Duke Cunningham

Who Did Mitchell Wade Finger? And How Much Does It Matter?

Zachary Roth | December 4, 2008, 11:35AM

On Monday we noted a court filing made recently by defense lawyers for Mitchell Wade, the Duke Cunningham crony who's about to be sentenced in connection with his role in bribery scandal that felled the GOP congressman.

In arguing for a lenient sentence, Wade's lawyers claimed that their client had helped prosecutors' probe "at least five other members of Congress" who were under investigation for "corruption similar to that of Mr. Cunningham."

The blogger and Cunningham expert Seth Hettena named Katherine Harris, the former Florida congresswoman, and Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode as two of those members.

And now Hettena says he's identified the other three: Sen. Dan Inouye (D-HI), Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV), and Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA).

Hettena told Marcus Stern, the former San Diego Union-Tribune reporter who broke much of the Duke Cunningham story and now writes for Pro Publica, that those identifications are based on "information I developed and confirmed with two sources with knowledge of the investigation."

But what does all this amount to? According to Stern, perhaps not much. He writes:

No charges have been filed against any of the five lawmakers, and there is no evidence of any current criminal investigations against any of them. Lewis, Goode, Mollohan and Harris have all come up in the case before and have all denied wrongdoing. As for Inouye, we have called his office for comment. (We'll update the post as soon as we hear back.)

Stern also give us a rundown on what we already know about the alleged involvement of all of these lawmakers:

Lewis, former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, had been under investigation beginning in 2006 by the Office of the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles. That case, which focused on Lewis' role in helping lobbyist Bill Lowery get earmarks for his clients (including Cunningham co-conspirator Brent Wilkes), is cold without any charges being filed.

Goode and Harris both were beneficiaries of a combined $78,000 in illegal campaign contributions from Wade and helped Wade in his efforts to get multimillion-dollar military intelligence contracts through earmarks.

But prosecutors have repeatedly said there was no evidence the two lawmakers knew the contributions were illegal and they are not the targets of any current investigations. Harris left the House to pursue a quixotic and failed bid in 2006 to win a seat in the U.S. Senate. Goode is awaiting a recount in his 2008 House race, with the initial tally showing he narrowly lost.

Mollohan received $23,000 in campaign contributions and gifts to a family foundation from Wade's company, MZM Inc., and another firm that did business with MZM, Hettena wrote in his blog on Monday, adding that in October 2002, MZM gave $20,000 to Mollohan's Summit PAC. The legality of those contributions has never been challenged.

The link to Inouye, set to take over the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, is less clear but appears to involve the activities of one of Wade's co-conspirators, defense contractor Brent Wilkes, according to Hettena. There are no known allegations of misconduct against Inouye in connection with the Cunningham scandal.

But don't despair, fellow scandal junkies. Stern notes that a memo filed by prosecutors in the Wade case said that Wade had provided information for a "large an important corruption investigation" unrelated to the Cunningham matter.

Worth keeping an eye on...

Surveillance

GOP Still Pushing Retroactive Immunity for Telecoms

Paul Kiel | April 25, 2008, 11:22AM

While House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) presides over negotiations on the new surveillance bill, House Republicans have continued to push the Senate's version, which contains retroactive immunity for the telecoms, every which way they can.

Earlier this week, they tried to convince moderate Dems that it really was in their best interest (sub. req.):

"This is an opportunity for the 21 Blue Dog Democrats who signed a letter supporting the bipartisan, Senate-passed FISA bill to prove that they are serious about America's national security," said Michael Steel, House Minority Leader John Boehner's (R-Ohio) spokesman. "Will they choose to protect their constituents or will they back the Democratic leadership in kowtowing to trial lawyers and liberal special interests?"

Meanwhile, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) (yes, that Jerry Lewis) will try to tack on the Senate's bill to the war supplemental spending bill. As The Politico notes, the Dems on the appropriations committee will likely vote that down, but "at the very least, he would put members of the majority on the record rejecting the Senate bill, something Republicans have done repeatedly."

So far the moderate Dems have held strong to the Dem leadership's position that retroactive immunity is off the table. Hoyer has said that he hopes that negotiations will result in a new bill by late May. Regardless, the next showdown is likely to take place before August, when the wiretaps authorized under the Protect America Act will actually begin to lapse. So we'll see what happens then.

U.S. Attorneys

Former Prosecutor: Disbanding LA USA Public Corruption Unit "Sends A Message"

Paul Kiel | March 18, 2008, 12:28PM

Yesterday on TPM, Josh noted a report (sub. req.) in The Recorder, a California legal news publication, that the U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles, Thomas O'Brien, had disbanded the office's public integrity unit.

The 17 attorneys in that section of the office "will be redistributed among the major fraud and organized crime sections, which now will have a mandate to battle corruption," the Recorder reported. The office's spokesman tried to put as bright a face on it as possible, saying "Our view is that it's a significant enhancement of the public corruption unit. We now have over 70 lawyers who essentially will be able to step up to the plate."

That's clearly some weak spin. But I asked a former prosecutor from the office's public integrity unit to give me a sense of what this means.

That former prosecutor didn't think the move was "politically motivated," instead attributing the move to a desire to improve the office's statistics. U.S. attorneys frequently experience pressure to increase the number of prosecutions as evidence of performance. Remember that Justice Department officials used former U.S. Attorney Carol Lam's lower immigration case numbers as justification for her firing (ignoring her office's concentration on busting illegal immigration rings). "Public corruption cases are very difficult and very time consuming," the former prosecutor explained. "A lot of that doesn't result in a statistic."

Of course, that doesn't mean that the cases don't have a disproportionate impact. "The fact of an investigation into the earmark process [i.e. the Duke Cunningham scandal and by extension the investigation of Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)]," really had a huge impact in opening up debate of how that process has been corrupted by money. That doesn't happen if you're not looking at it every day.

