Link: Congress bribery probe could deepen

Records detail contractor's sway


Prosecutors are seeking a delay
in sentencing for Mitchell Wade
because of his cooperation.


Rep. Katherine Harris received $32,000
in campaign funds from Mitchell Wade,
court documents say.


Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr. of Virginia says
he was unaware of straw donations
made to his campaign.

On March 8, 2004, after a private, chartered flight from Washington, Congressman Randy ''Duke" Cunningham checked into a luxury oceanfront suite at the Delano Hotel, a restored Art Deco jewel on Miami Beach. Prosecutors say the San Diego lawmaker, in town to shop for a yacht, racked up more than $15,000 in bills during the trip, including $848 in meals.

Court records show that Mitchell Wade, an ambitious defense contractor with deep pockets, picked up most of the tab. Prosecutors say the Miami Beach trip was pocket change compared with the more than $1 million in bribes Wade paid to Cunningham, a former fighter pilot and powerful member of the House Appropriations Committee, to steer defense contracts his way.

But Wade had more money to spread around.

Within days of sending Cunningham to Miami, prosecutors say, Wade gave $32,000 in laundered campaign funds to Representative Katherine Harris, the Florida Republican and Homeland Security Committee member whose help Wade was seeking to create a complex for MZM Inc., his company, in her home state. Documents say Wade also funneled $46,000 into the campaign account of Representative Virgil H. Goode Jr., a Virginia Republican who also sits on the Appropriations Committee.[/b]

Wade then discussed getting specific defense appropriations with Harris and Goode or their staffs, according to court documents. Weeks after Wade arranged for most of the contributions to Goode, Wade walked away with a pledge for a $9 million facility in Goode's district with help from Goode's office, the court filings say.

Harris and Goode both say they didn't know the contributions had come from straw donors and were illegal. They have not been charged.

Nevertheless, court papers indicate that the investigation that snared Cunningham -- in which the California Republican, now serving a 10-year sentence in federal prison, admitted that he took millions in bribes -- and led Wade to take a plea deal could go much deeper. At least three other federal investigations involving members of Congress are also underway, linked to questions about whether lawmakers traded the power and influence of their offices for hefty campaign contributions and lavish gifts.

''There is some increasing panic among members who worry that there may be e-mails in which they sort of promised to do something that is contemporaneous with campaign contributions," said Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution.

Wade set his sights on Congress members Harris and Goode, according to court documents.

Wade wanted Harris -- the former Florida secretary of state who had a pivotal role in the disputed 2000 presidential election who is now running for US Senate -- to request an earmarked appropriation allowing MZM to build a Florida facility, the court records say. A few days after paying for Cunningham's Miami Beach trip, Wade gave some of his MZM employees and their spouses $2,000 each, reimbursement for checks they'd write to Harris's 2004 House campaign.

''The employees [then] delivered the checks to Wade, who personally handed them" to Harris, the court documents say.

In early 2005, Wade met Harris for dinner at Washington's posh Citronelle restaurant to discuss a fund-raiser for Harris and whether Harris could get federal money for an MZM facility in her district, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Wade picked up the $2,800 dinner check, a violation of House ethics rules if Harris's portion of the meal was worth more than $50. Harris has said she didn't eat or drink much at the dinner and that she thought her staff had paid for her share.

In a written statement to reporters, Harris acknowledged that she and Wade talked business and that she later requested but couldn't get a $10 million appropriation for the MZM project, which she thought would create local jobs. A spokesman would not say whether Harris was present when Wade handed over the $2,000 checks for her campaign.

Wade also arranged for Goode's reelection campaign to get big checks. Court records say that in March 2005 Wade gave money to his associates, who in turn became what the government calls ''straw donors," contributing at least $46,000 of Wade's money to the Virginia Republican. Wade then asked Goode and his staff for federal money to build an MZM facility in Goode's district. In June 2005, Goode's staff ''confirmed to Wade that an appropriations bill would include $9 million for the facility and a related program," according to court records.

In an e-mail to the Globe, Goode said he has no problem discussing a federal contract with such a big campaign contributor. Asked what he believed Wade wanted after MZM employees contributed so much money to his campaign, Goode responded, ''I'm a strong supporter of 'Buy American' and a promoter of the Fifth District of Virginia in which MZM facilities were located."

