Ex-campaign worker sentenced
Todd Bosnich gets five years’ probation for spreading a lie about GOP candidate.
SAN DIEGO — A former campaign worker was put on probation Monday for spreading a lie that may have contributed to onetime San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio’s failed 2014 congressional bid.
After Todd Bosnich left the campaign, he told San Diego police that he had received an anonymous email threatening he would never work in politics again if he revealed that DeMaio had sexually harassed him.
Amid the scandal, DeMaio, a Republican, was defeated by Democratic incumbent Scott Peters in the race for the 52nd District seat.
In June, Bosnich, 29, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstruction of justice by lying to the FBI about the email. He was sentenced in federal court Monday to five years’ probation.
Along with probation, U.S. District Court Judge Larry Burns sentenced Bosnich to 240 hours of community service, fined him $2,500 and required him to receive mental health counseling.
During the campaign, Bosnich had told reporters that the email had come from DeMaio or someone close to him. He told federal investigators that DeMaio often sent emails and Twitter messages using alias accounts.
But in his guilty plea, Bosnich admitted that he had sent the email himself through a dummy Yahoo account and then took the email to the Peters campaign, which turned it over to police.
Bosnich claimed he resigned as DeMaio’s campaign policy director because of the alleged sexual misconduct and that the candidate had offered him $50,000 to keep quiet. After the allegations were made public, DeMaio said Bosnich had been fired after sending out an inaccurate and plagiarized piece of campaign literature. DeMaio denied any sexual misconduct or offering to buy Bosnich’s silence.