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Lobbyist With Ties to Weldon Sentenced to Five Months Home Detention

A lobbyist close to former Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) was sentenced to five months of home detention on Friday for destroying evidence the FBI was seeking in its investigation of the lawmaker.The lobbyist, Cecelia Grimes, 43, of Parkesburg, Pa., was also sentenced by U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. to three years of probation and ordered to pay a $3,000 fine, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.Weldon lost his seat in 2006 after representing suburban Philadelphia for 20 years. Investigators are examining whether Weldon supported appropriations requests by Grimes’ lobbying shop in exchange for fees paid to Grimes’ firm by her clients. Weldon has not been charged with a crime.Grimes admitted that after meeting with FBI agents, she threw away several documents related to the investigation, and in November 2006, tossed her BlackBerry in the Dumpster at a nearby fast-food restaurant in southeastern Pennsylvania.Grimes is the second person ensnared in the Weldon investigation.In 2007, Weldon’s former chief of staff, Russell Caso, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge.

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