The San Diego Union Tribune, without whom this would not have happened, is reporting that corrupt contractor Brent Wilkes was found guilty by a jury on 13 of 13 counts related to his bribery of imprisoned ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham. The story of Brent Wilkes is perhaps one of the more telling tales of political corruption for our time. Here is a man who set up a series of bogus companies, many which appeared to be nothing but a name with similar addresses, and received million dollar contracts for important work including the bottling of water for troops in Iraq and providing “commercial cover for CIA operations,” despite having no background in air cover. This is the story of the atmosphere of corruption, embodied by the wanton abandon to cash in on political connections, which must have permeated Congress in the late-90s and early-00s.

So far, what we refer to as the Duke Cunningham scandal has brought down one sitting member of Congress, Cunningham; three contractors, Wilkes, MZM head Mitchell Wade, and Robert Fromm, the former program manager at the Army’s National Ground Intelligence Center; and one international fraudster, Thomas Kontagiannis. K. Dusty Foggo, the former number three at the CIA, is set to face trial in a couple of weeks. That trial could be just as juicy as was the Wilkes trial. Foggo, of course, attended Wilkes’ hotel poker parties that may or may not have included escorts. Foggo also helped provide Wilkes with special access to confidential and top secret CIA materials. The Foggo storyline could be the most interesting part of this corruption drama. With the TV and Film writers on strike this could be the best entertainment this side of YouTube.

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Out of all the congressional corruption scandals that have engulfed Washington since 2005 my personal favorite was and still is the Duke Cunningham bribery case. This scandal had it all, a bribery menu, a yacht named "Buoy Toy" illegally gifted to a member of Congress, quid pro quos of hookers for earmarks, and of course a cartoonishly corrupt contractor who liked to randomly yell "Boom shaka laka!" That contractor, Brent Wilkes, pled "not guilty" to the bribery charges that both his underling Mitchell Wade and the bribed Cunningham have admitted to, leading to the only trial in the sprawling corruption investigation. The trial has led to some terrific moments including testimony from the hookers hired by Wilkes for Cunningham and the ludicrous argument by the defense that all Wilkes was engaged in was aggressive lobbying. Now we get treated to this hilarious video of Wilkes and his team hosting Cunningham for a scuba diving trip. Wilkes is seen at the end doing his random shouting thing. Bali Hai!

The best places to follow the Cunningham case and the trial are TPM Muckraker, Seth Hettena’s blog, and the San Diego Union Tribune. Hettena and the writers from the Union Tribune have both written their own books about Duke’s corruption.

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It’s August here in Washington — although if it weren’t for the classical architecture and the lobbyists wearing reflective sunglasses you’d think it was Pakistan from the temperature — and members of Congress are fleeing the city, running back to their districts to do anything that will help their reelection chances with an electorate that’s looking for head’s to roll (or as President Bush might call it, to have their “accountability moment”). Some candidates may have an easier time than others. For instance, Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) is running uncontested allowing him to go on The Colbert Report and proclaim that he enjoys cocaine because it’s a fun thing to do. On the other hand we have another Floridian, Rep. Katherine Harris (R) who is running to unseat Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.).

Harris has run into numerous problems throughout her campaign including losing three campaign managers, locking her campaign staff out of the office, and “flagrantly violating election law in Florida”. But what has struck the biggest blow to her chances has been the revelation that she took tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions from crooked defense contractor Mitchell Wade while dining at the super-posh Citronelle in Georgetown. Harris has denied being under investigation and has claimed that never received a subpoena.

Now her third former campaign manager Glenn Hodas claims that she not only was issued a subpoena, but she lied to her staff about it. Hodas told the Tampa Tribune, “Finding out about the subpoena caused me to wonder about what was going on and what else I didn’t know. But I don’t want to comment any further on what appears to be a pending investigation.” Ouch. Does this mean she qualifies for the Congresspedia “Members Under Investigation” page?

Harris continues to trail Bill Nelson in the polls. The most recent Mason-Dixon poll has Nelson trouncing Harris 57 to 29. Plus she was recently told by her own party that she cannot win. Now that gives a whole new definition to being in a “K-hole.” Well, it’s off to Florida for Harris to try to get out of that hole and for Wexler to… well, do some fun things.

