Feds say DC Mayor Vincent Gray (D) knew of illegal campaign contributions.

Well, well, well.

A major Democratic donor pleaded guilty on Monday to funneling millions of dollars in illegal campaign donations to federal and local politicians, including an unnamed 2008 presidential candidate believed to be Hillary Clinton.

District of Columbia businessman Jeffrey Thompson, who federal prosecutors say financed a “shadow campaign” for D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray in 2010, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws.

Thompson claimed some of the candidates, including Gray, were aware of the illegal fundraising.

…”Some?” Look, when somebody comes out of nowhere to dump six  figures into a campaign, it’s not a question of whether the campaign being benefited knew. They know. The burning question becomes, can you prove that they knew in a court of law? Which is a question that is of burning interest to both Mayor Gray and local DC Democrats, given that the feds are suggesting that they can prove Gray knew.  It would be highly entertaining if this year’s Democratic nominee for DC Mayor was under indictment for campaign finance fraud*: and the primary for that race is this week.

Link via Instapundit, who also suggested that this is why Harry Reid is so ready to believe the worst of the Koch brothers.  I am not normally in the habit of offering explanations for the bad behavior of Democrats, but if this is the sort of shenanigans that their big donors routinely engage in I suppose it makes sense that Reid would assume that the GOP’s donors are just as bad.  Nobody in a moral sinkhole wants to think that other people can manage to avoid it just fine, after all.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Hillary Clinton – or whoever it was – knew, too. But they probably can’t prove that, much to the private disappointment of every Democrat who isn’t a Clinton booster.

*Note that I am not saying that being under indictment might actually guarantee that the Democratic nominee for DC Mayor would lose the election.  But I would enjoy very much testing to destruction the Democratic party’s lock on local DC politics.