"My concern is the message that it sends," the lawyer continued. "The existence of the section, the fact that talented, smart, aggressive prosecutors are looking at cases, sends a message to public officials that they need to be careful." Now another message has been sent.

Read more »

Jerry Lewis

Rep. Jerry Lewis: The Million Dollar Man

Paul Kiel | January 25, 2008, 12:47PM

Congratulations to Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) lawyers! They've surpassed $1 million in legal fees from the lawmaker.

Lewis, long-time TPMmers will remember, has been under federal investigation since the spring of 2006 for his ties to defense contractor and convicted criminal Brent Wilkes and lobbyist buddy Bill Lowery.

Since June of 2006, Lewis has paid just over $1 million in campaign funds to some heavy-hitters at the law firm Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher, according to campaign disclosures. A $62,000 payment on December 12th last year put him over the top.

The Lewis probe has reportedly slowed in the last year, and his fees reflect that -- Lewis spent $900,000 in 2006 and only about $100,000 this year. Maybe with the Wilkes conviction, things will heat up again?

Ted Stevens

Stevens Gets Pork Silver Medal in Senate

Paul Kiel | December 4, 2007, 2:06PM

Even with the Democrats in the majority and the FBI on his tail, he's still got it:

Senior Republican appropriators in the Senate have collected more money in earmarks than any other members of Congress, even though President Bush and GOP leaders have forcefully criticized “pork-barrel spending.”

Not only have these lawmakers defied their leaders, they have also taken a much greater share of the pot set aside for rank-and-file Republicans than have senior Democrats....

Sen. Thad Cochran (Miss.), ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has collected $774 million worth of earmarks in 12 spending bills. After Cochran, Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska), the second-ranking Republican on Appropriations, secured more money for special projects than any other member of Congress: $502 million.

Not surprisingly, Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) took the gold in the House. And the bronze went to Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), who's earmarking activities are also under investigation.

Jerry Lewis

Bad News for Lewis and Calvert: FBI's Still Probing

Paul Kiel | November 19, 2007, 12:22PM

The investigation into Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) lives! Or at least investigators were doing some investigating this summer. Roll Call reports (sub. req.) that an FBI agent peeked at Lewis' personal financial records in July of this year, along with those of former aides.

The FBI also took a look at Rep. Ken Calvert's (R-CA) personal records, as they did once before, about a year ago.

The apparently stalled probe of Lewis has focused on his relationship to buddy and lobbyist Bill Lowery. Roll Call notes that the feds pulled records for two of Lowery's lobbyists, Jeffrey Shockey and Letitia White. Both once worked to Lewis, but moved over to work for Lowery. Shockey has since moved back to Lewis again. The feds also pulled records for Lewis' wife, his chief of staff Arlene Willis.

As for Calvert, it's unclear just what the feds are scrutinizing (one of his "honest graft" schemes?) or even if he's the focus of a full-blown investigation:

His trouble started last May, when the Los Angeles Times reported that he and a partner pocketed a profit of nearly a half-million dollars in less than a year on a land deal. The report found that while he owned the land, Calvert earmarked $1.5 million for commercial development nearby and $8 million for a freeway exchange 16 miles away.

About a week later, the California FBI agent pulled Calvert’s financial disclosure forms for 2000 through 2005. Calvert never retained legal counsel, but buzz over the issue compelled GOP leaders to skip over him last year when a slot opened on the Appropriations panel....

In July, a local FBI agent pulled Calvert’s financial disclosure forms for 2006 and 2007. Rudman said the lawmaker welcomes the scrutiny. “As far as we know, there is no investigation. He has no problems whatsoever and any time they want to look at any publicly available documents, that’s completely fine with him.”

Maybe the feds are just curious?

Brent Wilkes

"Brento" Wilkes Ties Continue to Dog Lewis

Paul Kiel | November 7, 2007, 2:13PM

Considering the fallout from Monday's Brent Wilkes verdict, Josh wondered whether Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) might feel a bit unsettled. After all, no other lawmaker besides Duke Cunningham had a closer relationship to Wilkes than Lewis.

During the trial, Wilkes actually tried this tack as a self-defense, pointing to his relationship with Lewis, who for most of the relevant time period held the powerful position of chairman of the appropriations defense subcommittee, as far more important than his relationship with Cunningham. Sure, Cunningham was helpful, he said, but Lewis held the power. Lewis, of course, remains on the committee as its highest ranking Republican.

It was for that reason that Wilkes hired former GOP congressman Bill Lowery as a lobbyist. Lowery was old friends with Lewis and had set himself up as his "gatekeeper" after Lowery himself had left Congress. If you wanted Lewis to back your project, Lowery was the guy who made it happen (The San Diego Union-Tribune first laid out the extent of the entanglement in this excellent piece). So Wilkes paid Lowery up to $25,000 per month. And it was Lowery, unsurprisingly, who taught Wilkes the ropes in Washington back in the early 90's. Lowery's lobbying firm, Copeland Lowery (now called Innovative Federal Strategies), became a big player.

Read more »

Jerry Lewis

Stalled Lewis Probe Rolls Backwards

Paul Kiel | September 7, 2007, 10:05AM

The U.S. attorney office in Los Angeles just can't seem to muster the manpower needed to investigate senior Republican appropriator Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA). In fact, it seems that the Justice Department is handicapping itself.

The veteran prosecutor who'd been heading up the Lewis case has been forced into retirement, The Los Angeles Daily Journal reported yesterday (not available online). It knocks the investigation, already stalled, further off course.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that budget shortages and the departure of top prosecutors from the office had caused the investigation to slow down since last fall. But the Journal noted that the interim U.S. attorney George Cardona (the prior U.S.A. Debra Yang left last year under questionable circumstances) had tapped veteran prosecutor Michael Emmick in June to "jump-start" the investigation.

So much for that.

Read more »

U.S. Attorneys

WSJ: After Stalling, Lewis Probe Goes on

Paul Kiel | August 31, 2007, 1:31PM

Whatever happened to the federal investigation of Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)?

