By Cliff Montgomery – Feb. 18th, 2015
Republican campaign operative Tyler Harber pleaded guilty on Feb. 12th to an illegal misuse of federal campaign funds.
The actual charge is said to be an ‘illegal coordination of federal campaign contributions’. Harber is the first person to be convicted for that activity by the Justice Department.
So just what is an ‘illegal coordination of federal campaign contributions’? Consider this: Harber pleaded guilty to directing his super PAC to spend $325,000 in support of a political candidate while serving as that candidate’s campaign manager.
These activities occurred during a 2012 U.S. House battle in Virginia. Harber worked as the campaign manager for Republican candidate Chris Perkins, who was challenging Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-VA) of the 11th District. Perkins lost by a massive 26-point margin.
Harber further acknowledged to having asked a generous donor to Perkins’ campaign – a person who already had given the GOP candidate the maximum individual donation allowed by law – if they would also contribute to the super PAC, which currently has no federal limits on contributions.
“Campaign finance laws exist to guard against illegal activity such as coordinated campaign contributions,” declared U.S. Attorney Dana Boente in a Justice Department news release.
“The citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia can rely on this office [to] enforce federal campaign finance law,” added the release.
Boente declared that Harber “knew the coordination of expenditures was an unlawful means of contributing money to a campaign committee.”
“He further admitted that he used an alias and other means to conceal his action from inquiries by an official of the same political party as Harber’s candidate,” added the release.
In the final tally, Harber pleaded guilty to one count of illegal coordination of campaign contributions, and also pleaded guilty to providing false statements to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials.
Each count may punish Harber with a $250,000 fine and a prison sentence of up to five years, a Justice Department aide informed Roll Call. A sentencing hearing for the former campaign operative is slated for June 5th.
Harber has worked for a number of successful Republican election campaigns and GOP campaign consultants.
As late as 2014, Harber worked on Senator James Lankford’s (R-OK) successful campaign in Oklahoma.
Early in his career, Harber had a brief stint at Public Opinion Strategies, a leading GOP polling firm.
