Jeanne Clarke Harris is charged in ongoing investigation of Mayor Vincent C. Gray's campaign Public relations consultant Jeanne Clarke Harris was charged on Monday with conspiracy, fraud and making false statements in the ongoing probe of Mayor Vincent C. Gray's campaign that now has broadened to include contributions to various candidates dating back to 2003. According to a charging document released Monday, Harris was a conspirator with a local business owner in making contributions to federal and D.C. candidates in the names of others, including relatives, friends and employees. Under a massive scheme, Harris would promise straw contributors that they would be reimbursed through the conspirator's firms. The document does not name the business owner. But federal agents in March raided the homes and businesses of Harris and Jeffrey E. Thompson, sole owner of health care firm Chartered Health Plan and the majority owner of accounting firm Thomspon, Cobb, Bazilio & Associates, two District-based companies that do millions of dollars of business with the city government. Harris and Thompson are longtime friends and business associates. Lawyers for Harris and Thompson did not immediately return phone calls. Harris was charged in a criminal information, a legal document that cannot be filed without the consent of the defendant. It generally signals a plea agreement. Harris is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday for a plea hearing before the same judge who has been handling most of the defendants in the ongoing investigation into Gray's campaign. Monday's charges are the first in the Gray investigation that go beyond the Sulaimon Brown allegations. Two close Gray campaign aides have pleaded guilty to taking part on a scheme to pay Brown to stay in the mayoral race and attack then incumbent Adrian M. Fenty, who was Gray's toughest opponent. Brown's allegations launched a federal probe that now has grown to include campaign contributions and expenditures, including those from Thompson. The charges, however, encompass contributions going back to January 2008. In addition to the campaign finance violations, the criminal information alleges that Harris took "steps to impede federal officials" from obtaining information in their investigation of Gray. More from The Washington Post: Gray succeeding EPA's Jackson as chair of Chesapeake Executive Council