Payments to Gray Campaign Staffer Scrutinized

An audit of D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray's transition and inaugural finances shows more than $34,000 in payments to a campaign staffer whose actions are being scrutinized by federal authorities.

The audit shows the payments were made between November 2010 and March 2011 to Howard Brooks, who's been accused of giving cash to former mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown as part of an arrangement with the Gray campaign. Brown has said he was paid and promised an administration job in exchange for negative comments about then-mayor Adrian Fenty.

According to the audit, Gray raised nearly $1 million for his transition and inauguration and spent nearly all of it, with $714,000 going to the inauguration.

Gray's administration released the audit late Friday and said the mayor was unavailable for comment.

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