Federal prosecutors are close to filing charges against GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy over his role in a foreign influence campaign, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Broidy is in discussions with the Justice Department over a potential plea deal, the newspaper reported.
Federal prosecutors have been investigating Broidy over his purported efforts to persuade the Trump administration to extradite a Chinese billionaire from the U.S. and to halt an investigation into a massive corruption scheme in the Malaysian government.
The dissident Chinese billionaire, Guo Wengui, sued Broidy in California state court in Los Angeles last year, accusing him of “secretly working as an unregistered foreign agent for the Chinese government and its Communist Party.”
Attorneys for Broidy have, in the past, denied that he committed any wrongdoing.
An associate of Broidy’s, Nickie Lum Davis, pleaded guilty on Monday to charges emanating from a scheme in which she helped target the highest levels of the Trump administration to remove Guo and halt an investigation into 1MDB, the Malaysian development fund.
Charging documents in the case suggested that Broidy had reached out to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions as part of the same lobbying campaign, and had spoken directly to President Trump about the matter while on the yacht of casino magnate and GOP mega-donor Steve Wynn.
Davis admitted in her plea that she “aided and abetted” two other unnamed individuals. Federal prosecutors said at her Monday plea hearing that they plan on filing additional charges in the matter.
Broidy raised millions of dollars for President Trump’s 2016 election campaign as vice chairman of the Trump Victory Committee, and has also faced scrutiny for allegedly hawking access to the inauguration.
Federal postal inspectors arrested former Trump campaign chairman Steve Bannon aboard Guo’s yacht last month.
The Washington Post report did not specify what Broidy may be charged with.
