Politics|G.O.P. Consultant Pleads Guilty in PAC Case
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G.O.P. Consultant Pleads Guilty in PAC Case
By Nicholas Confessore
A Virginia-based Republican political consultant pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges that he illegally coordinated spending between a 2012 congressional campaign and a "super PAC," federal prosecutors said.
The consultant, Tyler E. Harber, was accused of managing a congressional campaign while helping create and direct a super PAC that spent $325,000 attacking a rival candidate, according to the Justice Department.
The case appears to be the first of its kind brought by federal prosecutors since the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision in 2010, which allowed for the creation of political action committees that can raise and spend unlimited money, including from corporations, so long as they do not coordinate the spending with candidates.
The Federal Election Commission has been slow to pursue coordination cases, in part because of a deadlock between its Republican and Democratic commissioners over how aggressive to be in policing the new world of outside spending.
The case could shine a light into the rapidly growing world of independent spending, dominated by outside groups that raise unlimited money from businesses, unions and the wealthy.
"With today's groundbreaking criminal prosecution, the Justice Department has sent a clear and compelling warning that presidential and congressional candidates who engage in illegal coordination activities are no longer risk free and can face criminal prosecution for their campaign finance violations," said Fred Wertheimer, the president of Democracy 21, which has urged the election commission to enforce the coordination rules.
While a statement announcing Mr. Harber's guilty plea did not name the candidate or the super PAC, Mr. Harber worked that year for Chris Perkins, a retired Army officer who mounted a challenge in 2012 against Representative Gerald Connolly, Democrat of Virginia. According to federal election records, a super PAC called the National Republican Victory Fund spent $325,000 against Mr. Connolly during the election.
Efforts to contact Mr. Harber and Mr. Perkins were unsuccessful.
Under federal law, Mr. Harber's involvement in directing the group's spending effectively made those expenditures the equivalent of illegal campaign contributions to Mr. Perkins, the candidate whose campaign he was managing. Candidates for federal office in 2012 could accept maximum contributions of $5,000.
Court documents filed with the plea provided a stark illustration of the often hidden flow of money, commissions and fees among consultants, donors and political firms.
The super PAC's advertising consultant, called Vendor Z in court documents, appears to be Jamestown Associates, a Republican firm that has worked closely in recent years with conservative and Tea Party-oriented groups.
As part of a contract for $300,000 in business from the National Republican Victory Fund, the vendor paid Mr. Harber a commission of more than $9,000.
The bulk of the contributions received by the super PAC came from Cary Fields, a 71-year-old New York real estate developer who gave Mr. Perkins's campaign the maximum allowable contribution in March 2012.
According to court papers, Mr. Harber persuaded Mr. Fields to contribute another $300,000 to the National Republican Victory Fund that October. The indictment suggests Mr. Harber told Mr. Fields that virtually all the money would be spent assisting federal candidates. In fact, the super PAC directed nearly a quarter of the money, about $138,000, back to Mr. Harber and his family.
Prosecutors said that Mr. Harber's actions had come under scrutiny from an unnamed Republican official, and that he had used an alias to conceal his involvement with the super PAC. Mr. Harber also admitted to lying to F.B.I. agents during a 2013 interview about whether he had been Mr. Perkins's campaign manager.
The National Republican Victory Fund and similar low-profile super PACs are often set up late in a campaign and shut down soon after. Such groups are often conduits for contributions by industries or businesses to help one candidate without anyone knowing until after Election Day. Mr. Harber was also a spokesman for the Now or Never PAC, which during the 2012 election spent $7.6 million against Democratic Senate and House candidates, including now-Representative Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio.
Much of that money was funneled through Americans for Limited Government, a nonprofit group that does not publicly reveal its donors.