Photo by ssteege1.

Now that a fuller picture of Mayor Vince Gray’s 2010 shadow campaign has become available, the most pressing question is whether or not Gray knew that the $653,000 off-the-books effort was taking place on his behalf. Today’s news doesn’t go any further towards answering that question, but it does raise eyebrows. The Post is reporting that Gray met with shadow campaign conspirator Jeanne Clarke Harris in January to discuss the unreported expenditures:

On Wednesday, Harris confirmed the meeting, which she said took place Jan. 10 in Gray’s private suite on the sixth floor of the John A. Wilson Building. She declined to describe the nature of the meeting, but three people close to the federal investigation who have knowledge of the meeting said it concerned the 2010 campaign and the investigations into it.

The disclosure of the meeting marks the first indication that Gray knew of undocumented funds before the federal raids in March at the homes and offices of Harris and business associate Jeffrey E. Thompson, who is believed to have funneled more than $650,000 in unreported funds to a “shadow campaign.”

At the meeting, Gray was said to have told Harris to provide proof of the expenditures to his campaign staff, which was pulling together documents for a city audit of the official campaign finance operation.

The news still doesn’t shed much additional light on whether or not Gray’s was in on the shadow campaign as it was happening. Adds the Post: “It is unclear whether Harris exchanged information with Gray or his campaign staff or whether Gray knew about the source of the money or the amount of the spending.”

In related news, the AP reports that the official Gray campaign routinely paid poll workers $100 in cash, double what’s legally allowed. Worse still, the expenses were misidentified on campaign finance reports. Former D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown was accused of much the same when he pleaded guilty to bank fraud and campaign finance violations last month.

The D.C. Office of Campaign Finance is said to be finalizing its own audit of Gray’s 2010 campaign.