Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., denies taking a bribe from a Utah businessman who claims the Senate Majority Leader was to use his influence to deflect federal regulators from investigating the Utahn’s business.

Jeremy Johnson claims that he agreed to pay Reid $600,000 in 2010 to make a federal investigation go away. “The truth is the worst thing I think I’ve done was I paid money knowing it was going to influence Harry Reid,” Johnson told the Salt Lake Tribune. “So I’ve felt all along that I’ve committed bribery of some sort there.”