An analysis of campaign disclosures by a Washington-based non-profit watchdog has unearthed previously unknown connections between a political consultant who confessed to criminal electioneering activities and a trio of sitting Republican Senators.
Last week, Tyler Harber pleaded guilty to charges that he unlawfully coordinated election activity between a 2012 Virginia congressional campaign that he was running and a Super PAC that he was managing under an alias.
On Tuesday, the Sunlight Foundation revealed more information about Harber’s political activities. Although he was under suspicion for his 2012 dealings, Harber’s firm collected nearly a half-million dollars during the 2014 election cycle by consulting and fundraising for a number of Republican campaigns.
Among the clients of Harber’s firm, Harden Global, were then-sitting US Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Sens. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.), who won their seats in November.
The firm also received money from GOP Senate candidates in New Mexico, Nebraska, and Virginia, according to the Sunlight Foundation.
Additionally, Harden Global was employed to raise money for a super PAC called “Wining the Senate PAC.” The organization spent tens of thousands of dollars running ads to elect conservatives in 2014.
Harber also did work for a Republican political committee in Colorado.
Under campaign finance laws, Super PACs, which were created as a result of the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, are allowed to operate in opaque ways to solicit unlimited campaign donations. They are, however, prohibited by law from coordinating their spending with a candidate’s official campaign.
Harber flouted those rules in 2012, when he diverted $325,000 from a Super PAC to benefit a Virginia Republican’s congressional campaign he was managing. According to the Department of Justice, “Harber admitted that he knew this coordination of expenditures was an unlawful means of contributing money to a campaign committee.”
The plea marks the first time anyone has faced the wrath of the criminal justice system for conducting illegal coordination between a Super PAC and an official campaign. Harber told authorities that he “used an alias and other means to conceal his action from inquiries by an official of the same political party as Harber’s candidate.”
A sentencing hearing in Harber’s trial is scheduled for June.
