The campaign of Sen. Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn., agreed to pay a $50,000 civil penalty after the Federal Election Commission concluded that the campaign repeatedly flouted the law in disbursing cash payments to volunteers during Lieberman's bruising Democratic primary against businessman Ned Lamont in 2006.

The FEC opened an investigation in late 2006 after Lamont's campaign lodged a complaint alleging that Lieberman was using a "slush fund" to fuel his campaign in the waning days of the primary. Lamont's campaign cited more than $387,000 in unexplained expenditures listed only as "petty cash."

Lamont defeated Lieberman in the primary but later lost to him in the general election after Lieberman ran as an independent.

The FEC recently posted on its Web site a conciliation agreement with the Friends of Joe Lieberman showing that the case had been settled with the campaign's decision to pay the civil penalty.

According to the conciliation agreement, federal campaign law allows a political committee to maintain petty cash fund for disbursements "not in excess of $100 to any person in connection with a single purchase or transaction." The treasurer, the law says, must keep a record of all petty disbursements, the date, purpose and identity of each recipient.

The agreement says that the Lieberman committee made cash payments to 1,003 canvassers totaling $344,496 for get-out-the vote activity. The agreement says: "In making the payments, the committee withdrew very large amounts of cash from its bank account on 14 separate occasions and gave the money to campaign consultants and volunteers who put cash in envelopes that were disbursed to canvassers, frequently in amounts well in excess of $100."

According to the agreement, the Lieberman committee made at least 600 payments totaling $121,965, which exceeded the petty cash limit of $100 per person. The committee also did not itemize its petty cash payments in its public FEC reports or "keep all the required records documenting them," the agreement said.

The FEC also said it had uncovered "no information and has made no finding" that Sen. Lieberman had "engaged in any wrongdoing in connection with the alleged campaign violations."