Finally, an answer. It's been stalled, reports Scot Paltrow in The Wall Street Journal, due partly to the departure of top prosecutors from the office (including former U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles Debra Yang) and partly to budget shortages. Paltrow's piece focuses mostly on those shortages in offices across the country, the often-forgotten backdrop to the U.S. attorney firings.

The last time we checked in on Lewis, prosecutors were focusing on his relationship with his lobbyist buddy Bill Lowery, whose firm's bread-and-butter business was cashing in on its relationship to Lewis (it continues to do well). But Paltrow reports that prosecutors had also hit another vein:

Read more »

U.S. Attorneys

Did Calif. Prosecutor See The Purge Coming?

Paul Kiel | March 2, 2007, 12:41PM

Laura Rozen raises a good point. Three of California's four United States attorneys resigned in two months. Two of them we know were actually asked to step down on December 7th: San Diego's Carol Lam and San Francisco's Kevin Ryan.

But the other, Los Angeles' Debra Wong Yang, stepped down November 10th, just after the election. On January 1st, she left for the heavy-hitting law firm that just happened to be representing Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), who is being investigated by her office.

As Laura notes, "it's no secret that the decision to retire and a decision informed by knowledge one is going to be dismissed are sometimes the same thing.... Will Congress want to hear from her as well?"

Jerry Lewis

WSJ: GOP Rep Should Be Sweatin' Indictments

Paul Kiel | February 14, 2007, 11:26AM

The Wall Street Journal notes that, given the torrent of detail in yesterday's indictments against Brent Wilkes, those lawmakers other than Duke Cunningham who were uncomfortably close to him should be feeling mighty uncomfortable right about now:

The indictment and its details would seem to heighten the risk to other members of Congress still under investigation; Mr. Wilkes also had dealings with several of them.

A separate federal criminal investigation of Rep. Jerry Lewis, the California Republican who until January 2006 was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, is continuing in Los Angeles. Prosecutors in that case are looking at Mr. Lewis's relationship with Mr. Wilkes, which included campaign contributions from Mr. Wilkes and associates and the hiring by Mr. Wilkes of a lobbying firm founded by one of Mr. Lewis's closest friends, former Rep. Bill Lowery.

Jerry Lewis

Lewis Legal Fees Hit $900K

Justin Rood | January 31, 2007, 6:30PM

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), the longtime GOP appropriator who's facing a federal investigation as part of the Duke Cunningham scandal, dropped another $45,000 on legal fees in December, according to new documents filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Lewis, the highest-ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, has spent about $905,000 on legal fees so far. Ed. note: That's a lot of money.

Alan Mollohan

Facing FBI Scrutiny, Dem Vows He Won't Touch Justice Budget

Justin Rood | January 10, 2007, 10:48AM

Despite chairing the House panel which oversees the Justice Department budget, Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) has sworn he won't meddle with the Feds' money, Congressional Quarterly reports (sub. req.) today.

Since Mollohan is the subject of an FBI investigation, that's probably a smart move.

Concerns were raised last November when it was noticed that Mollohan was poised to take the chairmanship of the Commerce Justice State Appropriations Subcommittee, from which he would hold of the purse strings for Justice and its law enforcement arm.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn't see the big deal. "I think the Justice Department is looking into every member of Congress," she told a news crew last week. Mollohan, thankfully, was a little less myopic. “To make certain that there is no basis for criticism of my service on the CJS Subcommittee, I have decided to recuse myself from any related Justice Department accounts,” he wrote to colleagues in a letter obtained by CQ.

Meanwhile, the top Republican on the Appropriations committee is also under federal investigation, but he hasn't made any noises about recusing himself from meddling with the Justice Department budget. Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), the committee's ranking member, has blown over $800,000 in legal bills defending himself against aggressive investigators.

Jerry Lewis

Legal Fees Top $860K for Rep. Lewis

Justin Rood | December 13, 2006, 12:11PM

Ouch. Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), now the ranking member of the House appropriations committee, has paid out $861,000 in legal fees since learning in May he was under FBI scrutiny, the CREW blog reports.

Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) has run up bills totaling more than $117,000. And Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) has paid more than $70,000, according to CREW.

Jim Gibbons

NV Man Is Zelig of GOP Scandals

Justin Rood | November 19, 2006, 10:42AM

A man named Warren Trepp surfaced in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago, you may recall. The paper had investigated the Nevada defense contractor for his shady dealings with then-Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-NV).

Today's Las Vegas Sun puts Trepp's current flap in perspective. Apparently, the man has a history of attaching himself, Zelig-like, to no fewer than four disparate scandals in the past two decades:

Perhaps Warren Trepp is always just at the wrong place at the wrong time, a victim of terrible and perpetual coincidence.

By his early 30s, he was chief trader for the notorious 1980s junk bond trader Michael Milken.

Then a friend helped him sell a bundle of stock in a collectibles business in 2002, and he wound up selling it to Tom Noe, a Republican bigwig in Ohio recently convicted on multiple counts of fraud and larceny and laundering money to the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign.

Trepp formed the software company eTreppid Technologies that later sought national security contracts with the government. A woman, Letitia White, who did lobbying work for the firm is said to be under investigation in connection with the widening federal bribery probe following the conviction of a former congressman.

Finally, his friendship with Nevada Gov.-elect Jim Gibbons landed him on the front page of The Wall Street Journal in an examination of contracts that eTreppid received with help from Gibbons, the Republican congressman from Reno.

Jerry Lewis

ThinkProgress: Lewis Firings Not "Bipartisan," As Spokesman Claimed

Justin Rood | October 20, 2006, 12:51PM

A Democratic spokesman for a member of the House Appropriations committee disagreed with comments from the Republican chairman, who said yesterday that the recent massive firing of the panel's fraud investigators was "bipartisan."

