaign-owned vehicles are false, and that he followed congressional and campaign rules that allow him to use the vehicles in a mix of both campaign and official business.

"To suggest otherwise only reveals how eager you are to willfully disregard facts in pursuit of a political score," Sanderson wrote.

Collin Pace, Teng's campaign manager, responded that Sanderson's letter "is full of snark and condescension but fails to give any reason or details concerning" what he said are some questionable trips with the campaign vehicles to Mexico and California.

Also, Pace said, "Chaffetz has never reimbursed his campaign for any personal use of the two campaign vehicles parked at his residence that he purchased with donor contributions."

Teng had also called for Chaffetz to disclose roughly $77,000 in expenses made on a personal credit card that were that reimbursed by his campaign. Chaffetz has said they fall below the FEC's disclosure threshold of $200 per vendor.

Sanderson wrote, "The Chaffetz campaign is simply completing these reports as instructed" by the FEC, and they have been vetted by legal counsel and accountants.

Pace invited Chaffetz to put most of the issues to rest "by simply releasing for public inspection his campaign vehicle logs, campaign calendar and receipts for the $77,000 in campaign reimbursements he's claimed." However, he said Sanderson's letter fails to address the issue of what Teng has estimated is a half million Delta Air Lines SkyMiles worth $17,000 personally received by Chaffetz using his personal credit card, then reimbursing himself from the campaign.

About questions Teng raised about reimbursement for child care expenses, hotel costs and other items, Sanderson wrote, "Chaffetz is careful to defray these costs only from his personal funds whenever they are incurred for personal purposes."

The attorney said Chaffetz seeks reimbursement when they are for campaign expenses. "While you might feel the personal urge to subsidize your campaign operation with six-figures sums," he wrote to Teng, "it is not apparent why Congressman Chaffetz should need to do the same," he said.

Sanderson took a few other personal shots at his rival.

"Your uninformed and petty attacks on Congressman Chaffetz's character demonstrate that you would fit right inside Washington, but they also show that you have no business representing the great people of Utah," he wrote.

"Although I can appreciate that it must be nearly irresistible to say and do anything to get noticed after making such a large personal investment in a faltering campaign, it is still disappointing that you would resort to these tactics," Sanderson wrote.

Pace, Teng's campaign manager, said, "We are glad Mr. Chaffetz is starting to take this matter seriously, but why is he hiding behind a paid campaign attorney?"