Sulaimon Brown Levels New Accusations at Gray

Two weeks after being escorted by security from his office at the Department of Health Finance, Sulaimon Brown continues to fire corruption allegations at D.C. mayor Vincent Gray.

In his latest salvo, Brown has accused Gray in the Washington Post of giving him a job in exchange for Brown's support during the mayoral election.  As a candidate, Brown repeatedly attacked incumbent mayor Adrian Fenty, and encouraged voters to choose Gray if they did not like him.

Sulaimon Brown spoke with NBC Washington on Sunday, and the one-time mayoral candidate reiterated his allegations.

"In fairness to District of Columbia residents," Brown said, "they need to know that Mayor Vincent Gray is an organized criminal."

In Sunday's Post, Brown said he received his $110,000-a-year job in D.C. government, as well as cash deposits to his campaign in exchange for his stalking horse campaign strategy.  During the campaign for D.C. mayor, Sulaimon Brown was highly critical of Fenty, questioning everything from his policies to his character.

Mayor Gray, responding to the accusations in the Post's story, said:

"Was there a quid pro quo here?  Did we ask him to do something on behalf of my candidacy, and did we give him something?  The answer is unequivocally no."

Brown told the Post that during the campaign, two members of Gray's election team visited him and gave him cash.  He said this money was a reward for the attacks he was launching against Fenty on the campaign trail.  "It was definitely thousands," Brown said, although he could not recall the exact amount of money.  "It was not hundreds."

In a hastily called press conference Sunday, Gray responded to those allegations.

"I don't know of any cash payments that would have been made," Gray said. "I would find that reprehensible."

He called for an investigation by his attorney general.

"I did promise him an interview, and he was given an interview," Gray said. "He was aggressive and he kept calling many people. But that was the extent of it as far as I know."

Sulaimon Brown made similar allegations last week, when he spoke to Bruce Depuyt on Channel 8.  In that conversation, he said his job with the Department of Finance was a direct result of his efforts on the campaign trail.

"I helped him out," Brown said about Gray.  "and he turned around and helped me out getting a job."

In the Channel 8 interview, he also said that documents connecting him to assault and stalking were fakes.  "I personally feel that the Gray administration spin machine fabricated the documents."

The material laid out in Sunday's Post suggested the possibility of collusion between the two men.  The Post reported there are numerous phone calls during the election between Brown and Gray's assistants, ranging in duration from 5 to 17 minutes.  However, in text messages Brown gave to the Post published by the paper, no explicit wrongdoing is ever spelled out.

In his interview with NBC Washington Sunday, Derrick Ward pointed out that if Brown's allegations are true, than he was partner to a crime.

Brown said he would accept responsibility for wrongdoing in order to expose Gray's actions.  "I'm willing to be the ethical person that I've always been," he said, "and stand up for what's right."  He promised that paperwork and witnesses proving Gray's wrongdoing was on the way.

The D.C. Office of Campaign Finance initiated an investigation into Brown's allegations, The Washington Post reported.

NBC Washington's Tom Sherwood says an ethics investigation with witnesses under oath may not be far off.

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