Federal prosecutors intend to bring criminal charges against Michael Grimm, a Republican congressman from New York who has been under investigation for campaign finance violations, his lawyer said on Friday, according to the Associated Press.
A House Ethics Committee announced in November that Grimm was under investigation for possible campaign finance violations but said it would defer its inquiry because of a separate Department of Justice investigation, the AP reported.
A spokesman for the United States attorney's office in Brooklyn said Friday he couldn't confirm, deny or comment on the case, according to the AP. The FBI's New York office, which handles investigations, also declined to comment.
Grimm's attorney, William McGinley, said in a statement he wasn't surprised by the impending charges, which he didn't disclose, but he maintained the lawmaker had done nothing wrong, the AP reported.
"After more than two years of investigation plagued by malicious leaks, violations of grand jury secrecy, and strong-arm tactics, the U.S. Attorney's Office has disclosed its intent to file criminal charges against Congressman Grimm," he said in the statement, according to the AP. "When the dust settles, he will be vindicated."
Grimm has denied knowledge of any improprieties, and the FBI hasn't accused him of any wrongdoing, according to the AP. The Israeli businessman who served as Grimm's liaison to the rabbi's followers pleaded guilty in August to an immigration fraud charge.
Three days after that guilty plea, the FBI filed a sealed criminal complaint accusing a Houston woman named Diana Durand, who had been romantically involved with Grimm, of using straw donors to make illegal campaign contributions, the AP reported.
Attorney Stuart Kaplan said Durand would plead not guilty to the charges but Kaplan, who said Durand and Grimm met in Texas before Grimm ran for Congress, said he was hopeful prosecutors wouldn't join the two cases, according to the AP.
A House member who has been indicted does not lose any rights or privileges under federal law or the chamber's rules, according to a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, the AP reported.
Rules used by the two major political parties require indicted committee or subcommittee chairmen, or members of a party's leadership, to temporarily step aside, according to the AP. Grimm is not a chairman or a member of the leadership.
