Democrat Amy McGrath's Kentucky congressional campaign is returning a donation from a former Catholic priest who pled guilty to an obstruction of justice charge after he was caught deleting evidence of child porn from a member of his staff's computer.
The $250 donation from John Schneider, a North Carolina man who labeled himself a "self-employed / priest" on contribution forms, came in September 2017 and was reported to the FEC earlier this year, but was first flagged for the McGrath campaign by the Washington Free Beacon.
Also provided to the campaign was a 2011 Asheville Citizen-Times report on Schneider's 2011 guilty plea to deleting hundreds of child porn images from the home computer of a church employee on the day police charged the employee with having sexual relations with a minor. The child porn in question was of the minor, and was created by the employee, who was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison.
The McGrath campaign said the donation from Schneider was "unsolicited" and would be refunded.
Attempts to reach Schneider to inquire why he contributed to McGrath were unsuccessful.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, which reached a $1.56 million settlement with the family of the child sex abuse victim in 2013, said Schneider was removed from public ministry shortly after his initial charge.
Many in the community were outraged at the "slap on the wrist" given to Schneider, who received only 12 months probation, 100 hours of community service, and a $100 fine for his crimes.
"John Schneider, who left a board meeting to delete incriminating pornography from the music minister's computer, was given the proverbial slap on the wrist," wrote one Asheville resident in a letter to the editor. "I'm not a lawyer, but I'm literate and have a sense of morality and justice."
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, better known as SNAP, said it considered Schneider an accomplice to the crimes.
"A pastor decided to protect the church instead of a child who was a victim of rape," the group said at the time of Schneider's conviction. "What was on his mind to go and delete child pornography from one of his employee's computers? It's unbelievable."
The money to McGrath appears to have been Schneider's first political contribution to a federal candidate.