Michael Brown is latest D.C. lawmaker to plead guilty to federal charges

[Geee]

Washington Times:

Former D.C. Council member Michael A. Brown pleaded guilty Monday to a public corruption charge for accepting tens of thousands of dollars in cash stuffed in duffel bags and coffee cups while in office, following in the footsteps of two other former city lawmakers who pleaded guilty last year to federal crimes.

Court documents made public after his plea agreement in U.S. District Court for the District on a charge of accepting $55,000 in bribes also contained previously undisclosed ties between Brown and another long-running scandal in the District — an ongoing investigation into the 2010 campaign of Mayor Vincent C. Gray.

According to court records, Brown in 2007 made a $25,000 donation to his own campaign in an unsuccessful bid for a D.C. Council seat in Ward 4. The papers say that $20,000 of that money, which Brown characterized as a “loan,” was provided by someone identified as “Co-conspirator 1” and that the donation was facilitated by Eugenia Clarke Harris.

Harris, who worked on Mr. Gray’s 2010 campaign, pleaded guilty in July to taking part in a secret and illegal effort that funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the candidate. All the funding for that scheme was provided by a conspirator who went unnamed in court papers but is widely thought to be prolific D.C. political donor Jeffrey E. Thompson.