Concord – A third conspirator has agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges in connection with a Republican operation that jammed Democratic get-out-the-vote telephone lines on election day, 2002.

Shaun Hansen, whose former telemarketing firm placed the hundreds of line-jamming calls after being hired by a Republican operative, admits violating federal statutes outlawing telephone harassment and conspiracy to commit telephone harassment.

He faces maximum penalties of $250,000 and five years in prison for the harassment charge and a fine of $250,000 for the conspiracy charge. But under an agreement filed in U.S. District Court in Concord this week, federal prosecutors agreed not to oppose Hansen’s request for sentence reduction “based upon the defendant’s apparent prompt recognition and affirmative acceptance of personal responsibility for the offense.”

The Justice Department also agreed not to prosecute Hansen on any additional charges.Hansen owned the former Idaho-based Mylo Enterprises, a telemarketing firm that was paid $2,500 by GOP consultant Allen Raymond to place hundreds of hang-up calls to five Democratic Party offices and the Manchester firefighters union headquarters to jam their get-out-the-vote and rides-to-the-polls telephone lines. The operation proceeded for about 90 minutes on the morning of election day, 2002, before being called off by the former GOP state chairman.According to previous court documents and testimony, Raymond was hired by former state Republican executive director Charles McGee for $15,600 to find a firm to make the calls. McGee and Raymond also spoke with former Republican National Committee official James Tobin about the operation, according to court documents and testimony.

McGee and Raymond pleaded guilty to harassment and conspiracy charges and served seven and three months in prison, respectively. Tobin was convicted by a jury a year ago on federal conspiracy charges and is free pending appeal.

Hansen’s plea agreement was filed less than three weeks before he was to stand trial on Dec. 5.

A civil suit filed by the state Democratic Party against the state Republican Party, the Republican National Committee and other GOP entities and officials is pending in state Superior Court. Democrats are trying to discover whether national GOP figures had any involvement in the phone-jamming operation, while Republicans say the suit is a political stunt meant to embarrass the party.

State Democratic Chair Kathy Sullivan yesterday called Hansen’s plea “a sad reminder of the type of politics rejected by the voters last Tuesday,” when Democrats registered major victories on Capitol Hill and in New Hampshire.