On Friday, the Los Angeles Times reports, a campaign aide, who last fall accused Republican congressional candidate Carl DeMaio of sexually harassing him, admitted in federal court that he lied about receiving anonymous emails threatening him not to speak about his time with DeMaio’s campaign.

Todd Bosnich had said he left DeMaio’s campaign after multiple incidents of alleged harassment, and received anonymous emails threatening that he would never work in politics again if he went public.

According to the Times, Bosnich admitted on Friday that he had written the emails himself, taking them to DeMaio’s opponent, the incumbent Democrat Scott Peters, who turned them over to the San Diego Police Department. He plead guilty to obstruction of justice by lying to the FBI.

“Mr. Bosnich, for whatever reason, had a great deal of hostility and personal animus toward Mr. DeMaio,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Phil Halpern said. His actions “had the potential to affect a national election.” And indeed they may have: DeMaio lost the election and is now a radio talk-show host.

Photo credit: AP Images. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.