Michael Grimm, the former Republican congressman from Staten Island, was sentenced to eight months in federal prison Friday.
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Grimm pleaded guilty late previous year to aiding in filing a false tax return, a charge that stemmed from an investigation into the Staten Island Republican’s campaign financing.
The indictment accused him of under-reporting more than $1 million in wages and receipts to evade payroll, income and sales taxes, partly by paying immigrant workers, some of them in the country illegally, in cash.
His attorneys called his tax evasion “an aberration in an otherwise remarkable life in selfless service of his country”.
But roughly six weeks later, he pleaded guilty to a single count of federal tax fraud, signing his name to a six-page document admitting to numerous allegations in the federal government’s case.
“Grimm claims that he “is tremendously remorseful for his crimes, ‘” wrote prosecutor James Gatta”.
He vowed to stay in Congress the day of his guilty plea, but a week later, reportedly under pressure from House Speaker John Boehner, agreed to resign his seat.
“I’ll break you in half”, he told the reporter, who had asked about an ongoing probe of Grimm’s fundraising.
Grimm’s lawyers pushed back against the “caricature of the typical politician who gets in trouble with the law” in a sentencing memo filed with the court earlier this year.
Their filings to the judge include 35 letters of support, including former Borough President Guy Molinari, 86, who describes Grimm as one of his “primary caretakers”. He lied under oath in the Civil Action.
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Before Grimm was the target of an investigation by the FBI, he served for two decades as one of its agents.
