A Texas woman charged with making illegal donations to the 2010 campaign of embattled Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm had no idea she was breaking any laws, her lawyer insisted after an appearance in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday.
Diana Durand was was arrested by the feds in Houston last month and charged with using straw donors to gather more than $10,000 for Grimm’s 2010 campaign.
“She was a victim of her own ignorance,” said lawyer Stuart Kaplan after Durand — Grimm’s former squeeze — entered court dressed all in black Wednesday.
Kaplan argued that Durand had simply made an innocent mistake.
The attorney also suggested that prosecutors have found no evidence that Grimm had any role in drumming up the shady dough and that the congressman was a “stickler” for ethically sound fund-raising.
“If anything, it was certainly done on her behalf because she liked him,” Kaplan said of his client.
But the feds contend that Durand purposely circumvented her $4,800 contribution limit by asking four pals to plop down campaign cash with the promise to reimburse them later.
Investigators have been circling Grimm’s 2010 fundraising but have not accused him of wrongdoing.