A new swath of files in the Jeff Thompson investigation are due out tomorrow, but the Post reports today what’s long been rumored. The federal investigation into Vince Gray, the Post reports, was derailed by prosecutors’ concerns over Thompson’s sex partners.

As the financier behind the 2010 shadow campaign to elect Gray mayor, Thompson’s testimony would have been key in any case against Gray. The Post reports that prosecutors worried that intimations about the age of Thompson’s sexual partners would hurt his credibility as a witness, even though no underage partners were found.  

A former U.S. law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation said that Thompson had “emissaries out there finding these young men” in significant numbers, often at parties Thompson underwrote. Federal agents had not concluded that any of them were underage, the former law enforcement official said.

The rumors were well-known enough that Gray’s attorney told prosecutors to look into Thompson’s background. The Post story, which features interviews with Thompson associate Proteus Spann, reveals that one of Thompson’s lovers once threatened to embarrass him by publishing fliers about their relationship.

The story’s filled with details about how the investigation of Gray’s mayoral run turned into an investigation of Thompson’s sex life, but one struck out to LL. Thompson had the young men refer to him as “uncle,” just as he allegedly had Gray call him “Uncle Earl.”

Photo by Darrow Montgomery