A federal undercover agent asked a man who would become known as “Co-Conspirator 1” if there were any duplicate checks in the stack of four he planned to help funnel to House Speaker Chris Donovan’s congressional campaign.
“…and there are no duplicates in here from last time?,” the undercover agent asked, “referring to the names that were used by CC-1 and others in December 2010 to make payments to the campaign.”
“No, no, no, I know how this works. Can’t be duplicates…” CC-1, who has widely been identified as Ray Soucy, a corrections officer and labor leader, assured the agent.
His alleged role in the conversation, which took place at a Southington restaurant, would become part of a scandal that threatens to derail Donovan’s campaign.
But there was no Donovan congressional campaign in December 2010.
That tidbit, along with the whole conversation, can be found on page 7 of an affidavit released last week by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, an affidavit that set in motion an evolving corruption scandal at the state Capitol. The affidavit accompanied an announcement that the feds have arrested Robert Braddock Jr. for allegedly arranging to hide campaign contributions to Donovan from a roll-your-own smoke shop investor who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.
At first the scandal focused on the impact on the campaign Donovan, the state House speaker, is waging for the open 5th Congressional District seat. Besides the arrest of one campaign worker, it led Donovan to fire his campaign manager, shake up his staff, and belatedly face the press Sunday night where he said he had no knowledge of the alleged criminal activity until he was interviewed by federal authorities Wednesday.
The typo made it appear as if the feds were casting a wider net for corruption at the capitol. It implied they were looking at political contributions a full six months prior to the creation of Donovan’s campaign committee.
But a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office confirmed Monday that the affidavit should have read “December 2011.”