In a surprise move, House Appropriations chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) Monday fired all 60 of his panel's contract investigators. Sixteen permanent investigative staff were not affected by the action.

In a comment to Congressional Quarterly, Lewis spokesman John Scofield said the firings came because of a "bipartisan review" of the investigative unit. The review, he said, was supported by Rep. David Obey (D-WI), the top Democrat on the committee.

But an anonymous Democratic spokesman told ThinkProgress today that the firings were not okayed by Obey or other Democratic members of the committee. In fact, they weren't even consulted, he said.

Kirstin Brost, press secretary for David Obey, declined to comment for the record on the matter.

The effectiveness of the House Appropriations Committee's "I-Staff," as it is known, is unclear. Current and former staff from both sides of the aisle who are familiar with the group's reports say their quality was uneven. Lewis spokesman Scofield told CQ that "the work we’ve been getting as of late has not been that good."

"I never saw anything of value come out of them," Ronald Garant, a former contract investigator, said of the investigators working Katrina fraud claims. "I thought that was wasted time." Garant left the unit in March.

Update: An earlier version of the ThinkProgress post implied that the anonymous spokesman worked for Rep. Obey. A revised version identifies the commenter only as a "press spokesman," whose comments apply to all Democrats on the panel, not just Obey's office.

Jerry Lewis

CQ: Facing Fed Probe, House GOP Spending Chief Axes Investigative Staff

Justin Rood | October 19, 2006, 7:11PM

My goodness. As TPMm readers know well, House Appropriations chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) is under federal investigation for possible improprieties in how he oversaw Congress' spending of $900 billion annually. Yesterday, we reported that Lewis had dropped nearly $800,000 in legal fees to defend himself against the probe.

This evening, Congressional Quarterly reports (sub. req.) that in a round of calls Monday evening, Lewis fired 60 investigators who had worked for his committee rooting out fraud, waste and abuse, effective immediately. As in, don't bother coming in on Tuesday.

The investigators were contract workers, brought on to handle the extraordinary level of fraud investigations facing the panel. Sixteen permanent investigative staff are staying on, according to CQ. More:

Lewis’ decision “has in fact stalled all of the investigations on the staff,” said one of the contractors, a former FBI agent, who asked not to be identified. “This eviscerates the investigatory function. There is little if any ability to do any oversight now.”

. . .

“In effect, no investigative function is going to be done,” said the contractor, who called the decision “misguided.”

“This staff has saved billions and billions of dollars, we’ve turned up malfeasance and misfeasance,” the contractor said. “It’s results justify the expense of the staff. I have no idea why the chairman would do this.”

Lewis' spokesman, John Scofield, told CQ that such complaints were "sour grapes," and assured the publication that "there is nothing sinister going on."

Jerry Lewis

CA Rep Drops Nearly $800,000 on Legal Fees

Paul Kiel | October 18, 2006, 1:31PM

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), who's been under federal investigation since May for his ties to his friend, lobbyist Bill Lowery, has spent nearly $800,000 on legal fees since his troubles began.

He dropped $200,000 on a legal retrainer for his high-powered team back in June. Since then, he's paid out approximately $569,000 more, according to his most recent FEC filing.

The amount puts Lewis in the big leagues in terms of legal spending. Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), for example, who pled guilty earlier this month to accepting bribes from Jack Abramoff, has reported spending less than half as much on his lawyer. Former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), by contrast, has run up legal bills exceeding $2 million.

Lewis, of course, can afford to spend his campaign's dollars. He's coasting to reelection despite the investigation, and reports having $1 million in the bank.

Jerry Lewis

Roll Call: House Panel Clears Aide's $2 Mil Lobbying "Buyout"

Justin Rood | September 21, 2006, 4:01PM

A few months ago, we reported that a top aide to the House Appropriations chairman received a multi-million-dollar buyout from his old lobbying firm while he was working on the Hill. Oh -- and neglected to report the size of the deal.

That aide, Jeffrey Shockey, has now been cleared by the House Ethics Committee of wrongdoing, according to Roll Call (sub. req.).

It's a bit of good news for Shockey -- but only a bit: He and his boss, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), are both subjects of a much larger and more worrisome federal investigation into the Cunningham scandal, and the prosecutors in that case don't give a hoot what the House panel says.

Anyway, given that the House Ethics Committee seems to do so little these days, it's nice to get confirmation they're showing up to work every now and then.

Jerry Lewis

AP: Feds Probe Lewis Land Deal

Paul Kiel | September 5, 2006, 3:24PM

It's been awhile since you've heard about Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), the famed earmarker who's under federal investigation for his close ties to lobbyist Bill Lowery.

But today the AP reports that investigators are asking questions about a top contributor's land deal. Jack and Laura Dangermond donated a 41-acre, $2 million plot to the city of Redlands -- a plot which just happens to abut Lewis' home. The land was donated on the condition that it not be developed, a move that the AP points out "helps ensure property values remain high."

You know what's coming next. The Dangermonds run a government contracting firm called Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc., which has received at least $55.4 million in earmarks since 2004. The company is, of course, a client of Lewis friend Bill Lowery's lobbying firm -- a setup which won them a big fat subpoena from investigators back in June. To top off the cozy relationship, the Dangermonds have given at least $23,000 in political contributions to Lewis since 2001.

Funny thing -- the Dangermonds claim not to have known that Lewis would be affected by the land deal, and Lewis says he didn't know they had anything to do with it. Small world, huh?

Brent Wilkes

Alleged Duke Briber: It Wasn't Bribery -- It Was Extortion

Justin Rood | August 7, 2006, 1:47PM

I've had a couple days to digest the New York Times' lengthy article on congressional corruption, based largely on an unprecedented on-the-record interview with a man who has been identified as a major briber of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

It isn't the tell-all I'd like it to be. But the things Brent Wilkes didn't want to talk about are nearly as telling as those he discussed freely.