Wade's unnamed, unindicted coconspirator, whom news reports identified as Brent Wilkes, a onetime associate of his, also allegedly paid Cunningham more than $600,000 to get defense contracts. Wilkes ran a company called ADCS Inc., which got tens of millions of dollars in contracts to transform the Pentagon's paper documents into computer files; court documents say that Cunningham had a hand in getting ADCS hired.

Wilkes's name surfaced again recently because he reportedly attended poker parties at the Watergate that included members of Congress, defense contractors, and Kyle ''Dusty" Foggo, the third-ranking leader at the CIA who resigned last week.

Ohhh, I hate to see those Democrats in there!

Must admit, I have a different view of Maxine Waters after reading that report. I expect Rs to be crooks, at least WANT better from Dems.

Link: Lewis Surfaces in Probe of Cunningham

Federal prosecutors have begun an investigation into Rep. Jerry Lewis, the Californian who chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee, government officials and others said, signaling the spread of a San Diego corruption probe.

The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles has issued subpoenas in an investigation into the relationship between Lewis (R-Redlands) and a Washington lobbyist linked to disgraced former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Rancho Santa Fe), three people familiar with the investigation said.

The investigation is part of an expanding federal probe stemming from Cunningham's conviction for accepting $2.4 million in bribes and favors from defense contractors, according to the three sources.

It is not clear where the investigation is headed or what evidence the government has. But the probe suggests that investigators are looking past Cunningham to other legislators and, perhaps, the "earmarking" system that members of Congress use to allocate funds.

Lewis said Wednesday that he was not aware of any investigation, had not been contacted by any investigator and did not know why he would be investigated.

"For goodness sake, why would they be doing that?" Lewis asked.

The government is looking into the connection between Lewis and his longtime friend Bill Lowery, the sources said. Lowery, a lobbyist, is a former congressman from San Diego.

As chairman of the Appropriations panel, Lewis has earmarked hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts for many of Lowery's clients, one of the sources said.

Lewis said he knew Lowery well, having spent 12 years in Congress with him, but denied favoring earmarks for Lowery's clients.

The probe focuses on what one source said was an unusually close relationship between Lewis and Lowery, who served on the House Appropriations Committee together from 1985 to 1993.

Shortly after leaving Congress, Lowery founded Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White, a Washington lobbying firm whose clients include Brent R. Wilkes, a defense contractor who is the focus of a separate probe in San Diego.

Wilkes has been identified by his lawyer as the unindicted "co-conspirator No. 1" in the Cunningham corruption case.

In that case, Cunningham was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison for accepting $2.4 million in bribes and favors from "co-conspirator No. 1" and his business associate, Mitchell Wade, who pleaded guilty to bribing Cunningham. Cunningham and Wade are cooperating with federal investigators.

Wilkes and his companies have given Lewis at least $60,000 in campaign contributions over the years, making them among the lawmaker's largest contributors.

At the same time, Wilkes has paid Lowery's firm more than $160,000 in lobbying fees.

According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan research organization, Lewis has earmarked at least $70 million in federal funds for a mapping software company in Redlands. The company, Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc., is one of Lowery's largest clients and has paid more than $320,000 in lobbying fees, according to the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity.

Investigators are said to be particularly interested in the intermingling of Lewis' and Lowery's staffs and whether it led to favorable treatment for Lowery's clients in securing government contracts.

Jeff Shockey, a key Lewis staffer, went to work for Lowery as a lobbyist in 1999 and then returned to Lewis' staff last year. According to a source familiar with the investigation, Shockey received $600,000 in severance payments from Lowery's firm before returning to Lewis to become the deputy staff director for the House Appropriations Committee — with an annual salary of $170,000.

"He [Lewis] is now the gatekeeper for more than $850 billion," said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense, referring to the Appropriations Committee's role in disbursing government funds.

Lewis is one of the senior members of Congress, with 27 years on Capitol Hill. At one time, he was head of California's GOP delegation, and became a "cardinal" — as the chairs of Appropriations subcommittees are known — serving most recently as chairman of the Appropriations defense subcommittee and managing the biggest spending bill in the federal budget.

Last year, Lewis became chairman of the full committee, historically one of the most powerful jobs in Washington.