By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
An FBI agent said an informant in a statehouse sting in Pennsylvania notified him that he was pressured to only target Democrats.
The case has snagged five Democrats and no Republicans.
FBI Special Agent Richard Haag made the comments in a defense filing for Democratic state Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
State investigators denied any partisan motive.
“Never, ever was he told to steer towards one party or another,” former state prosecutor Frank Fina told the newspaper, speaking of informant Tyron Ali.
The informant’s cooperation began in 2010 to gain leniency in a state fraud case. In a 2013 email, Haag wrote that Ali asserted that he had been “reprimanded” for questioning Republicans and was told “not to make any initiative in contacting Republicans in the future.”
