WASHINGTON—A campaign finance manager and political consultant pleaded guilty last month in a Virginia federal court for coordinating $325,000 in federal election campaign contributions by a political action committee or PAC to a Congressional campaign committee, officials said.
This is the first criminal prosecution in federal court based upon the coordination of campaign contributions between political committees, according to authorities.
Tyler Eugene Harber, 34, of Alexandria, Virginia, pleaded guilty to one count of coordinated federal election contributions and one count of making false statements to the FBI.
Harber was the campaign finance manager for Republican Chris Perkins who ran against incumbent Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-11th) in 2012. Connolly was re-elected to office.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 5.
“The Department of Justice is fully committed to addressing the threat posed to the integrity of federal primary and general elections by coordinated campaign contributions, and will aggressively pursue coordination offenses at every appropriate opportunity,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell.
“Today, Mr. Harber took responsibility for violating federal election campaign laws by illegally coordinating payments between a super pac and a candidate’s campaign committee,” said Assistant Director FBI Office Andrew McCabe. “The FBI will continue to investigate allegations of campaign finance abuse which are in place to ensure openness and fairness in our elections so the people’s interests are protected.”
According to the plea documents, these are the facts and circumstances surrounding this case:
- Harber was the Campaign Manager and General Political Consultant for Connolly in the November 2012 general election.
- At the same time, Harber participated in the creation and operation of a PAC, which was legally allowed to raise and spend money in unlimited amounts from otherwise prohibited sources to influence federal elections so long as it did not coordinate expenditures with a federal campaign.
- Harber admitted, among other things, that he made and directed coordinated expenditures by the PAC to influence the election with $325,000 of political advertising opposing a rival candidate.
- The co-ordination of expenditures made them illegal campaign contributions to the authorized committee of Connolly, and Harber admitted that he knew this coordination of expenditures was an unlawful means of contributing money to a campaign committee.
- He further admitted that he used an alias and other means to conceal his action from inquiries by an official of the same political party as Harber’s candidate.
- Harber further admitted that he told multiple lies when interviewed by the FBI concerning his activities.