Ex-McSally aide pleads guilty to stealing over $100K in campaign funds

A top aide to former Sen. Martha McSally’s (R-Ariz.) campaign in 2018 pleaded guilty Friday to stealing more than $100,000 from her Senate bid.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Anthony Barry, who was a consultant and a deputy campaign manager for McSally, admitted he took more than $115,000 from her campaign in 2018 and 2019. 

He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 6 over one count of unlawful conversion of campaign funds, which carries up to five years in prison.

The DOJ said Barry, 33, “used his position in the campaign to fraudulently direct the campaign to make payments to him beyond what he was owed for his salary and had the fraudulently obtained funds deposited into his personal bank account.”

Barry’s law firm, Charity Clark Law, told The Hill that it is “not prepared to make a statement” but “will likely address the situation.”

McSally first ran for the Senate in 2018, losing to now-Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) in one of the midterm cycle’s marquee races. She was then appointed to fill the seat of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2018. 

She ran to fill the remainder of McCain’s term in 2020 but lost again to now-Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).

Updated at 9:07 p.m.