GOP consultant pleads guilty to campaign finance violation

A Virginia-based political consultant pleaded guilty on Thursday to coordinating $325,000 in campaign contributions by a political action committee (PAC) to a congressional campaign committee. The case marks the first ever criminal prosecution in the U.S. for campaign finance coordination between a super PAC and a campaign committee.

Tyler Eugene Harber, a 34-year-old Alexandria resident, was the campaign manager for Virginia Republican congressional candidate Chris Perkins during the 2012 election, the Washington Post reports. During that time, he also helped found a super PAC and then directed that super PAC to spend $325,000 helping his client's campaign by criticizing his client's opponent. Federal law prohibits any collusion between official campaign committees and outside PACs about how political donations are spent.

The role of outside money in political campaigns has increased dramatically since the Supreme Court dissolved many limits on political contributions to PACs in 2010.

"The coordination of expenditures made them illegal campaign contributions to the authorized committee of Harber's candidate, and Harber admitted that he knew this coordination of expenditures was an unlawful means of contributing money to a campaign committee," explained a press release from the Department of Justice announcing the guilty plea.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell hailed the result in a statement: "The Department of Justice is fully committed to addressing the threat posed to the integrity of federal primary and general elections by coordinated campaign contributions, and will aggressively pursue coordination offenses at every appropriate opportunity."

Harber also pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI officials who were investigating the case. He will be sentenced at a hearing scheduled for June 5.

CBS News Justice Department reporter Paula Reid contributed to this report.