WASHINGTON (AP) — Influential District of Columbia businessman Jeffrey Thompson was charged Monday with conspiring to violate federal and local campaign finance laws by funding off-the-books campaign activity for candidates including Hillary Rodham Clinton and district Mayor Vincent Gray.
Thompson, the multimillionaire former owner of a well-connected accounting firm, was charged in a criminal information, a charging document that can only be filed with the defendant’s consent and typically signals a guilty plea. A court appearance was scheduled for Monday afternoon.
According to the document, Thompson funded illicit campaign activity for Clinton, Gray and seven other candidates for local office in the district. All told, the efforts, described previously by prosecutors as “shadow campaigns,” were valued at more than $2 million.
Prosecutors also said Thompson exceeded contribution limits by using straw donors and funneling money from his corporation through intermediaries. Thompson contributed more than $500,000 to local candidates and more than $250,000 to federal candidates and political-action committees over a six-year period, according to the 10-page document.
Thompson, 58, had long been suspected of giving money to Gray’s 2010 campaign to fund get-out-the vote and other efforts, and the document put the value of the shadow campaign at $668,000. He was also charged with pouring $608,750 into Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid. The efforts to help Clinton were detailed in a previous case against a Thompson associate.
The charges against Thompson come three weeks before the district’s Democratic mayoral primary, in which Gray is seeking re-election against seven challengers, some of whom have pointed to the mayor’s association with Thompson as a sign that he is unfit for office.
Gray has denied all wrongdoing but has not answered specific questions about his knowledge of Thompson’s activities. Chuck Thies, Gray’s campaign manager, said in a statement Monday that the document did not implicate Gray.
“No one has suggested that Hillary Clinton knew of Thompson’s illegal activities. Mayor Gray has not been afforded the same presumption of innocence,” Thies said. “We urge the media to be cautions when reporting the facts of this case.”
The document details shadow campaigns for eight candidates for office in the district, with a total value of nearly $1.5 million. The most recent race Thompson sought to influence, the document shows, was a race for an at-large council seat in 2011, which Vincent Orange won with support from Thompson’s network of donors. Orange, who has acknowledged handing over documents related to his 2011 campaign to federal investigators, is also running for mayor this year. He did not immediately return a call seeking comment, but he has previously denied all wrongdoing.
Thompson also ran a $278,000 shadow effort for a mayoral candidate in 2006, the document shows. Adrian Fenty defeated Linda Cropp in that year’s mayoral primary, and Cropp received contributions that year from Thompson and his associates.
Federal authorities searched Thompson’s home and offices two years ago. Since then, U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen has built a case against Thompson by targeting his associates, five of whom have pleaded guilty to felonies.
Two close friends of Gray who worked on his 2010 campaign were among those who pleaded guilty. Two others pleaded guilty to making straw contributions to political candidates on his behalf, and another acknowledged using illicit funds to help Clinton’s presidential bid in Texas and other primary states. The cases outlined Thompson’s extensive financial backing of his favored candidates for federal, state and local office.
Thompson would tap into a vast network of donors, including employees, business associates, friends and relatives, many of whom would make large donations to his chosen candidates on the same day, campaign finance records show. After the allegations surfaced, several candidates donated the amount they received from Thompson to charity.
Thompson, a Jamaican immigrant, founded an African-American-owned accounting firm that received millions of dollars in local and federal government contracts. He was also the sole owner of D.C. Chartered Health Plan, a managed-care provider for district residents that had the single largest contract in city government, worth more than $300 million annually. The managed-care firm went bankrupt amid the investigation, and Thompson left the accounting firm.
Federal prosecutors were looking at possible links between Thompson’s support for Gray and a settlement that his health care company received after Gray took office. Administration officials strongly denied any wrongdoing related to the settlement, which was approved by the D.C. Council.
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