AUGUSTA, Maine — Republican House Minority Leader Ken Fredette said Thursday that he and other House Republicans have used private funds to hire an attorney to file a written argument in support of Gov. Paul LePage in a pending Maine Supreme Judicial Court case over the validity of 65 vetoed bills.

Fredette requested public funding to produce the written argument, but that request was denied by Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves. Eves and Republican Senate President Mike Thibodeau are collaborating — with taxpayer funding and through Bangor-based attorney Tim Woodcock — on a legal argument that disputes LePage’s position in the matter.

Fredette said that most Republicans in the House disagree with Eves and Thibodeau’s argument. Fredette said his caucus has hired attorney Clinton Boothby of the Turner law firm, Boothby Perry LLC.

“The proposition by Speaker Eves and Senate President Thibodeau that the entire Legislature will speak with one voice in this matter is a little bit of an overstatement when you have 186 members in the Legislature,” said Fredette on Thursday. “The brief Mr. Boothby is working on is going to be in support of the right of House Republicans to have an up or down vote on the vetoes that were delivered to the speaker’s office.”

At issue is a conflict that has been building for nearly two weeks between LePage and the Legislature and which has the fate of 65 bills hanging in the balance. Eves and Thibodeau, among others, argue that LePage let a 10-day deadline to veto bills lapse, sending 71 bills into law without his signature. The legislature’s revisor of statutes agrees and started the process of chaptering the bills into law last week. Attorney General Janet Mills agreed with that interpretation in a July 10 legal opinion.

LePage’s office argued that the Legislature adjourned for the session on June 30, which would give the governor until lawmakers come back for at least four consecutive days to sign or veto bills. Regardless of that argument, LePage delivered 65 veto letters to lawmakers last Thursday, which both the House and Senate essentially ignored.

Written arguments to the law court are due Friday, with rebuttals due July 29.

Jodi Quintero, a spokeswoman for Eves, said Thursday that Fredette and Republicans are free to do as they please.

“If Rep. Fredette wants to hire outside counsel to represent him, he can do that with private resources or with resources within his own office,” said Quintero. “Our goal was always first and foremost to minimize costs to taxpayers.”

The point of House Democrats and the Senate filing a joint argument is to avoid a duplicative, more expensive process with separate briefs from the House and Senate. Quintero said Eves and Thibodeau have hired Woodcock to spearhead the written and oral arguments. Woodcock will be paid an hourly rate with a cap of $10,000, said Quintero.

Thibodeau reiterated Quintero’s statements in an email Thursday to Republican lawmakers.

“I agreed to share legal counsel [with Eves and House Democrats], so long as it was Tim Woodcock,” said Thibodeau. “Should it be determined by the court that the bills in question have become law, I know many of you, including myself, will be very disappointed with the end result of some of those bills. … Should the court rule in favor of the governor, I pledge that I will immediately begin working on how the Legislature will handle the vetoes submitted to us on July 16.”

Fredette, who later in the day was named Maine chairman for Republican Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign, said he does not yet know how much hiring Boothby will cost and would not disclose where the private funding will come from.

“That’s a work in progress,” said Fredette. “The point is that there will not be taxpayer dollars involved.”

Joel Biron, deputy clerk of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, said Thursday that the court will accept any and all written arguments but whether Boothby, on behalf of Fredette, would be allowed to present oral arguments is uncertain and would have to be decided at a later date.

A July 20 procedural order from Chief Justice Leigh Saufley invited “the governor’s counsel [and] counsel for the Maine Senate and House of Representatives” to file briefs. It states that “oral argument from the executive and legislative branches” will be held on July 31.

A privately funded legal argument on behalf of lawmakers is not without precedent. In 2012, according to Quintero, Democrats used private funding in a case involving then-State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin and whether his ownership of the Popham Beach Club constituted illegal commerce by a sitting treasurer. The court ultimately declined to take up the case.

LePage vetoed nearly every bill in the final weeks of the legislative session and the Legislature overrode more than two-thirds of them. One bill among the 65 in question, LD 369, would fund General Assistance for asylum seekers and some immigrants for up to two years. LePage and many Republicans have been fighting to cut that funding for more than a year. Fredette and others, including a group that has already launched a citizen’s veto effort on the bill, have said they want a chance to sustain the governor’s veto.

Fredette said he is disappointed that his request for public funding for an attorney was rejected without a meeting of the legislative council, a committee that includes five Democrats and five Republicans.

“I just don’t think that in a democracy you can do that,” said Fredette. “The fact that there is a difference of opinions on the issue of adjournment and the veto process is a legitimate issue.”