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• I’m confused. First, Duke Cunningham is said to not be cooperating with the federal investigation into bribery by defense contractors. Now he states, through his lawyer, that he will cooperate fully with a House Ethics Committee investigation and has been cooperating all along with the federal investigation. So, what’s the deal here?
• We do know that Mitchell Wade, the contractor convicted of bribing Duke Cunningham, is talking to prosecutors. The Boston Globe looks into who he might be talking about. Two lawmakers, who both received illegal campaign contributions from Wade and tried, one successfully and the other unsuccessfully, to secure federally earmarked funds for his MZM, Inc., look like ready targets for this expanding investigation. They are Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), who successfully earmarked funds for an MZM office in his district, and Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL), who, after dining with Wade to the tune of $2,800, attempted to insert an earmark that would established an MZM site in her district.
• That loophole is so big I could fit a few hundred million dollars through it. (Wall Street Journal)
• The Torch is back! Former Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) is back in the news, and as you would expect it’s bad news for the Torch. The Financial Times reports that Torricelli is now being connected to the UN oil for food scandal. Just recently I read a piece about how Torricelli was still a player and was doling out advice to Democratic Senators and consultants. That will probably stop if this report proves true. I think the guy might become even more radioactive than he used to be.
• TPM Muckraker reports on the Democrats’ choice to have Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) as the top Dem on the House Intelligence Committee. "That’s right: Pelosi wants to replace House Intel Committee Ranking Member Jane Harman (CA) with Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), who "was forced to surrender his job as a federal judge after being indicted in 1981 on bribery charges," as the LA Times reports it. He beat the rap, but "was impeached in 1988 by the House for conspiracy and making false statement" in connection to the case."
• On the emergency supplemental front Mark Tapscott reports that there may be a victory at hand with the Senate agreeing to "cap spending in the emergency spending bill for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and Gulf Coast hurricane recovery to $94.5 billion."

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Roll Call is reporting that the Justice Department is expanding their investigation in the Duke Cunningham case to include the actions of three House committees, Intelligence, Appropriations, and Armed Services. Justice investigators are “seeking to interview at least nine current or former staffers” on these three panels while “also seeking “tens of thousands of pages” of Congressional documents, some going back to 1997, related to Cunningham and government programs he may have had influence over”.

Many of the earmarks and projects created in the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees are “black” (classified) programs and the staffers and congressmen may decide to block investigators from obtaining information about these programs. The two defense contractors accused of bribing Duke Cunningham both received earmarks for controversial “black” programs. Mitchell Wade, who pled guilty to bribing Cunningham, had a “black” contract that was tied to domestic wiretapping. Brent Wilkes, who investigators have yet to indict, maintained “black” programs relating to rendition of prisoners.

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Last night Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) went on Hannity & Colmes and denied that there was a quid pro quo with her appropriation for the felonious defense contractor Mitchell Wade. From Crooks & Liars:

COLMES: Did Mitchell offer to hold a fundraiser for you? And did you ask for $10 million that would have gone to benefit his company?
HARRIS: I asked for an appropriation for an authorized naval program in Sarasota, Florida, which would bring a lot of new jobs. So, clearly — and, in the future, I had hoped that he would host one for me.
COLMES: So there was a quid pro quo?
HARRIS: There was no quid pro quo, ever.

$32,000 in illegal campaign contributions. $2,800 meal at Washington’s finest dining establishment. $10 million earmark for naval facility to be built by the guy who gave the illegal campaign contributions and paid for the French-American cuisine. Going on Hannity & Colmes so you can say incredibly stupid things. Priceless.

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The trouble for Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) continues to mount over her lavish dinner with bribery contractor Mitchell Wade and the $10 million appropriations request she filed for his company MZM. Today the Associated Press reports that Harris’ staff initially rejected the MZM appropriation before being overruled by Harris:

Former senior members of U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris’ congressional staff say they initially rejected a defense contractor’s $10 million appropriation request last year but reversed course after being instructed by Harris to approve it.
…
“She said, ‘It’s important to me, so submit it,’ ” said an ex-staffer who was involved in the process. “She wanted it in.”
…
“Katherine was pretty adamant about it,” the former staffer said.

