Harry Thomas, Jr. to Pay for Team Thomas Scandal, Financially and Politically

Harry Thomas, Jr. has agreed to pay back some $300,000 in DC Council-earmarked grants and charitable donations that he used unlawfully for his own personal benefit.

Under a consent agreement filed in D.C. Superior Court Friday, Thomas will make a total payment to the District of $300,000.00, including an initial payment of $50,000 Friday, and five more installment payments of $50,000 each between now and December, 2013, according to a news release from D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan.

"I'm puzzled by the settlement," Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans told The Washington Examiner. "He has to payback the money, but there's no indication that he did something wrong."

Thomas purchased an Audi SUV, golfing vacations, and used monies to publish a political brochure extolling his public service. The Washington City Paper has a thorough write-up of the other ways Thomas spent the monies, including a trip to Hooters and a stop at 7-11 on New Year's Eve.

The release from the AG's office lays out Thomas's intentional mis-appropriation of public funds and charitable monies, which led to the "first-ever civil enforcement action filed by the Office of the Attorney General against a sitting member of the City Council." The release states:

The District funds were provided by Council legislation in 2007 to the D.C. Children & Youth Investment Trust Corporation, which at Mr. Thomas’s direction, passed them to the Langston 21st Century Foundation, which in turn, at Mr. Thomas’s direction, secretly paid most of the money to Mr. Thomas through his for-profit and non-profit corporations. Much of the money was then spent for the personal benefit of Mr. Thomas.

Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh said given the implicit admission of guilt by Thomas, "I hope he will seriously consider stepping off the Council."