Manzo controlled the policy and communications efforts for the House Democratic Caucus and helped engineer the passage of a wide range of bills.
[2] With a recommendation from fellow Beaver County-native Mike Veon, Manzo began working in 1994 as a Harrisburg staff aide for long-time State Representative Camille "Bud" George.
[6] Manzo and six other Democratic staffers were fired on November 13, 2007, after the release of emails pertaining to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's investigation into illegal legislative bonuses paid for campaign work.
[3] Anthony May, a senior vice president at Triad, expressed no concern about hiring Manzo in the midst of the legislative bonus controversy, saying, "We always had hoped Mike would come to work for us.
"[8] On July 10, 2008, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett announced that his office was filing charges against Manzo and 11 other current and former Democratic staff members relating to the legislative bonus controversy.
[9] The grand jury convened to investigate the matter found that Manzo had "directly coordinated" the illegal use of taxpayer funds and resources for political campaigns.
[9] Specifically, the grand jury found that in 2004, Manzo and Mike Veon began tracking all House Democratic Caucus employees who volunteered for off-duty political campaign work.
[9] Additionally, the grand jury found that Manzo had used his authority to create a "no-work" job for a former legislative intern with whom he allegedly had a "long-running sexual liaison" from 2004 through November 2007.
[10] In a surprise turn, he took the stand as a witness for the prosecution during preliminary hearings for two of his co-defendants, State Representative Sean Ramaley and Anna Marie Perretta-Rosepink, and implicated DeWeese in the bonus scheme.