Politics basically falling apart. For years, behindthescenes, he had been giving to candidates. He had several contracts coming huge contracts with the city, one worth 322 million a year. No one really knew who he was until things came to light in 2011 over problems with the current mayor vincent c grays campaign for mayor in 2010. Here, and i do, you see we have one former City Council Member in prison, one who had a plea and did not have to go to prison but had to pay money who was a City Council Member, Michael Brown, the son of ron brown the former head of the committee, and we have marion barry who was in and out of prison and all of that stuff. Is this a more corrupt town than any other . I personally dont think so. I have been covering politics for a long time. I actually covered politics in new jersey before i came to the District Of Columbia. So i dont think any more corrupt than any other place. But the interesting thing about d. C. , remember, it is not a state. It is a city and of the council and the mayor still have functions that are very much like both city and state. So i think theres more room for scrutinizing them and it is very noticeable when you have three out of 13 councilmembers getting into some very serious legal trouble in the span of two years. How did you go about covering Jeffrey Thompson . That began, i used to cover the mayor. The mayors office. I covered the 2010 mayoral campaign. I was assigned to cover the day fenty campaign, the current mayor at the time. He was the main opponent of vincent gray, who was chairman of the time. So you know, covering the normal campaign. I was interested in watching fentys downfall. Everyone saw it coming. That was my job. Grayly after the after a jobffice, i heard from and who would also run for mayor , it turned out he had a job in the administration, which was odd. Next thing you knew, he was fired. Then he was calling me. I he said, do you want to talk . I said, sure. You know, he disclosed some serious corruption about being paid during the campaign to disparage fenty on the campaign trail. One thing led to another. There is a big federal investigation, and the federal investigators actually learned that there was something much bigger going on, which they campaign,shadow and that was a kind of parallel operation to the Gray Campaign that was done in secret that was not reported. It was 650,000. Which is nothing to sneeze at. Allegedly, Jeffrey Thompson was the sole funder. You have to keep using the word allegedly. Why is that . He has not been indicted. He has not been charged. There have been several people around him who have been charged. But this is a very long investigation. His attorney is Brendan Sullivan, who is a very good attorney, and he is known for being able to get delays and he actually delayed the prosecutors ability to look at some evidence they had retrieved from some raids on Jeffrey Thompsons homes and offices more than a year ago. To remind some of you listening, Brendan Sullivan beforented ollie north the committee in congress and said, what am i, a potted plant . He also represented ted stevens, and 10 Steve Ted Stevens was convicted, but the attorney general through that conviction out. He is a 1000 an hour lawyer in this town. Yes, he is and Jeffrey Thompson can afford it. I think we are in for the long haul with this. Known, ifllivan is you want to charge my client, we will go to trial. You say in your article that vincent grays attorney is bob bennett. Yes. Yet another bigtime attorney. The interesting thing about bennett is that vincent grays daughter is a very good attorney and she is kind of like a, i guess, one could call her a protege of bennett. So there is a relationship there that he has had with fencing great. When gray ran into this issue, he retained mr. Bennett. Lets catch everybody up on this. I know this is a d. C. Thing. But i if this book before show some video, how much does the american taxpayer have to do with the District Attorney of columbia . If you are far away from here and say, why are they talking about the District Of Columbia . This is the nations capital. You should also be very interested, because despite the fact that you see the city and think of it as separate from the federal, and capitol hill, this is a city that is still governed by congress. All american taxpayers have a say in that. That is something that the District Of Columbia has struggled with. Mayor vincent gray has made that one of his main platforms, in his administration, to finally get the city some representation on the hill. Are they currently balancing their budget . The city is balancing its budget. Vincent gray used to be the chairman of the city council. How many members on the city council . 13. Who elect them . The city folks. How many people live in this district . 600,000 seems to be the magic number. It continues to go up. Adrian fendi was here adrian fenty was here for an interview in 2006. I have a philosophy about politics. Is to be the ceo of the District Of Columbia, to be the political leader, and to make sure all my employees are great public servants. I think that when corruption happens, it happens because people lose sight of what they are in it for, whether they are sometimes following the money, sometimes power. I am going to stay focused. Has he ever been accused of being corrupt . Yes. Actually. During the 2010 campaign, mayor vincent gray took full advantage of some stories i had written about the Fenty Administration, possibly favoring some friends of adrian fancy. If you lived here, you saw Television Ads that presented it that way. Vincent grays slogan was, character, integrity, leadership. That character and integrity , those were direct shots at the Fenty Administration at the time, accused of being corrupt. That he never was indicted . No, there were never any investigations other than a d. C. Council investigation which ironically was led by folks who ended up going to jail for other things, other Council Members you mentioned at the beginning. Kwame round and might brown and Michael Brown. Lets show vincent gray, who beat adrian fenty, in what year . 