Former congressional candidate pleads guilty to accepting an illegal campaign contribution

A previous Republican congressional prospect pleaded guilty Wednesday to accepting a project contribution that breached project financing law.

Lynda Bennett– who was backed by then-President Donald Trump and his chief of personnel Mark Meadows in her 2020 run for Meadows’ previous Home seat in North Carolina– pleaded guilty to one count of “accepting contributions in the name of another,” according to the Justice Department.

Bennett deals with an optimal sentence of 5 years in jail, though the Justice Department has actually accepted suggest a sentence of probation.

In revealing the plea, the Justice Department stated that Bennett moved $25,000– which a relative had actually lent her– to her federal project committee. The amount became part of an $80,000 transfer, and Bennett reported that whole quantity as an individual loan instead of revealing that it consisted of the relative’s loan.

” Under the FECA, Bennett was needed to report a loan from a third-party person as a project contribution,” the department stated, describing the Federal Election Project Act.

Bennett is set up to be sentenced on June 20.

” Lynda is grateful for the assistance of her friends and family, and pleased to proceed to the next action in the procedure,” Bennett’s lawyer, Kearns Davis, informed CNN.