Powerful NC lawmaker took donors’ money for his own use, prosecutors say
One of the most powerful Republicans in the state legislature was charged with federal financial crimes Thursday, in what prosecutors say was a scheme to take money from his political donors for personal use.
Harnett County Rep. David Lewis has been a state lawmaker since 2003 and for the last several years has been chairman of the influential House Rules Committee. Thursday afternoon, he suddenly announced he was resigning from the state legislature, effective immediately.
Federal court documents show Lewis was charged Thursday with not filing taxes and making false statements to a bank, in relation to his campaign finance scheme.
As the leader of the Rules Committee, Lewis was a top lieutenant to N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore in addition to his other high-profile role as the lead House member on issues related to voting, like redistricting and voter ID.
Moore said in a written statement Thursday that he has been friends with Lewis since college, and wishes him and his family well, but that Lewis is being held accountable for “mistakes” he made.
“I am obviously deeply disappointed by these circumstances and regret the poor reflection they have on Rep. Lewis’ public service,” Moore said.
Democrats were more forceful in their condemnation.
“North Carolinians cannot trust Speaker Tim Moore and House Republicans to legislate in the people’s best interest when key members of his team put their own personal interests first and foremost,” Democratic Rep. Graig Meyer of Orange County said in a written statement.
WBTV in Charlotte first reported that Lewis, a farmer from Dunn, was facing federal criminal charges.
Prosecutors announced shortly after the charges were made public that Lewis would take a plea deal. One of the two charges he faced could have led to a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. But prosecutors will recommend a much lighter sentence ranging from probation to six months in prison, the plea deal says.
Campaign money, personal use
The court document laying out the charges says Lewis came up with a scheme to secretly siphon donors’ money out of his campaign account and put it to personal use.
He reported that his campaign was sending money to the North Carolina Republican Party but in reality, the court document says, he was writing checks to a bank account he controlled. He put the account in the name of a company — which federal prosecutors say never existed — that he called “NC GOP, Inc.” to disguise what was going on.
The charges outline $65,000 that he allegedly took for personal use in August 2018. The court document says he later paid the Republican Party the same amount of money from his personal bank account.
“These are my mistakes, and my mistakes alone,” Lewis said in a written statement Thursday. “I am very sorry for these mistakes, and I apologize.
“I was raised on a farm, and I’ve been a farmer all my life. But farming has been tough for me for the past six years in a row and the financial stress I’ve been under has been tremendous. However, that is the reality facing many family farms, and it does not excuse my mistakes.”
Lewis’ financial struggles related to his farm first came to light in 2019. WRAL reported that John Gray — one of the businessmen at the center of a separate campaign finance scandal, related to attempted bribery at the top levels of the N.C. Republican Party — had given Lewis a loan of $500,000 that Gray then didn’t collect on after it came due.
The charges against Lewis Thursday come just a day after Gray was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for his role in an attempt to bribe the state insurance commissioner. That case also ended with former NC GOP Executive Director Robin Hayes taking a plea deal for a year of probation after testifying about his role in the bribery scheme, and Durham businessman Greg Lindberg being sentenced to more than seven years in prison.
The News & Observer previously reported that Lewis had filed to run for re-election this year, but then in July surprised the political world with an announcement that he would retire instead, at the end of his term this year.
In his original July announcement, Lewis said he wanted to spend more time with his family.
“I love my wife and kids and I recognize that their sacrifice has been measurably greater than my own, because they really didn’t have a say in when Dad was coming home,” Lewis wrote in his retirement announcement.
After he and his fellow GOP officials took control of the legislature in 2011 Lewis rose through the ranks, ultimately becoming chairman of the Rules Committee. That role gave him power over what bills would or would not make it to the floor of the House of Representatives to be voted on.
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 4:28 PM with the headline "Powerful NC lawmaker took donors’ money for his own use, prosecutors say."
