I wrote earlier that the MZM employee who worked for Michael Hayden at the NSA “has not been implicated in the growing scandal around Wade’s illegal activities.”
That’s not entirely accurate.
Around the same time King is said to have worked for the White House’s new pick to be CIA chief, he was helping former MZM chief Mitchell Wade disguise thousands of dollars in illegal “straw contributions” to Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL), a review of government documents appears to show.
Along with Wade’s infamous $2800 dinner with Harris, those contributions appear to have been part of an effort to convince the lawmaker to push for an MZM-run Defense facility in her district. (Harris tried, but missed the deadline.)
The ‘straw contribution’ scam is a simple (and illegal) end run around campaign funding rules, which limit donations from individuals. Rather than cutting one huge check from yourself to your lawmaker of choice, you get a bunch of people to write smaller checks to the lawmaker, reimburse those folks for their “contributions,” and then personally hand the bundle of checks to your candidate.
In early 2004, records show King helped Wade run this scam by writing four $2000 checks from himself and his wife to Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL), in exchange for an immediate cash reimbursement.
According to Wade’s plea agreement, Wade and one of his aides essentially walked around MZM offices with bundles of money, reimbursing on-the-spot MZM employees — including King, records indicate — who wrote checks to Rep. Katherine Harris.
In the agreement, Wade identified 16 illegal “straw contributions” from MZM employees that hid the size of his “contribution” to Harris. Matched against campaign donation records at opensecrets.org, it appears King’s four checks are included in that number.
Last summer, MZM was bought by private investors and renamed Athena Innovative Solutions. Wade left the company, and is now cooperating with federal prosecutors in an effort to minimize his stay in prison. King took over the reins at MZM, where he is now president. The company has not returned our call.
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