Wire Fraud Charge Prompts MD Lawmaker Tawanna Gaines To Resign

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — Maryland state lawmaker Tawanna Gaines, a Democrat from Prince George's County, has abruptly resigned after being suspected of using money she raised for her reelection campaign for personal use. She submitted her resignation to House Speaker Adrienne Jones on Friday, Oct. 4. She now faces a federal wire fraud charge.

Gaines, 67, has served in the Maryland House of Delegates since 2001 and, according to the AP, defrauded her campaign and its contributors of more than $22,000 from at least January 2015 through April 2018.

“After much thought and consideration, I have decided to submit my immediate resignation to the Maryland House of Delegates as of Oct. 4th, 2019,” Gaines wrote.

Since June 2002, the delegate has used a candidate committee called “Friends of Tawanna P. Gaines” to raise money for her campaigns. It was a regulated state election campaign committee with a designated bank account. But separately, Gaines held exclusive control over a PayPal account that was used to accept electronic donations that was not disclosed in state campaign finance filings, the AP reported.

The indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney Robert Hur and Jennifer Boone, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office. An initial appearance and arraignment is scheduled for Thursday before U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Greenbelt, Md. If convicted, Gaines faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for wire fraud.