Photo by Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images.

Attorney General Eric Holder defended the timing of an allegation in open court that Mayor Vince Gray knew about an illegal shadow campaign conducted on his behalf, an allegation the mayor denies, just weeks before the Democratic primary.

As The Huffington Post’s Ryan J. Reilly reports, Holder was questioned at a hearing today by Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) about the case involving businessman Jeffrey Thompson.

“To have your named tied into a federal investigation three weeks before your election and to say that it leads towards you I think affects the electoral process,” Richmond said. “I think we are on a very slippery slope when we start leaking information right before election time because we are influencing the election process.”
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Holder responded by saying that the allegation “was not a leak,” but rather “a formal filing about where a case was.” He added that the Justice Department would have been accused of wrongdoing if it did not disclose that Thompson told prosecutors that Gray was aware of the campaign finance scheme.
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“So what we do is simply bring cases when they are ready to go, and sometimes it is awkward, but it is the best way to do these things irrespective of what the fallout is going to be,” he added.

This is very similar to the response provided by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ron Machen since Thompson pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy and implicated the mayor in the scheme: “The timing of this criminal investigation has been dictated by the state of the evidence, not by the news cycle or the election calendar.”

But Gray’s campaign manager, Chuck Thies, has blamed the loss on Machen: “There was no reason to roll that deal out on March 10 except to impact this election.” The mayor, who will serve another nine months in office, has not been indicted.

Holder voted for Gray in 2010. He told reporters at the time, “I think he’s going to be a great mayor.”