Two political consultants face several charges from a falsification scheme from 2012 elections.
A federal grand jury last week indicted political consultants Donald Jones and Ken Smukler, charging them with conspiracy, causing unlawful campaign contributions, causing false statements and the filing of false reports to the Federal Election Commission and making false statements to the FBI.
According to the indictment, Jones and Smukler engaged in a falsification scheme involving contributions to the campaign of Jimmie Moore, who planned to challenge U.S. Rep. Bob Brady in the 2012 Democratic primary.
Moore has already pleaded guilty, admitting he withdrew from the election pursuant to an agreement with Brady, who promised to pay Moore $90,000 from his campaign funds to be used to repay Moore’s campaign debts.
Those payments were made to Moore’s campaign manager, Carolyn Cavaness, and to an entity created for the purpose of repaying the Moore campaign’s outstanding debts to its vendors.
Cavaness, acting at Moore’s direction, allegedly used the money to repay the vendors and to reimburse Moore for loans he had made to his own campaign. She, too, has pleaded guilty.
Brady, chairman of the Philadelphia Democratic Party, has not been charged. ••