2010 how badly . It was handy, several points. The polls showed he was going to lose, but he still tried to fight at the end. Adrian fendi was 36 years old when he took over as mayor. He was the youngest mayor in d. C. History. Vincent gray really presented kind of a, he was the exact opposite. He was friendlier, much older, and folks got behind him. Lets watch vincent gray. You have to listen to the reporter asking him questions. He was already mayor when this was recorded. This was not the campaign we intended to run tom. ,i have said to many people that i got into this for the right reasons. I probably could have stayed on as Council Chair or done nothing further. I got out there to be involved because i love the District Of Columbia. I am a native washingtonian. I am a product of the schools of this area. A product in a most every way of the District Of Columbia. Not to be redundant, but i got into this for the right reasons. If you were not yourself, looking at this from the outside, what would you think . Would you think that your administration is corrupt . I think it is unfair to say our administration. I have distinguished between the campaign and the administration, and if there is something about our administration that you want to put your finger on, i would invite you to do that. But i think that is an unfair characterization. Typically, talking about the situation what does that have to do with campaign versus governing . You are the mayor. Absolutely. I am looking at this mayor. Think . You lots of people probably have that question. I know who i i get up everyday am. And look in the mirror, and see someone that i respect. Corrupt. This has been going on for a couple of years. Where are we in whatever investigation you have been covering . We have seen five people indicted already. Two aides to the campaign pleaded guilty. Admitted to making those. Ayments to sue lamon brown who ran against gray and criticized him, but was being paid supposedly by the gray people . He was definitely being paid by them. There is proof. So he is a phony candidate . You couldnt call him a phony candidate. He got into the race and then it was presented to him, i should just get paid for beating up on fenty. That is basically what happened. We have seen three other people plead guilty to the one person pleaded guilty to her role in the Shadow Campaign. The other two people have affiliations with thompsons companies. They admitted that they were had been straw donors. What the federal investigators , thatd in this probe Jeffrey Thompson was allegedly he had this entire network of contributors that he tapped to give to campaigns. But allegedly, it was really just his money. We are not talking about 2000. We are talking about thousands and thousands of dollars. We are not talking about the great campaign. We are talking about federal elections. We are talking about elections outside the city. He had a long reach. You mention 300 18 2 million or whatever it was. Jeffrey thompson has what kind of the business . He had to businesses. He had an Accounting Firm. The other business was a managed care firm where residents who cannot afford or do not qualify for medicaid or medicare use they are in the city program to get health care. He managed the care for those residents. Were talking about 100,000 customers. Thousandare only 600 people in the district, and 100,000 need this care because they dont qualify for medicare or medicaid. How much money to Jeffrey Thompson get from the District Of Columbia and all the friends that he helped fund for his company . Chartered contracts alone was 322 million dollars. One time . Per year. By the end, it was up to 322 million dollars. We are talking about a company he bought in 2000 for 4 million. At that time, the company made about 26 million a year. Really is a person who built the company up. It was throughe corrupt means, but other folks say he was very savvy, very smart, he built this company up. One of the things i have found in reporting that story is that this was basically just a circle of money. He would get the money from the city, give to his charities, family, friends, and then somehow that money would circle back around to the candidates who would become councilmembers and they would approve his contract. Very interesting. In your article, there is a lot of photography. Here is a picture. Like mother anton mother and son. Heres a picture of dorothy thompson. Who was she . She is deceased now here he she was a civil rights and womens rights icon. If you ask anyone, they would tell you that Dorothy Height was just an incredible woman. And Jeffrey Thompson met her when he was a young accountant. She became a client. After he began making money and making a lot of money, he saw her organization, the National Council of negro women, of which she was president for decades, he saw the organization as a group he really wanted to help and give to. What is astounding is that