Wilkes, readers will recall, is the guy who is said to have thrown power-broker poker parties in the Watergate Hotel and elsewhere, some of which were said to feature congressmen and prostititutes. He was the man who's said to have trained Mitchell Wade in the art of the dirty deal -- Wade, of course, is the other identified Duke briber, and has been cooperating with prosecutors for months.

The piece, already notable for its revelations, becomes moreso when one notices it contains barely a passing mention of Cunningham, Wade, or the phantom prostitutes (none have yet been publicly identified).

Instead, Wilkes focuses the paper's attention on Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), now the powerful chair of the House Appropriations Committee, and Bill Lowery, the lawmaker-turned-lobbyist who, as a "gatekeeper" to Lewis and his earmark factory, supposedly kept the federal dollars flowing to a dozen Wilkes-run firms.

Read more »

Jerry Lewis

Earmarkers Grumble about Muckraker

Paul Kiel | July 27, 2006, 1:38PM

Yesterday, we reported on the Copeland Lowery lobbying firms' remarkable success in winning earmarks for California State University, San Bernadino (CSU-SB).

One of the more entertaining emails we came across in reviewing the school's correspondence with their lobbyists was an exchange between a school official and Jeff Shockey, the firm's star lobbyist who's now under federal investigation as part of the probe into the firm's relationship with Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA).

Last fall, Copley News Service's Jerry Kammer -- who won a Pulitzer Prize for helping expose the Duke Cunningham scandal -- was sniffing around Shockey, his firm and its clients.

"This guy is really focusing in on my relationship with the university -- I can't quite figure it out," Shockey wrote to his university contact about Kammer.

"He does not understand eamarks," the school official moodily replied, "nor like them."

Three weeks later, Kammer broke the Lewis scandal with a raft of stories on Lewis and his lobbyist buddy Bill Lowery. Today, Lewis, Lowery and Shockey count themselves among the subjects of the spreading federal investigation into congressional corruption -- which began with, and has been buoyed by, Kammer's reporting.

Who doesn't understand the earmark process?

Jerry Lewis

Roll Call: Pay Cut Let Lewis Aide Dodge Ban

Justin Rood | July 27, 2006, 9:19AM

More difficult revelations about Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), the Appropriations Committee chairman.

In late 2002, Lewis delivered an $11,000 pay cut for one of his top aides -- and a personal family friend. Normally, such a move would be a stinging, painful rebuke -- but not in this case.

Instead, the pay cut allowed the aide, Letitia White, to narrowly dodge a law which would have barred her from lobbying Lewis for one year after leaving, Roll Call reports today. And lobbying Lewis is precisely what she did, just a few months later.

White is now under federal investigation, the New York Times reported in June.

Read more »

Duke Cunningham

Congress Drags Feet, Impedes Cunningham Probe

Justin Rood | July 26, 2006, 2:17PM

It has been nearly five months since Justice Department prosecutors working the Duke Cunningham corruption case first requested information from three key House committees. To date, they haven't got a scrap of paper in return, nor a single interview with a staffer, Roll Call's John Bresnahan reports today.

In May, if you recall, anonymous Hill denizens whined to the media that if they really tried to comply, Congress would "shut down."

DoJ wants information stretching back to 1997, and requests that broad could lead them to knock on many new doors. Independent reports have already confirmed that as offshoots of the Cunningham probe, the DoJ is looking into Reps. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Katherine Harris (R-FL), and possibly others, as well as former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) -- and, of course, Cunningham himself.

What would ten years of records and information about a corrupt congressman uncover? Apparently, that's for Congress to know, and the rest of America to wonder about -- for a while. Congress' August recess is coming up, which provides another reason for them to do nothing. Will Justice let them get away with it?

Jerry Lewis

With Scandal Lobby Firm, You Can Always Get What You Want

Paul Kiel | July 26, 2006, 12:24PM

The perfect lobbyists?

The lobbying firm at the center of the federal investigation into Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) had an astonishing record of success in delivering federal money to its clients. One client actually received nearly a hundred-fold return on the fees they paid the firm, ultimately winning more than $67 million in federal dollars over the past seven years.

What's more, the firm brought home the money by landing nearly every single earmark they requested -- at or near the amount of money they asked for. Such success, experts say, is virtually unprecedented.

While the firm finds itself under Justice Department scrutiny, our review of documents relating to its work for the client, Cal State University-San Bernardino (CSU-SB), turned up no evidence of illegal activity. Only the work of lobbyists who were diligent, experienced -- and, apparently, very lucky.

Of course, boosting that luck may be the longtime friendship which the firm's lead partner, Bill Lowery, shares with Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), who oversaw all defense spending from his perch atop the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Two of Lewis' closest aides -- Jeffrey Shockey and Letitia White -- worked for the firm during this period of tremendous success.

Documents released to investigators by CSU-SB show that since 1999, the Copeland Lowery firm won at least 21 earmarks for the school, mostly from the Pentagon's budget.

"It’s like an ATM," said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense, who said he was "shocked" by how effective the firm was. "You put money in, you get a lot more out," he said.

Read more »

Jerry Lewis

Kammer: In Washington, Biggest Scandal May Be What's Legal

Justin Rood | July 21, 2006, 11:55AM

What's up with the federal investigation into Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)? I chatted with Jerry Kammer, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Copley News Service, whose work scrutinized Lewis' dealings even before the probe was publicly known. He counseled patience and a long view. These things, he says, take time:

"I think when the investigators started on this stuff, they had to climb the learning curve, just like we've had to. When I wrote for The Arizona Republic, I got to know some of the people who worked on the Charles Keating task force -- he was the symbolic central figure of the S&L scandal. It took them a while to get started, but once they got a head of steam they made a lot of progress.

"I'd never looked at a lobbying disclosure form or an appropriations conference report until last summer. I'd been writing about immigration. . . I would bet that the agents they brought in on this case had a similar learning process to undergo. They'd probably never pulled any of these documents before.

