First Harry Thomas and then Kwame Brown! Both were accused of wrongdoing and in both cases they promised they were innocent and they would not resign only to be exposed and forced to resign due to criminal charges. Now we are dealing with an ongoing investigation of campaign finance violations where people are pleading guilty and yet the Mayor has held fast to any wrongdoing and maintains he knew nothing. Mayor Gray was said to have discussed the expenditures in a private meeting with Jeanne Clarke Harris, the public relations consultant who admitted Tuesday to helping orchestrate an illegal secret campaign on his behalf. On Wednesday, Harris confirmed the meeting, which she said took place Jan. 10 in Gray’s private suite on the sixth floor of the John A. Wilson Building. She declined to describe the nature of the meeting, but three people close to the federal investigation who have knowledge of the meeting said it concerned the 2010 campaign and the investigations into it. Harris, 75, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to obstruction of justice and conspiring to break federal and local campaign finance laws. She faces 30 to 37 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. Among the acts she admitted to was helping to disburse and conceal $653,800 in campaign funds secretly spent by Thompson. U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. said Tuesday that the 2010 mayoral race was “corrupted by a massive infusion of cash that was illegally concealed from the voters of the District.”
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