D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray knew that his campaign took money donated illegally by a businessman with large city contracts, federal prosecutors said Monday. But his 2010 run wasn't the only campaign to which Jeffrey Thompson admitted to funneling money.
Thompson allegedly used two of his companies to funnel more than $600,000 to Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential primary run.
Clinton has said she did not know of the fundraising and that her campaign cooperated with the investigation.
"There is no indication that the presidential candidate was personally aware of Thompson’s illicit activities," said U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen in a statement Monday.
Prosecutors say the money was used to hire a marketing services company owned by Thompson associate Troy White, as well as for street teams and canvassers in four states -- Texas, Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina -- as well as in Puerto Rico.
The illicit donations were made between February and May 2008, when Clinton was battling Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.
Federal prosecutors say Thompson used two of his companies to send $608,750 through a company owned by Jeanne Clark Harris to the presidential campaign.
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Harris pleaded guilty in 2012 to three charges in connection with the criminal investigation into Gray's 2010 campaign. But it was White's guilty plea last September that marked the first time prosecutors found evidence of an off-the-books campaign at the presidential level.
Court documents do not identify any candidate by name. But after White's plea, Lyn Utrecht, a lawyer for Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign, confirmed in a statement that Clinton's campaign was the unnamed campaign in White's statement of offense, Washington City Paper reported.
"Hillary Clinton for President has cooperated fully in the matter involving Troy White," Utrecht wrote. "As the court document filed in this matter clearly states, the Committee turned down Mr. White's services."
Thompson pleaded guilty Monday to illegally giving more than $3.3 million to at least 28 local and national candidates, including candidates for Congress and the presidential candidate.