"As a matter of fact, I've wondered how they train the agents for a case like this. These are complicated investigations. They have to be able to take something to a jury against a very well-paid defense lawyer. I wouldn't be surprised to see the investigation take six months or a year until we see any concrete results. And, of course, they might decide that they don't have a case.

"[Reporters] can write about behavior that we think is questionable. That's our standard. But [federal prosecutors] have to decide if that behavior violates a criminal statute. And in Washington, there are a lot of people who will tell you that the systemic scandal lies in what Congress allows to be legal.

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Jerry Lewis

Investigated CA Rep Got Lucky with Investment in Buddy's Bank

Paul Kiel | July 19, 2006, 1:18PM

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) stars in "How To Get Rich(er) without Really Trying."

Jerry Lewis

Despite Scandals, Lewis Enjoys a Lock on Seat

Justin Rood | July 17, 2006, 5:12PM

I think you can call this the "look Ma, no hands" school of politics.

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) looks set to hold on to his House seat this November, despite being dogged by a brewing political scandal. Not only that, he's going to do it without ever hiring a campaign manager, setting up a Web site, or renting campaign headquarters. He has done very little campaigning.

That's power, dear reader.

Should he begin to fight, he's got a $1.6 million war chest to fund it -- if it isn't drained by the mounting legal fees of being a subject of a federal probe.

Of course, the Dems are hardly fighting him for the seat -- they've put up a challenger who boasts a total budget of under $5,000.

Jerry Lewis

Lowery: A Letter From the Ex- Files

Justin Rood | July 17, 2006, 5:04PM

Federal investigators are talking with superlobbyist Bill Lowery's ex-wife Melinda, it was noted this weekend at TPM. And it looks to me like she knows stuff. Interesting stuff.

Investigators have met twice with the woman who was married until 2003 to Lowery, whose connections, money and influence tie him to the Duke Cunningham scandal and spell trouble for Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), as the federal investigation into his activities continues.

I admit, to my dismay, that the former Ms. Lowery has not yet returned phone messages I have left for her. But that tidbit over the weekend piqued my curiosity. So I trotted down to the District Courthouse and pulled the divorce file marked "Lowery v. Lowery."

The details are not pretty, of course. If divorces are ranked for nastiness on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd put this at an 8. I'll spare you the wildest details -- the emotional outbursts in court, the mold problems, the lie detector test -- and note only one snippet that caught my attention, buried in a pretrial document filed by Bill Lowery's legal team:

"In early January 2000. . . Ms. Lowery attempted to blackmail Mr. Lowery to end the marriage" by threatening to release a letter that would be "damaging [to] his social, political and professional relationships. . . .

"She threatened to send out one of two versions of a letter (one nastier than the other) to 200 of Mr. Lowery's social, business (including clients) and political friends and associates 'explaining' her reasons for leaving the marriage."

Hm. I wonder if she's still got that letter -- the "nasty" version. More to the point: I wonder if federal investigators got their mitts on it?

Jerry Lewis

Lewis Drops 200 Large for Lawyers

Justin Rood | July 16, 2006, 4:44PM

For two months, nary a detail has escaped our notice about the heightening investigation into House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA).

None of it has escaped Lewis, either, apparently.

The king of the earmark process gave a whopping $200,000 to Robert Bonner and the rest of his defense team at Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher as a retainer, new FEC filings show. That single expense comprised the vast majority of his campaign's spending for the past three months, which totalled just over $213,000.

Lewis is protecting himself against a widespread federal anti-corruption probe touched off by the Duke Cunningham bribery scandal. Lewis has been identified as a target in press accounts, and the investigation touches two of his current and former staffers, Jeffrey Shockey and Letitia White, who became lobbyists after working for Lewis.

While Lewis' campaign cash flowed to his defense team, the contributions have slowed to a trickle: just months from the election, his committee reported receiving $53,200 in contributions over the past twelve weeks. (Over $40,000 came from major corporations and interest groups.)

The negative cash flow can't be good news for the Lewis for Congress Committee -- but the group does enjoy deep pockets, with nearly $1.5 million in reserve.

Jerry Lewis

Scandal Lobbying Firm Caught In Further Reporting Errors

Justin Rood | July 7, 2006, 11:50AM

A week ago, we broke the news that the scandal-linked lobby firm Copeland Lowery had admitted to underreporting over a million dollars in lobbying fees. The Washington Post and AP have since confirmed the story for themselves, publishing their own reports a week after ours. AP even gave us credit. Bless their hearts.

Turns out there's even more to the story: Jeff Shockey, who's increasingly looking like a desired source of vital testimony for prosecutors, approved bills totalling over $100,000 a year from San Bernardino County*, while simultaneously reporting to government officials that the city was paying his firm less than $20,000 annually.

Shockey worked for Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), then for Copeland Lowery, and then for Lewis again (pocketing a $2 million bonus from the firm after he walked away). Investigators are very interested to learn the details of the relationship between Lewis and the firm. Anyway, it's good to see a hard-won story grow legs.

Update: *Not the city of San Bernadino, as this post originally read.

Brent Wilkes

Prosecutors Focus Sights on Wilkes

Paul Kiel | July 7, 2006, 8:06AM

Yep, we were right. Brent Wilkes, the Duke Cunningham sugar daddy still at large, is the focus of a federal grand jury investigation in San Diego.

According to the AP, who sources the news to two lawyers close to the investigation, the grand jury is meeting regularly. That means the feds are actively pushing to indict Wilkes, who received over $100 million in contracts after spreading over a million dollars in illegal cash and favors around Washington, as well as allegedly hosting poker parties and providing food, liquor and prostitutes to lawmakers and staff.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if at any point Wilkes opts to plea out and cooperate with the investigation, a sweaty Washington summer will become exponentially sweatier for a number of lawmakers and their staff. Wilkes was the source of tens of thousands of dollars in questionable favors and contributions to Reps. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), John Doolittle (R-CA), Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and Roy Blunt (R-MO), as well as former lawmakers Tom DeLay and Duke Cunningham.

