U.S. Representative Michael Grimm a Republican is facing federal charges of which his attorney said he has done nothing against the law, but is not surprised Grimm is facing the charges.
Grimm has long been dogged with campaign violation allegations, since his first campaign in 2009 for Congress.
In November, a House Ethics Committee said Grimm was being investigated for the possibility of campaign finance violations.
A spokesperson for the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s office said on Friday that he could not confirm, comment or even deny anything about the case. The New York office of the FBI also declined to make any comment.
Following the announcement by the House Ethics Committee last fall that it was investigation Grimm, the panel announced it was deferring its investigation because of one the Justice Department was carrying out separately.
In January, Grimm was in the headlines after he confronted a cable news reporter in Washington who attempted to question the Congressman about the FBI investigation into his campaign finances.
After Michael Scotto, the reporter finished with his report, Grimm returned and leaned against the reporters saying if the reporter ever attempted to interview him like that, he would throw him from the Capitol Building balcony where the two were at the time.
Scotto, who was inquiring about fundraising in the first campaign of Grimm, protested saying he had asked valid questions.
During the campaign, Grimm acknowledged that he received $250,000 to $300,000 of campaign contributions from those who follow Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto an Israeli rabbi.
Some of Pinto’s congregation afterwards said they had made many thousands of dollars of illegal contributions.
Grimm denied all knowledge of improprieties and the FBI has never accused him of wrongdoing. The businessman who served as the liaison for Grimm to Pinto’s followers pleaded guilty to an immigration fraud charge last August.
