So Duke Cunningham got 8 years, 4 months. (SDUT) Where does it go from here?

The Washington Post reported Friday that the investigation has spread into the Department of Defense, particularly into an intelligence agency called CIFA (Counterintelligence Field Activity). (Daily Muck)

And as Josh mentioned, the CIA has opened an investigation into Kyle "Dusty" Foggo's ties to Brent Wilkes. Wilkes bribed Duke Cunningham to get contracts - we know that. But Wilkes was much closer to Foggo. How close? From the San Diego Union Tribune:

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Today's Duke Cunningham Sentencing Day! (USA Today, AP)

And it seems the only appropriate way to celebrate would be with a widening investigation into Pentagon contracts.

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It's getting a lot worse for Rep. Katharine Harris (R-FL).

Last Friday, Mitchell Wade, the former president of the defense contractor MZM and one of the two who so impressively and repeatedly bribed Duke Cunningham, pled guilty. He admitted, among other things, that he illegally contributed to two Congressional campaigns. They've since been identified as Harris' and Rep. Virgil Goode's (R-VA).

Now, Wade told the government that neither Harris nor Goode knew that the contributions were illegal, i.e. that Wade reimbursed his employees and their spouses for the $2K they laid out to the campaigns.

But in both cases, Wade approached the Member of Congress after having delivered the contributions and asked if they wouldn't be so kind as to throw an appropriation his way. In Goode's case, that resulted in a $9M MZM facility in Goode's district.

Now it's coming out that Harris followed through too. And she's been lying, breaking promises, and doing her best to cover up her involvement with Wade....

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Duke was even dirtier than you thought.

Gearing up for tomorrow's sentencing, the government has issued their rebuttal to Cunningham's request for a mere 6 years imprisonment. No way, says the government - Duke was looking at life in prison if he'd gone to trial, so 10 years is lenient enough.

Why? Oh, there are plenty of reasons. From Roll Call:

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A glimpse into a day in the life of a Duke Cunningham staffer.

Roll Call tracked down Cunningham's former chief of staff, David Heil, who's referred to in the Justice Department's filings against Cunningham as a senior aide who confronted Duke over his shady dealings. Heil, "one of the few ethical bright spots" in this tale and now a lobbyist with the firm McKenna Long & Aldridge, is unique in that he's apparently one of a small number of Cunningham staffers who hasn't run as far as he could from the Hill:

...although he keeps in touch with some of his former Capitol Hill colleagues, Heil described an overwhelming feeling of disenchantment and bitterness among some of Cunningham’s former aides. Several have left politics or sought a future outside of Washington.

Heil gives an idea why: 

At one point in late 2004, after a showdown with his boss, Heil threatened to quit unless Cunningham himself left Congress — either by resigning or announcing his retirement....When Cunningham balked at Heil’s ultimatum, Heil quit.<snip>

“How else do you define when someone looks you in the eye and lies to you on several occasions?” Heil asked. “But then again, he did that to everybody.”<snip>

...in 2003, Cunningham bought a 1999 Suburban truck from Wade for only $10,000. Heil said he became worried about the price, which was thousands of dollars below the market value. According to the Justice Department, when Heil, who was not named in any official document, “raised the matter with the Congressman, Cunningham furiously slammed his hand on his desk, twice, and yelled at the staffer to ‘Stay the f--- out my personal business.’”

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Duke Deconstructed.

On Friday, Duke Cunningham's defense lawyers issued their Sentencing Memorandum, asking for six years incarceration. The memorandum included a psychiatric evaluation. Enter Duke's mind:

A psychiatrist says Randy “Duke” Cunningham's fall from Vietnam War hero to corrupt politician grew out of “an outsized ego and a mantle of invulnerability” that allowed him to rationalize his behavior.

That mindset evolved from a military career in which Cunningham was taught to embrace aggressive tactics and ignore danger signs and enabled him to perform heroically during the Vietnam War, the doctor said.

Those traits, imperative for fighter pilots, were so engrained in Cunningham that although he was expected to behave differently in Congress “the psyche cannot make such a U-turn easily,” said Dr. Saul Faerstein....

Faerstein said Cunningham's “extraordinary deeds in the service planted a subconscious sense of entitlement which fed his rationalization to accept these gifts for his sacrifices.”

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Here are early details of Mitchell Wade's agreement with prosecutors.

From the United States Attorney's Office press release just out:

Wade, 46, of Great Falls, Virginia, entered his guilty plea earlier today in U.S. District Court before the Honorable Ricardo M. Urbina to multiple felony counts related to his wholesale corruption of the defense procurement process. The conduct  includes Wade making over $1 million in payoffs to then- Congressman Duke Cunningham, providing illegal benefits to Defense Department officials, and attempting to curry favor with two other members of Congress by making illegal campaign
contributions.