Wilkes has shown every sign of fighting any charges -- except for a cryptic comment buried in a recent Vanity Fair article about Cunningham. Wilkes' attorney, Nancy Luque, vigorously denies all the charges the magazine repeats about her client, but then adds: "He will not plead guilty, because he is not guilty. . . But he has offered to cooperate."

For the moment, however, Wilkes isn't lifting a finger, the magazine reports. And that's infuriating to federal prosecutors. "Incensed and invigorated, prosecutors are poring over his campaign contributions, and the Pentagon's inspector general is scrutinizing his contracts," VF says.

Jerry Lewis

Amid Brewing Scandal, Lobby Firm's Clients Head for the Door

Justin Rood | July 4, 2006, 9:56AM

Three groups have ended their relationships with Copeland Lowery, the lobby firm in the middle of a federal probe into House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA).

"Joining Riverside County and aircraft giant Boeing Co. . . the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority, based in Riverside, has decided not to renew its contract with the former firm," reports the San Bernardino Sun.

Two other groups are scheduled to review their contracts with the firm this week, according to the paper.

Jerry Lewis

Lewis Caught in Lie, Shilled for Lobbyist

Paul Kiel | July 1, 2006, 11:07AM

For those of you who missed it at TPM.

From the AP:

Republican Rep. Jerry Lewis, under federal investigation over his ties to a lobbying firm, issued a statement last month saying his office never recommends lobbyists to constituents. A Lewis letter released by San Bernardino County appears to contradict that claim.

In the Sept. 5, 2002, letter, Lewis said he had a 10-year working relationship with Tom Skancke, a registered lobbyist and president of The Skancke Company of Las Vegas.

"It is a pleasure to be writing this letter on Tom's behalf and strongly recommend San Bernardino County's retaining The Skancke Company's services," Lewis wrote....

"I have never told a local representative or someone seeking to work on a federal project that they must have a lobbyist representing them," Lewis' statement said. "It is an ironclad rule in my office that we do not recommend lobbyists, even if a constituent asks for that recommendation."

A spokeswoman for Lewis' attorneys did not immediately respond Friday to a message seeking comment.

Jerry Lewis

Lowery Foundation Client Turned Earmarks into Fees, Reported Neither

Paul Kiel | June 30, 2006, 6:57PM

Yesterday, we reported that Copeland Lowery, the lobby shop under investigation for its very close relationship with Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), had done some remarkably clumsy bookkeeping, failing to report around $2 million in lobbying fees.

One underreported client that stood out was something called the Foundation for the Improvement of Mathematics and Science Education (FIMSE). Lowery's firm lowballed their fees by approximately $270,000.

So I dig some digging. And what do you know? The group (like most Lowery clients), has done very well for itself, bagging $2.45 million in earmarks during its five year existence, according to an analysis by Taxpayers for Common Sense. At least one of those earmarks came from convicted felon Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA), who bragged in a press release about securing $450,000 for the group. And lobbying disclosure forms show that the group has sent some of those earmarked funds back to Lowery's firm in the form of $500,000 in lobbying fees.

But most intriguing of all is the failure of the group to report any of this in their IRS returns. According to the group's 990 forms, the foundation is a 501(c)(3). All of the experts I spoke to agreed that the group was required to report both the lobbying fees and revenue from earmarks. “The obligation of nonprofits to account for lobbying expenditures is a matter of law," Rick Cohen, the Executive Director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, told me. "“Every expenditure, every piece of income needs to be reported," agreed Naomi Seligman of Citizens for Reponsibility and Ethics in Washington.

When I called to get an explanation from the group, Lori Albers, FISME's Program Director, answered the phone. She said she was “not exactly sure" as to why the lobbying expenditures wouldn't show up in their returns and promised to get an answer for me from the Executive Director. I'm still waiting for that call.

Read more »

Jerry Lewis

For Lewis, News of Probe Didn't Stop Funds' Flow

Justin Rood | June 30, 2006, 12:50PM

The machine rolls on. Nothing stops the machine.

As I reported earlier, just days after news surfaced of a federal investigation into his relationship with lobbying firm Copeland Lowery, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) took donations of thousands more dollars from his Copeland Lowery friends.

In addition, Lewis got at least $23,000 in donations from Copeland Lowery clients -- mostly major defense contractors.

Let's do a quick reality check here: Lewis and the firm are under investigation as part of the ever-expanding Cunningham corruption probe. Lowery and Lewis have long standing ties, and prosecutors appear to be scrutinizing whether contracts were given to Copeland Lowery as a way to secure earmarks of federal funds from Lewis. A key piece of that puzzle is the vast sum of contributions sent to Lewis by Lowery's clients, which accounted for fully 37 percent of the $1.3 million that Lewis's political action committee has received in the past six years.

Despite all that, an examination of FEC records and the scandal-linked lobby firm's client list reveals that days after it was first reported that Lewis was under investigation, Lewis' campaign and PAC reported generous donations from the following organizations, all of whom were represented in Washington by Copeland Lowery:

Read more »

Jerry Lewis

Lewis Pal Facing Felony Charges over Incorrect Filings?

Justin Rood | June 29, 2006, 6:10PM

Bill Lowery's in trouble.

Why? Not only did his firm collectively under-report its income by over $1.5 million, but Lowery, a longtime pal of Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), personally signed many of the most egregiously incorrect filings. Time and again, Lowery affirmed to be true and accurate reports that lowballed his firm's income by $20,000, $40,000, even $100,000 each. Each one is a potential felony charge.

If the Feds think they can show he signed those reports knowing they were wrong, they'll likely press for indictments against him. Given how frequently he signed these incorrect reports -- and did so repeatedly with the same clients, for such outlandish sums of money -- it's hard to think Justice could resist.

