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Kenneth Smukler, retired Congressman Bob Brady's former political aide who was convicted for breaking campaign finance laws, has been temporarily suspended from the practice of law, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's attorney disciplinary board announced.

The court's order comes months after Smukler's December conviction in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

“By order of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania dated April 1, 2019, Montgomery County attorney Kenneth Lasch Smukler was placed on temporary suspension in this commonwealth after having been convicted in the USDCEDPA of conspiracy to commit offense or defraud the United States, causing unlawful campaign contributions, causing false campaign reports, causing false statements, making contributions in the name of another and obstruction of a pending agency proceeding. The suspension will take effect on May 1, 2019,” the board's statement said.

Smukler was accused of paying one of Brady's political opponents $90,000 to drop out of the 2012 Democratic primary. He has also been charged with making hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal donations to former Congresswoman Marjorie Margolies' campaign in her failed 2014 bid to reclaim her seat, while obstructing the corresponding federal investigation.

According to prosecutors, the Margolies campaign was running out of money to pay for primary election expenses, but Smukler directed the campaign treasurer to continue purchasing goods and services. Prosecutors allege Smukler used his companies, Black and Blue Media and InfoVoter Technologies, to funnel money to the campaign while it was active and also after it had lost the election in order to pay off its debts. The alleged contributions exceeded the limits set by the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 for individual donors during a single election cycle, the indictment said.

Smukler was first indicted Oct. 24, 2017. He pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. The investigation netted guilty pleas from former Brady aide and political consultant Don “D.A.” Jones, former Philadelphia Judge Jimmie Moore and Moore's former campaign manager, Carolyn Cavaness. It is not clear how these guilty pleas might affect the case against Smukler.

Brady was never charged and prosecutors have since missed their window to indict him.

Moore withdrew from the race in February 2012 after an agreement was struck where his opponent allegedly promised to pay $90,000 in campaign funds to repay Moore's campaign debts, prosecutors said. However, prosecutors noted that the law does not allow one campaign to contribute more than $2,000 to another during a primary election.

Prosecutors alleged that Moore instructed Cavaness to create a company whose only purpose was to receive the funds. Those payments, prosecutors alleged, to the announcement, were routed through Voter Link Data Systems and D. Jones & Associates, the political consulting companies run by Smukler and Jones.