RALEIGH (AP) — Former North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley said Wednesday invoices for flights on a private plane that were filed by a political ally of his campaign had nothing to do with defraying the cost of repairs on his Raleigh home.

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Easley’s testimony before the State Board of Elections, his first public comments about campaign activities in several months, counters sworn comments that McQueen Campbell, a longtime family friend whom Easley appointed to the N.C. State University trustee board, made earlier this week.

The board is investigating whether Easley’s campaign or the state Democratic Party broke campaign finance laws.

Campbell testified Easley suggested he file invoices on airplane flights he gave to Easley to pay for home repairs Campbell took care of on the governor’s home. Campbell testified two invoices were false, which would be an election law violation.

But Easley said he never indicated to Campbell that he should do that.

“It never, ever happened,” Easley told the board.

The ex-governor, who left office in January after eight years, testified he told Campbell in 2005 to file an invoice for the campaign to advance him money to pay for expected flights. That kind of prebilling is apparently lawful.

Campbell filed two invoices totaling more than $11,000 for previous flights, not advance flights like Easley testified he told Campbell to do.

When an assistant for then-Easley campaign treasurer Dave Horne called him in the summer of 2005 about one of the invoices, he assumed it was for the advance flights and told her curtly to pay for it, according to Easley.

Easley said he didn’t pay attention to the invoice details because at the time he was focused on trying to persuade enough lawmakers to approve a state-run lottery he had sought since taking office in 2001. Lottery legislation was narrowly approved in August 2005.

“Can’t you all work this out?” Easley recalled saying when the assistant called him. “You are all grown folks.”

Easley said he did ask Campbell to get repairs performed on the home, which Easley had rented out while he lived in the Executive Mansion, for some water damage and other items. He testified he thought Campbell would have billed the real estate company that managed his home or talked to his personal assistant to write him a personal check.

Campbell also testified Monday he flew Easley around on scores of campaign-related flights from 1999 through 2004 that were never reported by The Mike Easley Committee. Campbell valued the flights at nearly $88,000.

Easley said he couldn’t remember all the flights going back to the time he was elected attorney general in 1992. He said he didn’t believe Campbell had flown him the dozens of times that Campbell portrayed in documents he presented to the board.

The former governor said Campbell told him in October 2008 that he “had been paid for all of those flights” and Easley wasn’t going to second-guess Campbell, a Bladen County businessman whom he said had been an up-and-comer in political and government circles.

“He’s not an imbecile,” Easley said. “I’m sure he knows he has to bill the campaign.”

Easley also testified he assumed his campaign or personal assistant was making payments on a vehicle provided by a car dealer.

Easley said he settled with car dealer Robert Bleecker when he realized the bills hadn’t been paid. The Easley campaign and the Easley family eventually paid more than $22,000 to pay the lease and purchase the car, which had been driven by Easley’s son.

“It was sort of a loose arrangement,” Easley said during a State Board of Elections hearing.

The Democrat left the Executive Mansion in January after eight years in office but has been dogged since his departure by investigations into his travel, his campaign finances and his wife’s job.

Easley is the first governor called to testify in an elections board hearing.

Easley was sworn in to the hearing Wednesday morning. He thanked board members for their service and noted that he appointed some of them to their positions.

He said he was busy as chief executive and relied on campaign staff to deal with finances. Ex-campaign staff said Easley didn’t like fundraising. The former governor said he focused mostly on issues and writing scripts for his television ads.

The board is looking at whether the state party ceded authority over how campaign funds given by Easley’s campaign to the party were used — something the party denies.

“To my knowledge, I’ve never seen a campaign report,” Easley said. “I did not spend a lot of time with the campaign itself.”