the National Council of negro women, the organization had the only blackowned building on pennsylvania avenue. And Jeffrey Thompson was instrumental in helping to buy the building. You tell the story in their. I was able to tell that story, the article took a lot of research, and i was able to look up a lot of things. Manyly, cspan records so that are events important to the public. You recorded her morrill memorial service, and Jeffrey Thompson tells the story at her memorial service. We will run a clip. Again, he has not been charged with anything. Has there been a grand jury . There is a federal grand jury. I should say that one of the reasons we feel so comfortable writing about him is that in , theyourt documents described an unnamed and unindicted coconspirator, and it is a perfect description of Jeffrey Thompson. Did you try asking if he is the one . Did you talk to the lawyer . [laughter] of course, i talked to Brendan Sullivan. He is known for not talking to the media and not allowing his clients to talk to the media until a case is completed. He sticks with that script. And i respect that. Here is Jeffrey Thompson at the funeral. [video clip] when he came to buy the contract on the building, i was in a meeting with my partners at my Accounting Firm and i received an urgent call from dr. Height. She insisted on speaking with me. She said, mr. Thompson, you must come now. Now. I dropped everything, got in a cab and went to see her. When i walked into her office, it was like the winds were out of her sail because a certain gentleman on whose shoulders declined to achieve success and for whom she had opened many doors there to walk away from this mission. So what will you do . We must get this deal completed, she said. I said, give me a few minutes to reflect. Before i left her office, she said, mr. Thompson, see what you can do. Have you ever met him . I have met Jeffrey Thompson. Did you talk to him ever about all of this . I certainly tried. Way before i started researching this article, i ran into him i was leaving a social event timeout. There are many social events in d. C. I actually said oh, mr. Thompson, i am nikita stewart. Ive been calling you. You never returned any of my calls. You think we can talk now . I remember he said, no. How this he . 58 years old. Where is he from . Jamaica, in the parish of saint elizabeths. The unitedhe get to states . He moved here with his father and other siblings. Before he moved here, his mother came here. He comes from a large family. Siblings had passed away. She was very upset according to several family members, and she needed to get away. She decided to come to d. C. To stay with relatives. And then the rest of her family followed her a few years later. How old was he when he came to the United States . He was only 19 is old. Years old. He had an education in jamaica. But nothing that would really transfer to the United States. So he had to basically start from scratch here. He earned a ged and then went to the university of the District Of Columbia. Who was the first person he met in politics that paid off and made connections, and he went on to have a relationship with a politician . There are several people he met along the way. I dont know if i can pinpoint the first person. He had a relationship with alexis herman, who ended up being secretary of labor under president clinton. That was a big connection for him, because it opened up a world in the white house. He attended the state dinner for nelson mandela. Were they dating . Yes, they were. So he ran in those circles. And then he was very helpful to delegate Eleanor Holmes norton, who we all see on cold air colbert, how the rest of the country sees her. Here we see her as our nonvoting delegate who was always trying to get d. C. The right to vote. In 1990, when she was first running for that seat, she ran into some tax trouble and turned to Jeffrey Thompson for some advice. That is outlined in Donna Brazils autobiography. It is interesting to see how this man, who everyone, when the story broke two years ago, people were like, who is Jeffrey Thompson . Ive never heard of him. Especially a lot of the local mainstream media. But i can remember seeing his photo in a lot of the black weeklies basically documenting his charities. So i knew this Jeffrey Thompson person. I knew he had city contracts. But i dont think people understood what a behindthe scenes player he was, starting from years ago, both locally and in the federal government. I want to run a 2. 5minute piece that we found on the Washington Post website are of you. What is the origin . That is new. You know, the story used a lot of new technology that we are trying at the Washington Post, and maybe Technologies Technology is the wrong word. But if you go to our website and you read my story in a different template than what you see with , they were like, lets try this video, similar to something frontline was doing. We did it, and i think it turned out very nice. Is this the First Television you have done . No. How Much Television have you done . Just local television. In 2008, i was assigned to the inauguration of president obama. At the time, president elect obama. So i made a few Television Appearances than because i was one of the main reporters covering the inauguration. So people would know, this was four pages, which in a newspaper devoted to this on sunday, july 14, how can people find it want to read your whole story . Go to washingtonpost. Com and write in Jeffrey Thompson or you can look for investigation th