Free Republic

Rep. Robert Brady, D-Pennsylvania, is a target of FBI scrutiny in an investigation into payments his campaign allegedly made to his opponent in 2012 to encourage him to drop out of the race, according to an approved search warrant application filed in U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Two political consultants have already been charged in the campaign finance probe involving Brady's reelection, but the search warrant application dated Nov. 1 appears to be the first time Brady himself is mentioned as suspected of criminal wrongdoing in the probe. Federal prosecutors last month said Kenneth Smukler and...

A jury sitting in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania convicted longtime political operative Kenneth Smukler, 58, of Villanova, Pennsylvania, today on charges of making and concealing illegal campaign contributions in two Congressional primary elections, and of obstructing justice in an investigation by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), announced Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “Today’s convictions demonstrate the Department of Justice’s commitment to ensuring a level playing field in the financing of federal elections,” said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski. “We will hold...