David Lewis pleaded guilty last year to taking the money from his campaign in 2018 and putting it in a separate bank account he had set up using a fake entity with a similar title to the state Republican Party. The money was used by Lewis Farms and to pay rent on his home.

Lewis’ attorney requested that he receive no prison time, saying that the theft was “an act of desperation rather than greed.”

Lewis was a chairman of the House Rules Committee and the author of Republican redistricting plans during the 2010s. He first announced he was retiring in July of 2020. Lewis then announced his resignation a month later once the plea agreement became public.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

“To save the family farm from these confluent spirals, he made the single worst decision of his life: he temporarily diverted campaign funds to personal use before repatriating them to their normal end,” attorneys Josh Howard and Gavin Bell wrote.

U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn sentenced Lewis to two years of supervised release, which is similar to probation, and a $1,000 fine, according to information provided by the U.S. attorney’s office in Charlotte.

According to the plea agreement, Lewis acknowledged taking the $65,000. Lewis, from Harnettt County, later repaid his campaign account and sent $65,000 in funds to the state Republican Party as he had reported on state campaign finance reports.

He pleaded guilty in August 2020 to making false statements to a bank—a felony—and for failing to file a 2018 federal tax return.

Earlier in 2018, Lewis made about $300,000 in transfers from his campaign account to his bank account for his farm, according to court documents. The campaign was later repaid in full, but the expenditures weren’t reported to the State Board of Elections. Those actions were not part of the plea.

Lewis repaid his campaign account and sent $65,000 in funds to the state Republican Party as he had reported on state campaign finance reports.

Lewis’ court filing also included character reference letters from people like current state Sen. Brent Jackson, himself a farmer, and a former legislative aide.

In a court document, attorneys described Lewis, 50, as someone trying to save his fourth-generation family farm after damage from two hurricanes while being diagnosed with thyroid cancer and seeing his legislative responsibilities expand.