What’s Jack Evans been doing since his D.C. Council comeback bid fell short? His Instagram suggests he’s kept up an active social life, but he’s also found some time to pay his debts.
Evans finished paying off the $55,000 in ethics fines he owed the District back in December, according to a spokesperson for the D.C. Office of the Attorney General. That puts to bed a settlement agreement Evans negotiated with OAG and the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability last summer establishing the pecuniary punishment Evans would face in the wake of two different ethics investigations into his conduct on the Council.
The former Ward 2 councilmember declined to discuss this development in detail with Loose Lips, except to say that he’s now “paid up on any outstanding obligations to the District.” But this much is clear: Evans settled his debts way ahead of schedule.
Even though he’s been facing down fines from BEGA since August 2019—the board first penalized him for using his Council email address to pitch businesses on his consulting services, then followed up with more fines in May 2020 for mixing that consulting work with his Council duties—Evans entered the summer of 2021 having paid only $3,000 of the $55,000 he owed. The settlement deal brokered by OAG required him to pay back the remaining $52,000 in 26 monthly payments of $2,000 each.
If he’d stuck to that schedule, Evans wouldn’t be done paying his debts until September 2023. It’s unclear how he managed to accelerate the process so substantially—after all, he chose to shutter the consulting business that landed him in so much hot water back in 2019, and he hasn’t had a six-figure Council salary to rely on either.
Of course, Evans’ years drawing big paychecks from law firms like Squire Patton Boggs and Manatt, Phelps and Phillips (not to mention the $400,000 investigators determined he earned from his consulting business) means he probably isn’t hurting for cash. Then again, hiring lawyers for a steady stream of government investigations can’t be cheap.
Documents filed with D.C.’s tax office offer more insight into Evans’ finances. Filings with the D.C. Recorder of Deeds suggest that Evans secured two new deeds of trust for his Georgetown home (essentially, new mortgages) on July 27 and 28.
However he managed to pay these fines, the move marks the official end of the lengthy fallout from Evans’ ethical missteps. And if he ever hopes to run for office again, it sure helps that he doesn’t owe the District any money (a key requirement if he hopes to once again use D.C.’s public financing program).