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Updated September 5, 2025, at 1:23 p.m.

Timothy R. Flaherty, the attorney currently representing embattled Cambridge City Councilor Paul F. Toner, has quickly become the most well funded candidate in the race for his client’s former Council seat.

Shortly after Toner announced he would not be running for reelection — a decision made months after he was charged for patronizing a high-end brothel network — Flaherty pulled papers, vying for the newly open seat on the Council.

Now, according to the Commonwealth’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance, Flaherty is the leading fundraiser in the Council race. He raised $85,282 — more than three times as much as his next closest competitor, current councilor Burhan Azeem. Flaherty has received just under 80 donations — the average coming in at $756 — with only 15 coming from Cambridge residents.

Flaherty, a lifelong Cambridge resident and first-time Council candidate, is one of 2o candidates battling for the nine seats on the Council, with a pool of eight incumbents and 12 challengers, including Flaherty.

He is running on the platform of getting past “polarization” on the Council and finding areas of “common ground and compromise,” according to his campaign website. Flaherty cites his work as a prosecutor and 25 years as a criminal defense attorney experiences preparing him to serve on the Council.

But his role in the Toner case puts him at the center of a divisive issue facing the council.

In the months since Toner was named in court in connection with the case, a slew of residents, a majority of his fellow councilors, and Cambridge State Representative Mike Connolly have all called for his resignation. Flaherty has defended his client in the courtroom — and in the court of public opinion, regularly supporting Toner in the media.

Flaherty has continually defended Toner’s image and position on the Council, personally advising him not to resign from his seat.

Not only is Flaherty connected to the embattled councilor as his attorney, but Toner has also contributed $500 to his campaign — a further sign of friendship between the pair.

Flaherty’s involvement with the brothel case is not his first controversial legal battle. In 2016, Flaherty resolved a federal indictment for witness tampering by pleading guilty to willful disruption of court proceedings, a misdemeanor, in state court.

The case involved Flaherty attempting to pay $2,500 to the alleged victim in a road rage incident on the condition that he not cooperate with law enforcement and prosecutors in a hate crime case involving one of Flaherty’s criminal defendants.

During the encounter, the individual accepted the $2,500, and Flaherty did not inform the court or the Middlesex District Attorney’s office of the payment, according to the reinstatement judgment issued by the SJC. The individual did not sign the agreement presented by Flaherty, asking to consult a lawyer first. Over the following months, Flaherty told the individual that he should ignore outreach from the District Attorney’s office, federal prosecutors, and the FBI, according to the SJC judgment.

Flaherty has adamantly denied descriptions of the payment as unethical, illegal, or a bribe, and was not charged under statutes related to bribery. He has instead characterized the payment as a legally protected “accord and satisfaction” agreement. In a statement on Thursday, he defended his record as a lawyer and noted that his client in the case was found not guilty.

“Over 10 years ago, I was accused by the federal government of something I didn’t do

when I tried to enter an accord and satisfaction with a man who claimed he was

assaulted by my client during a traffic incident,” Flaherty wrote.

After Flaherty pleaded guilty to willful disruption of court proceedings in Middlesex County Superior Court, he was placed on probation for a year. His license to practice law was suspended for more than a year, until he was reinstated by the Supreme Judicial Court in 2018.

Flaherty wrote on Thursday that he admitted to the misdemeanor “because in a confusing encounter I allowed the person who claimed to be a victim leave without signing the paperwork I had given him.”

Though this is his first run for the Council, Flaherty has run for public office before. He ran for state senate, losing to former Mayor of Cambridge Anthony D. Galluccio in 2007 and then to current state Senator Sal N. DiDomenico in 2010.

Correction: September 4, 2025

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Timothy R. Flaherty was disbarred in 2016. In fact, Flaherty’s license to practice law in Massachusetts was suspended, but he was not permanently disbarred.

Clarification: September 5, 2025

This article has been updated to clarify that Flaherty was not charged with bribery in relation to the 2014 incident.

— Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at shawn.boehmer@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.

— Staff writer Jack B. Reardon can be reached at jack.reardon@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @JackBReardon.