Jailed DC official keeps fighting ethics charges

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former D.C. councilmember who’s serving a three-year prison term is continuing to fight charges by the city’s ethics board.

The Washington Post (http://tinyurl.com/k8vgpjj) reports that a lawyer for Michael A. Brown has filed documents arguing that the District of Columbia’s ethics rules “do not cover the circumstances of an FBI sting operation.”

Brown was sentenced in June to 39 months in prison for accepting $55,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents. The agents posed as businessmen who wanted help getting city contracts.

Brown’s sentence did not include any fines, but he could be fined up to $165,000 by the ethics board. His sister, Tracey Brown, is representing him in the ethics case and has argued that fines are inappropriate in part because the cash Brown received was “fully repaid.”

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Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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