The Hill News

The former campaign treasurer for Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NY) was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in jail for embezzling nearly half a million dollars form the congressman's campaign accounts.

According to court documents, Andrew McCrosson wrote himself checks from the congressman's account totaling $458,000 between 1995 and 2010. McCrosson said he used the embezzled funds to repay a federal income tax lien, home mortgage payments, and pay his children's college tuition.

{mosads}In addition to siphoning off the money, McCrosson did not report the payments to the Federal Elections Commission, and misrepresented the amount of cash held by the campaign committee in filings to the FEC.

LoBiondo’s campaign attorney, William McGinley, called McCrosson’s actions "an abuse of the trust placed in him by the campaign" in an interview with the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

McCrosson's attorney, James Leonard, told the paper that his client w! as "remorseful" and would try to pay the money back.

"This is not something I think at his age that he would like to be going through." Leonard said. "I am very confident that the restitution will be made in a timely way."

McCrosson is not the only campaign staffer to recently accused of stealing re-election funds. The FBI arrested the campaign treasurer for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) late last week on suspicion of mail fraud.