Wade has already pled guilty to giving Harris illegal campaign contributions. The story of Harris and Wade has progressively gotten worse for Harris. Last year, she dined with Wade to the tune of $2,800 (the House Ethics Manual states that members should not accept gifts over $100). At that dinner she received tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions from Wade. Then she insisted, over her staffer’s objections, on inserting a $10 million appropriation - the largest earmark on her plate - weeks late into the defense appropriations bill.

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Common Cause believes that Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) broke the law (via Raw Story):

The description of the conversation between Wade and Rep. Harris, as it is described in the Statement of Offense, suggests that Harris took official action to obtain funding and approval for this military project in exchange for the offer of MZM’s holding a fundraiser for Rep. Harris. The official action taken by Rep. Harris to insert a funding request for a counterintelligence project that appears similar to a program which Wade and Rep. Harris discussed in the same conversation as the fundraiser, as it is described in the Statement of Offense, suggests that Rep. Harris violated U.S. Code 18§201, which states:

(b) Whoever - (2) being a public official or person selected to be a public official, directly or indirectly, corruptly demands, seeks, receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value personally or for any other person or entity, in return for: (A) being influenced in the performance of any official act; shall be fined under this title or not more than three times the monetary equivalent of the thing of value, whichever is greater, or imprisoned for not more than fifteen years, or both, and may be disqualified from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.

Based on publicly available documents, we believe there is sufficient evidence to suggest that Rep. Harris has violated U.S. Code 18§201. We request that the Public Integrity Division investigate whether Rep. Harris violated U.S. Code 18§201.

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Bribery? Check! Shady defense contractors with possible connections to domestic spying? Check! Congressman behind bars? Check! And finally, hookers? Check! If scandals were judged like Olympic contests I’d have to give this one a 9.1. Anyways, go read Justin Rood for more.

Here’s a couple paragraphs from the Wall Street Journal article:

Mr. Wade in February pleaded guilty to giving bribes of more than $1 million to Mr. Cunningham, including cash, antiques and payment for yachts. Mr. Wade, who hasn’t been sentenced yet, is cooperating with prosecutors. According to people with knowledge of the investigation, Mr. Wade told investigators that Mr. Cunningham periodically phoned him to request a prostitute, and that Mr. Wade then helped to arrange for one. A limousine driver then picked up the prostitute as well as Mr. Cunningham, and drove them to one of the hotel suites, originally at the Watergate Hotel, and subsequently at the Westin Grand.

Mr. Wade told investigators that all the arrangements for these services had been made by Mr. Wilkes and two employees of Mr. Wilkes’s company, according to people with knowledge of his debriefing. He said Mr. Wilkes had rented the hotel suites and found the limousine driver, who had “relationships” with several escort services. Mr. Wade told prosecutors that sometimes Mr. Cunningham would contact him to request these services, and he would pass on the request to Mr. Wilkes or his employees, who then made the actual arrangement. Mr. Wade said that other times Mr. Cunningham called Mr. Wilkes directly to make the requests.

The FBI is looking into whether other lawmakers benefited from this arrangement as well.

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Last year Katherine Harris shared a $2,800 dinner with bribery contractor and recently convicted felon Mitchell Wade in, what seems to be, violation of House rules. She has claimed that the tab was so high because Wade bought $1,000 bottles of wine and took them home uncorked - the restaurant owner has stated that they do not allow anyone to leave the restaurant with opened wine bottles as it is against the law. Harris has claimed that her portion of the meal cost $100 and she has donated $100 to a charity of her choosing. That charity happens to deliver people from “demonic possessions”. From The Ledger of Lakeland, Florida:

The group to which Harris donated $100 is Jacksonville-based Global Dominion Impact Ministries, Harris spokesman Chris Ingram said.

A Web site for a group named Global Dominion Impact Ministries based in Jacksonville states that one of the group’s founders, pastor Sandra Jones, “has an inspiring testimony of her deliverance from being sold to devils as an infant. She also shares her miraculous healing from her breast cancer as well as being raised from the dead.”

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