Bizarre Tale of a California Campaign

SAN DIEGO (CN) - A former staffer for a congressional candidate faces years in federal prison for sending himself threatening emails and telling the FBI they came from the candidate.

Todd Bosnich pleaded guilty Friday to a criminal information accusing him of obstructing a federal investigation.

Bosnich, 29, of Del Mar worked for Carl DeMaio, a one-term San Diego city councilman who ran for mayor and lost in 2012, then ran for Congress in 2014 and lost.

Bosnich was policy director for DeMaio's congressional campaign until he was fired in May 2014.

Bosnich "claimed that DeMaio made a series of unwanted sexual advances towards him in the spring of 2014, and that when he complained to DeMaio's campaign manager, he was first marginalized and later offered a $50,000 'payment' in exchange for signing a 'non-disclosure, agreement," according to Bosnich's June 12 plea agreement.

DeMaio, a Republican, is openly gay.

DeMaio's campaign said at the time that it fired Bosnich for poor work performance, then that he had "misappropriated" emails, and then that he had vandalized the campaign office after he was fired.

Bosnich then repeated the sexual harassment accusations and sent several emails to DeMaio's opponent, Scott Peters, who defeated DeMaio in the November 2014 election. The Peters campaign turned over the emails to the police because they alleged threats and harassment.

Bosnich repeated his allegations in a June 2, 2014 radio interview, then sent himself a threat on June 5 after setting up a dummy email for himself, according to the plea agreement.

San Diego Police turned the case over to the FBI, and Bosnich lied to them while they were interviewing him as a possible victim.

To sum it up, Bosnich made "false and misleading statements about the Threatening Email in an attempt to influence the investigation into DeMaio. In doing so, he acted corruptly as he recognized that what he was telling the government was inaccurate and did, in fact, influence a pending official proceeding," the plea agreement states.

Bosnich is free on $10,000 bond until his Aug. 31 sentencing.

Although the crime is punishable by up to 20 years, prosecutors said Bosnich is facing only 5 years.

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