Plea deal dropping eight of the ten charges.
Via Baltimore Sun:
Longtime Baltimore legislator Nathaniel T. Oaks pleaded guilty Thursday to federal corruption charges — just hours after the Democrat formally resigned his Senate seat in the Maryland General Assembly.
Oaks, 71, appeared in U.S. District Court in Baltimore with his lawyers for an hourlong hearing and admitted to a pair of felony fraud offenses.
Kathleen Gavin, the top federal corruption prosecutor in Maryland, recited a 17-page statement of facts describing how the former lawmaker took $15,300 in payments in exchange for aiding an FBI informant posing as an out-of-town developer.
When Gavin was done, Judge Richard D. Bennett asked Oaks if he had indeed committed the crimes.
“Yes,” Oaks replied.
The rapid turn of events — Oaks resigning and pleading guilty in the same morning — brought an abrupt end to a case that was weeks away from trial.
Sentencing has been scheduled for July 17. Federal guidelines call for Oaks to receive eight to 10 years in prison. As part of the plea agreement, eight other charges against Oaks will be dropped.
Stephen Schenning, the acting U.S. attorney for Maryland, said federal prosecutors and the FBI are on the lookout for corruption because it harms the public’s trust in government institutions.
“We hope that citizens see these kind of cases as an effort to make sure that people who hold the public trust and abuse it will be held accountable,” Schenning said.
Oaks said little during the hearing except to give yes or no answers to the judge’s questions. He declined to comment afterward.
Oaks had been scheduled to stand trial April 16.
He was charged in the final days of the 2017 General Assembly session and indicted last May on nine counts of fraud and bribery. The FBI set up a sting that led to Oaks meeting the informant over dinner in 2015. Oaks ultimately agreed to help the informant defraud the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and draft a bond bill to aid a supposed housing project the informant wanted to carry out in Baltimore.
Then, in November, prosecutors brought an obstruction-of-justice charge against Oaks, alleging that he agreed to help the FBI only to sabotage the investigation by tipping off the target. He had been scheduled to stand trial on that charge in August.
While Oaks formally pleaded guilty to charges connected only to some of his dealings with the informant, he admitted in court to the broader statement of facts, including the obstruction allegations. Schenning said prosecutors felt it was important for Oaks admit to everything so the judge could consider the whole range of his wrongdoing when determining a sentence.