Much more: 

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Mitchell Wade, owner of MZM, Inc. and part-owner of Duke Cunningham, will plead guilty today. He's been cooperating with prosecutors for months. As Josh notes, "we'll be very interested to see what gets mentioned in his plea agreement and how far (and how high -- as some close to the case have long speculated) he takes this into the Pentagon." We'll get you details as soon as we learn them.

But there is plenty of other muck to be had today: 

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The Russian connection gets stronger. 

Another subpoena has been issued in the Abramoff investigation.

The investigators want to know more about Jack Abramoff and his work for his Russian clients. He represented two top Naftasib executives, Alexander Koulakovsky and Marina Nevskaya. Naftasib is a Russian energy giant, and a major supplier to the Russian military.

But wait! There's more: investigators also want to know more about Tom DeLay's work for the Russians. This is the second subpoena to name DeLay. So no bones about it - he is under investigation.

From today's Boston Globe:

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Let's start with more about Malaysian Prime Minister Matathir's $1.2M meeting with President Bush. 

The Prime Minister had some more to add when speaking to the Mayalsian papers. This from Malaysia's New Straits Times: 

"It is true that someone paid the money but it was not the Government," he said.

"I did not touch the money at all. In the US, it is a practice that if you want to meet their leader, you have to go through a lobbyist and the lobbyist has to be paid... That is their system. It is not corruption at all and it is very open, but they don’t reveal names."

A valuable tutorial in U.S. governance, no?

And according to the Prime Minister, though Jack Abramoff was paid $1.2M, the Heritage Foundation deserves more credit than they've been given for the meeting: 

Dr Mahathir said the meeting was arranged by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

"They said I would be able to influence (Bush) in some way regarding his policies.

"Secondly, it would be good for Malaysia if the relationship between the two countries improved, and I agreed with that. I thought I could do something good for the country."

Matt Yglesias at Tapped refers us to this Washington Post piece on the Heritage Foundation's involvement with Malaysia. The headline: "Think Tank's Ideas Shifted As Malaysia Ties Grew: Business Interests Overlapped Policy." As Matt says, "That's the polite way of saying they were on the take."

Frank Foer over at TNR's the Plank has some unverified, but very juicy details about some wild Congressional trips over to Malaysia. The details come from a former Republican Congressional staffer:

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Oh, it is a good day for muck.

Let's start with the $1.2M Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir paid to meet with President Bush, shall we?

Malaysia was a client of Jack Abramoff's at the time, though the relationship wasn't exactly on the up-and-up. The money went through a sham company set up by Abramoff partner Michael Scanlon called the American International Center - it was supposed to be a think tank, but it was really nothing more than a beach house.

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Doolittle speaks!

A tour de force of understatement and euphemism, Rep. John Doolittle’s (R-CA) extensive interview with The Sacramento Bee is a remarkable beginning to his reelection campaign. Tough on reform? Yes, but not quite in the way you think. He’s tough on the idea of reform. For Doolittle, there’s no need for reform; “the laws are working” - all of his corrupt friends got caught.

Here is a man who admits he was close to Jack Abramoff (who pled guilty to, among other things, bribery)…

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Not to be outdone by Pennsylvania's other senator, Rick Santorum (a former leader of the K Street Project who's never heard of the K Street Project), Arlen Specter now has his own lobbying controversy.

Yesterday, USA Today reported that Specter's legislative aide is married to a lobbyist, Michael Herson, and that Specter had set aside $48.7M in earmarked appropriations for Herson's clients. The aide, Vicki Siegel, a former lobbyist herself, works on the Appropriations Committee under Specter, so it's not a stretch to think that she might have had something to do with the appropriations.

For his part, Specter said that Herson never lobbied his office, which is not really the point - he wouldn't have to. Specter also said that the earmark requests came to his office "through other channels."

After initially refusing to be interviewed by USA Today, Specter told the AP that he didn't think his aide did anything wrong. Now he's requested that the Senate Ethics Committee investigate the case. If Siegel had anything to do with the earmarks, it would be against ethics rules, since her husband (and thus her as well) would stand to benefit financially from them. Here's CREW's request for an investigation.

The NY Times adds that Specter is having that problem with recognition that tends to seize lawmakers when the person in question is a lobbyist:

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The Washington Post goes front page today with the only Democrat on the Grand Ole Docket: Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA), the “bi” in this “bipartisan scandal” you’ve been hearing about.

 Things do not look good for Rep. Jefferson. A former aide of his, Brent Pfeffer, has already pleaded guilty to bribing him and will be sentenced next month. He will be cooperating with prosecutors. In addition to that, another player in the case apparently wore a wire.

Jefferson faces an almost certain indictment if he does not plead guilty first, and the Post reports that “a plea agreement with the lawmaker is being explored."

Simply put, Jefferson offered to a help a business deal along in exchange for a cut. Pfeffer’s company was doing business in Nigeria; Jefferson’s part of the deal was to help ensure a loan from the Import-Export Bank of the United States and meet with Nigerian officials. In exchange, he wanted 5 to 7 percent of the Nigerian company and a family member on the payroll for about $2,500 to $5,000 a month.

