ATTORNEY GENERAL Andrea Campbell on Tuesday released a settlement agreement with Sen. Ryan Fattman and his wife Stephanie Fattman, the register of probate in Worcester County, in which the couple admits to no wrongdoing in connection with a series of campaign finance transactions while agreeing to pay the state $192,000.

Campbell issued a statement suggesting her office had brought law breakers to justice. “Enforcing our campaign finance laws, and holding those who violate them accountable, are critical functions of our office,” she said. “We will continue to hold accountable those who misuse positions of power, break the law, and undermine the public’s trust.”

Sen. Fattman took a very different position. In a telephone interview, he said his daughter was 4 years old when the case started and she’s 7 now. “Time is precious,” he said, adding that the agreement not only ends the legal dispute but spells out that he believes the contributions in dispute were legal and in fact are fairly commonplace on Beacon Hill.

“No one can say we broke the law,” he said.

Fattman said the attorney general’s office reached out to him in August seeking a resolution of the matter, which resulted in a series of settlements with him ($55,000); Stephanie Fattman ($137,000); the Massachusetts Republican State Committee ($15,000); the Sutton Republican Town Committee ($5,211); Donald Fattman, the senator’s father and former chair of his son’s campaign committee ($10,000); and Anthony Fattman, the senator’s brother and the chair of the Sutton Republican Town Committee (resigned).

The dispute centered on roughly $160,000 donated by Sen. Fattman’s campaign to the Republican State Committee and the Sutton Republican Town Committee, which in turn purchased 550,000 mailers and other campaign materials to support the 2020 reelection campaign of Stephanie Fattman for register of probate in Worcester County.

State law allows campaign committees to make unlimited dollar donations to state parties and town committees, which in turn can make unlimited in-kind contributions to support candidates. However, there is a $100 limit on contributions from one campaign committee to another.

The former director of the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance alleged that Sen. Fattman was circumventing the $100 limit on contributions from one campaign committee to another by funneling money to his wife’s campaign through the state committee and the Sutton town committee.

Fattman said he complied with the law and made no effort to conceal what he was doing. He said politicians from both parties regularly donate to their state parties to help get fellow Republicans and Democrats elected. He wondered if those contributions will now be challenged if the ultimate beneficiary is someone they know. He said he suspects regulators focused on his activities because the money ended up with his wife’s campaign.

“They didn’t like the fact that we were related,” he said.

Fattman has a spreadsheet of similar type donations made by other politicians in 2020. For example, Maura Healey’s campaign made a $20,000 donation to the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee on October 16, 2020. Five days later, the state committee spent $8,947 and $12,275, a total of $21,223, on mailings on behalf of John Cronin, who was running for state Senate and had just appeared at a rally with Healey.

Fattman’s spreadsheet has similar campaign transactions involving House Speaker Ron Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka, Rep. Michael Day of Stoneham, and Sens. Marc Pacheco of Taunton, Julian Cyr of Truro, Sal DiDomenico of Everett, and Barry Finegold of Andover. Treasurer Deborah Goldberg and US Rep. Jake Auchincloss also show up.

Fattman doesn’t begrudge Democrats for supporting their state party to help get Democrats elected to office. He said he resents the fact that the Office of Campaign and Political Finance went after him for doing the same thing.

“The point of a party is to elect people,” he said.