An ex-girlfriend of former U.S. Representative Michael Grimm who had pleaded guilty to raising illegal campaign money for the New York politician was sentenced on Tuesday to three months in custody . The sentence for Diana Durand , 48 , was unexpected because prosecutors had not recommended anything more than probation . The punishment could foreshadow a prison term for Grimm , who pleaded guilty in December to tax felony evasion . He is scheduled to be sentenced by a separate judge in June . Diana Durand , who had pleaded guilty to raising illegal campaign money for two congressional candidates , was sentenced on Tuesday to three months in custody . The punishment was unexpected because prosecutors had not recommended anything more than probation . Durand pleaded guilty in September to violating the Federal Election Campaign Act by directing more than $ 10,000 in campaign contributions to two candidates for the House of Representatives in 2010 through straw donors whom she reimbursed , avoiding federal caps on donations . Her attorney Stuart Kaplan , who is also Grimm 's attorney , has confirmed that one of the two candidates was Grimm , with whom she at one time had a personal relationship . Kaplan claimed last May that Durand did not intend to commit a crime and that she was being targeted solely because of her ties to Grimm . 'My client is not a sophisticated woman , ' he said , explaining that she did know what she was doing was illegal . ‘ She was just trying to help this guy out who she was in a relationship with – nothing more , nothing less , ’ he said at another point in April . But in September she copped to the charges for which she was sentenced today . It was not immediately clear whether Durand would serve the three months in jail or in a halfway house . U.S. District Judge Sterling Johnson of Brooklyn also ordered Durand to pay a $ 10,000 fine . She faced up to eight years in prison and a maximum $ 600,000 fine . Nevertheless , Kaplan said after the hearing he was shocked by the sentence and that he would ask the judge to reconsider . 'This is clearly , to me , a miscarriage of justice , ' he said . Grimm is seen here following his guilty plea at the Brooklyn federal court in New York on December 23 , 2014 to a tax evasion charge related to a Manhattan health food restaurant he partly owned , Healthalicious . He resigned and formally left office several days later . Durand lives in Houston , where she works as a manager for an oil distributor . She is also a single mother . Grimm , who represented New York City 's borough of Staten Island and part of Brooklyn , was elected in 2010 . He announced his resignation in December - just a month after winning reelection on the grounds that he was innocent - after first saying he would stay on the job , even after he had pleaded guilty to the tax evasion charge related to a Manhattan health food restaurant he partly owned , Healthalicious . He then made an about-face and left Congress as the new session began on Jan. 5 . He had been indicted on 20 counts of fraud , perjury and conspiracy after a federal probe of his fundraising . Prosecutors in that case suggested that judge Pamela K. Chen sentence Grimm to between 24 to 30 months in prison . Kaplan , a former colleague of Grimm 's at the Federal Bureau of Investigation , and his associates recommended 12 to 18 months .
The sentence for Diana Durand , 48 , was unexpected because prosecutors had not recommended anything more than probation . She directed more than $ 10,000 in campaign contributions to two candidates , including Grimm , through straw donors whom she reimbursed . Punishment could foreshadow a prison term for Grimm , who pleaded guilty in December to an unrelated tax felony evasion charge . He is scheduled for sentencing by a separate judge in June .