Williams pays up

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

Conservative columnist Armstrong Williams agreed this week to pay a $34,000 fine to settle a case related to columns he wrote backing the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind program. In 2003, Williams signed a $240,000 deal with the Education Department to promote the program in his column and to produce two advertisements for it. Critics accused Williams of deceiving his readers by not disclosing the arrangement. The payment settles civil charges brought by the Justice Department claiming Williams didn’t produce all the work his contract called for. Williams neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing.