D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray did not appear before reporters as planned Tuesday, hours before a third person linked to his campaign was scheduled to plead guilty to federal charges.
Gray had been scheduled to visit the D.C. Council chambers to participate in a ceremony, but lawmakers moved up the time of the event.
That, mayoral spokesman Pedro Ribeiro said, prompted Gray to skip the event — and a waiting gaggle of journalists.
Ribeiro told reporters to contact the mayor’s criminal defense attorney with questions about the expanding probe.
Gray is next scheduled to meet with reporters Wednesday morning at a news conference.
But that appearance will come after Jeanne Clarke Harris, a one-time consultant to the Gray campaign, enters a plea on three charges related to corrupt campaign finance practices.
Harris is due in U.S. District Court at 1 p.m. Tuesday, and she is expected to admit to playing a starring role in a plot to funnel money to the campaigns of Gray and other local and federal candidates for political office. In 2010, court filings show, Harris helped the Gray campaign alone to secure $38,000 in contributions.
But those contributions were not ultimately from Harris, two of her companies or the 16 family members, friends and employees whose names were attached to the donations. Instead, an unnamed “co-conspirator” reimbursed Harris and, through her, the others for the donations.
Harris is the latest stain on Gray’s successful insurgent campaign for mayor. Earlier this year, two campaign aides pleading guilty to covering up an illegal payments scheme to a minor mayoral candidate.
Gray has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