Jefferson represents a district of New Orleans, and his troubles are sure to make 2006 an even more interesting race down there:

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"I'll call Karl on that."

The LA Times follows up today on Karl Rove's "casual acquaintance,"  Jack Abramoff. Like yesterday's AP story, it focuses on one contact in particular between the two, witnessed by a former Abramoff associate.

Abramoff represented the government of Malaysia, and in May 2002 the prime minister met with Bush. According to Abramoff's anonymous colleague, the meeting was set up through Rove:

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The Jack Abramoff investigation is going strong.

For a window into the investigation, how about this: the Justice Department very quietly subpoenaed the U.S. Family Network last week. And it mentioned all sorts of names.

The U.S. Family Network was an impressive collaboration - set up by former DeLay chief of staff Ed Buckham and pumped full of money by Abramoff's clients, allegedly to influence DeLay. The USFN purchased a townhouse near Capitol Hill where Alexander Strategy Group and DeLay's ARMPAC both had offices - DeLay aides called it the "Safe House."

Travis County DA Ronnie Earle, who's investigating DeLay, already subpoenaed the fund back in January.

Here are the names mentioned in this latest subpoena from the Justice Department:

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Let’s start with some new muck on Ralph Reed.

As everyone now knows, Reed funded anti-gambling campaigns with gambling proceeds – Christian conservatives don’t like that, but more than anything, it’s been the fact that he did this for Jack Abramoff’s clients that’s been slowing him down. As a thin defense, Reed has said that he understood that the money was not coming from gambling proceeds (actually true of one client, but not another). His favorite line is “had I known then what I know now, I would not have undertaken that work.”

But what did Reed know then? No doubt more than he’s willing to admit now.

How about this: Reed set up shell companies or used other companies and organizations (like Americans for Tax Reform) to hide that Abramoff’s clients were the source of the funds. The money went through one, sometimes two different entities before a check actually went to Century Strategies, Reed’s company. Now, why would he do that if he was so innocent and gullible at the time? Conducting financial transactions solely for the purpose of obscuring the source of the money – that’s called money laundering. Now, there doesn’t seem to have been a criminal purpose to this, as far as I can tell, but quite clearly there was a conscious effort on Reed’s part to hide his work with Abramoff as much as possible.

The Virginian-Pilot went down to prison to interview Robin Vanderwall, who ran The Faith and Family Alliance. Vanderwall told the Post that Faith and Family was nothing more than a “shell” company that Reed used as a pass-through. The Virginian Pilot has more of the gory details:

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We've got a story up today about a trip organized by Jack Abramoff you've never heard about.

In February, 1999, Rep. Don Young (R-AZ) led a Congressional Delegation to the Marshall Islands, one month after the Marshalls hired Abramoff. Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) all came along, joined by three delegates from U.S. territories.

Go check it out.

But there's even more muck to enjoy this morning... 

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Another day, another Doolittle revelation.

The AP reports today that Rep. Doolittle’s (R-CA) former chief of staff, David Lopez, traveled to Puerto Rico in 2001 – the trip was paid for by Jack Abramoff's firm Greenberg Traurig. That’s against House rules.

Here’s the fun part: Lopez, being a good little soldier, says: “I don't recall that Congressman Doolittle knew the specifics of who paid for the trip."

There’s a problem with that line of defense: Doolittle signed the travel disclosure form. The form said that Greenberg Traurig was paying for the trip. It's hard to believe Doolittle didn't know - at least he was responsible for knowing.

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Just how close is new House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) to lobbyists? How about this: he lives in a lobbyist's basement.

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I’ve never felt so sorry for a large, international law firm in all my life.

The Seattle Times profiles yet another victim of Jack Abramoff: his employer, Preston, Gates & Ellis. Abramoff left Preston Gates way back in 2000, but they’re still drying their tears.

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How’s this for a business model:

1) Find and buy a technology company – the technology can be anything as long as the military could conceivably use it.

2) Butter up some key Members of Congress by making big contributions and hiring their pet lobby shops.

3) Win, with their backing, a multi-million dollar earmark that specifically names your company as the recipient, guaranteeing the money and eliminating the nuisance of competition.

4) Take a 51% cut.

5) (Optional) Fulfill the government contract with the leftover money.

Jealous? And you’ve been toiling away in a cubicle all these years.

Everybody, meet Brent Wilkes (again). You know and love him as Duke Cunningham’s sugar daddy, who among other things helped pay off Duke’s mortgage ($500,000 in sugar). But there’s much more to the man.

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Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) may be the GOP's fresh face in leadership (just how fresh? see below), but there's still a massive investigation into Congress and the administration going on. Let's get back to that.

Momentum is growing among the Democrats to press Alberto Gonzales to appoint a special prosecutor for the Abramoff investigation.

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