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A consultant for former U.S. Rep. Paul Broun pleaded guilty in federal court last week for lying to congressional ethics investigators about whether he was improperly paid by taxpayers to work for Broun’s campaigns.
Brett O’Donnell faces a maximum of five years in prison on one count of making false statements. His plea Thursday in U.S. District Court in Macon is the first public indication of a criminal investigation into Broun’s office. A congressional ethics investigation closed when the Athens Republican left office in January after losing a primary race for U.S. Senate.
Broun is described as "Congressman A" and his then-chief of staff David Bowser is described as "Person A" in the guilty plea, but the details of the case match up with an Office of Congressional Ethics investigation that names them both.
In the plea, Bowser is quoted as telling O’Donnell that the Office of Congressional Ethics can go “f—- themselves” and that O’Donnell should falsely maintain that he was a volunteer for Broun’s campaign.
O’Donnell admitted to falsely telling OCE that he volunteered to help Broun prepare for U.S. Senate debates. While O’Donnell was never paid by Broun’s House or Senate campaigns, he was paid $43,000 from Broun’s office account as a communications consultant.
According to O'Donnell's guilty plea, he believed that if he did not help the campaign, his government work would be terminated, and Bowser indicated that O'Donnell would be paid by the campaign later on. E-mail traffic obtained by investigators also indicates that O'Donnell was hired and paid as a debate coach. O'Donnell was fired in March 2014 after news broke of his work with Broun.
A U.S. Department of Justice official told Channel 2 Action News the investigation is ongoing.
O'Donnell was a debate coach for many prominent Republicans over the years, including George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney. He was also a top strategist for then-Rep. Michele Bachmann when she ran for president in the 2012 cycle.
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