Broun consultant pleads guilty to making false statements
Broun consultant pleads guilty to making false statements
Dr. Paul Broun, the Watkinsville physician who served northeast
Georgia in Congress for seven years ending last year, improperly used
more than $40,000 in public funds to pay a consultant for work done for
his campaigns for office, according to information in a guilty plea
entered Thursday in federal court by the consultant who got that money.
Brett O’Donnell, president of Alexandria, Va.-based communications
consulting firm O’Donnell & Associates, pleaded guilty in U.S.
District Court in Macon late last week to making false statements in
connection with work he did for Broun in Broun’s 2012 re-election
campaign for the U.S. House seat he first won in a 2007 special
election, and in Broun’s unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate in
2013 and 2014.
Documents associated with O’Donnell’s plea of guilty, in which Broun
is identified as “Congressman A” read, in part, “(d)espite the
substantial work O’Donnell performed for Congressman A’s political
campaigns, Congressman A’s campaigns never used campaign funds to pay
O’Donnell for his campaign-related services. Rather, Congressman A’s
office at all times used appropriated, congressional funds to pay
O’Donnell on a month-to-month basis for the consulting services
O’Donnell was providing to Congressman A.”
Last year, Broun’s congressional office became the subject of an
Office of Congressional Ethics investigation into allegations Broun used
his congressional office funds improperly in hiring O’Donnell &
Associates.
Dr. Paul Broun, the Watkinsville physician who served northeast
Georgia in Congress for seven years ending last year, improperly used
more than $40,000 in public funds to pay a consultant for work done for
his campaigns for office, according to information in a guilty plea
entered Thursday in federal court by the consultant who got that money.
Brett O’Donnell, president of Alexandria, Va.-based communications
consulting firm O’Donnell & Associates, pleaded guilty in U.S.
District Court in Macon late last week to making false statements in
connection with work he did for Broun in Broun’s 2012 re-election
campaign for the U.S. House seat he first won in a 2007 special
election, and in Broun’s unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate in
2013 and 2014.
Documents associated with O’Donnell’s plea of guilty, in which Broun
is identified as “Congressman A” read, in part, “(d)espite the
substantial work O’Donnell performed for Congressman A’s political
campaigns, Congressman A’s campaigns never used campaign funds to pay
O’Donnell for his campaign-related services. Rather, Congressman A’s
office at all times used appropriated, congressional funds to pay
O’Donnell on a month-to-month basis for the consulting services
O’Donnell was providing to Congressman A.”
Last year, Broun’s congressional office became the subject of an
Office of Congressional Ethics investigation into allegations Broun used
his congressional office funds improperly in hiring O’Donnell &
Associates.
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