By Steve Thompson Steve Thompson Accountability reporter focusing on government and politics in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia Email Bio Follow February 28 at 1:00 PM A federal grand jury has issued a subpoena for documents relating to D.C. Council member Jack Evans and legislation he promoted in 2016 that would have benefited a digital sign company, Digi Outdoor Media.
Evans did not return messages. An attorney representing him, Mark H. Tuohey, also did not return a message Thursday. Tuohey told The Post last month that “under no circumstances whatsoever did Jack violate any law or regulation” and that “all these matters will be resolved pretty quickly.” Evans said he subsequently returned the payments — which he characterized as a retainer for future consulting work — because he perceived a potential conflict of interest. Digi had become involved with a building-code dispute with District officials, who said the signs the company was trying to erect were illegal.
The subpoena sought information about Evans’s proposed legislation and about a late-2015 legislative proposal from then-council member Vincent B. Orange to establish clearer limits regarding signs. Orange’s proposal came at the behest of a competing sign company based in Evans’s ward that wanted to thwart Digi’s plans. The Post has reported that Evans monitored Orange’s legislation, which never came to a vote, months before he entered the financial arrangement with Digi.
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