Read more »

Jerry Lewis

Lobbying Firm in Lewis Scandal Failed to Report $2 Million in Lobby Fees

Justin Rood | June 29, 2006, 2:40PM

A lobbying firm now at the center of a sprawling congressional corruption investigation failed to report roughly $2 million worth of lobbying fees, according to revised numbers filed by the firm earlier this year.

The probe began last year with the investigation of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA), who later pled guilty to accepting some $2.4 million worth of bribes. This May, the Los Angeles Times reported that investigators had expanded their probe to include House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and his ties to the lobbying firm Copeland Lowery.

Now a review of the firm's reporting shows that, just weeks before Copeland Lowery's status as a target of the investigation became publicly known, the firm filed more than 90 revised disclosures to Congress, alerting officials that they had misreported income from dozens of clients from 1998 to 2005.

Over three-quarters of the corrections disclosed previously unreported income totalling approximately $2 million; others corrected over-reported income of roughly $500,000.

Federal investigators are reportedly looking into the firm's dealings with Lewis, as well as its ties to accused briber Brent Wilkes, former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, and at least two of Lewis' former staffers. Nine of the firm's clients have confirmed receiving subpoenas from federal prosecutors working on the probe.

Interestingly, while Copeland Lowery's corrections affected over 40 clients, most of the unreported money came from just a handful of accounts. And those cases showed a pattern of Copeland Lowery reporting little or no money from those clients for years at a time when in fact, according to the revised reports filed in the wake of the investigation, the firm was receiving on average $100,000 from each client annually, and in one case twice that amount.

From these four key clients, Copeland Lowery failed to report ...

- at least $260,000 from ADCS, the San Diego-based defense contractor owned by accused briber Wilkes;
- at least $270,000 from the San Diego-based Foundation for the Improvement of Math and Science Education;
- at least $210,000 from the Rochester Institute of Technology;
- at least $210,000 from the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD).

Our calls to Wilkes' lawyer, the Foundation and RIT were not returned. A representative from SCAQMD said the organization had no comment, but that its public records spoke for themselves.

When I first spoke with Copeland Lowery spokesman, Patrick Dorton, he declined to answer questions about the corrections. A half hour later he called back and was more responsive.

"The firm underwent a process of reviewing its [lobby disclosure] reports with the assistance of counsel," Dorton told me. He declined to say what spurred the comprehensive review, only that the filings "represented a diligent effort to make sure that the reports were accurate."

When I asked Dorton if he could explain why the firm repeatedly failed to report money it took from certain clients, sometimes for years, he told me, "I don't have any specific comments on those cases."

Dorton stressed that the firm believed the filings were for "very common" errors -- reporting income in one period when it should have been in another. However, an analysis of the records suggests that no more than roughly $200,000 of the $2 million can be accounted for in this manner.

The spokesman called back a third time, unprompted, to underscore how usual such corrections are. "This is a fairly routine thing," he told me. "It is a common occurence for firms in town to file. . . amendments."

Others disagree. "We have never ever seen a case like this," said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense. The DC-based watchdog group tracks lobbying and earmarks. "I have never seen a lobby firm in Washigton go through every client and file amendments on dozens of clients they've had for the past five years.

"The way it was done," Ashdown said, "done days before it was first reported Lewis was under investigation -- this definitely looks like an effort to cover their legal butts."

The firm's lobbyists are in serious legal jeopardy, says Brett Kappel, a Washington, DC lawyer who specializes in money and politics. That's exactly why, if he was their lawyer, he would advise them to conduct just such a review as they did. " I would have told them. . . if you haven't been hit with subpoenas yet you will be, and they're going to match your financial records against your public reports. And if they don't match you better fix them. Because it looks a hell of a lot better at sentencing," Kappel said.

The amount of underreported income is "pretty astonishing," Kappel told me. He was almost certain that congressional officials would refer the discrepancies to the Justice Department, where they would provide fodder for criminal prosecutions of anyone signing the original disclosure forms. The likely charge -- making a false statement, a felony -- has been used by prosecutors in recent corruption investigations to win plea bargains.

"Mr. Lowery's in serious trouble," Kappel said, referring to Bill Lowery, a firm partner and close friend of Jerry Lewis who signed a number of the erroneous reports.

The existence of the firm's extensive amended filings was first reported by the New York Times' David Kirkpatrick.

Paul Kiel and Ben Craw contributed to this report.

Jerry Lewis

Report: Contractor, Other Businesses Subpoenaed in Lewis Probe

Paul Kiel | June 29, 2006, 10:47AM

For those of you keeping track at home, this would be the ninth subpoena reportedly issued by federal investigators in their investigation of Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and his buddy Bill Lowery's lobbying firm, Copeland, Lowery. But there's something special about this one. All of the other subpoenas were to public entities, like cities and counties. This the first private client we've heard about. And it looks like a number of other Copeland, Lowery business clients have turned over documents to the feds. Prosecutors sure are curious.

From the AP:

Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc., located in Lewis' hometown of Redlands, Calif., received a subpoena seeking records of its dealings with the Washington, D.C., firm of Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez, Denton & White, a person with knowledge of the matter said Wednesday.

The person, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the subpoenas have not been publicly disclosed, said other businesses also have been asked to supply information. The person did not identify the companies....

ESRI is a leading developer of mapping technology. According to a study by Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense, which tracks congressional spending, the company got at least $55.4 million in earmarks in 2004 and 2005. Projects included $6.8 million to create a new geographic information system to provide a database to the Defense Department, the Homeland Security Department and other security agencies.

"In effect, I think they are opening a new front in the investigation" by sending a subpoena to ESRI, Ashdown said. "That is different than these local governments who could argue that they are just trying to look out for their citizens in making sure they get all the federal dollars they can."

Jerry Lewis

Fashion Tips From Scandal Lobbying Firm: Don't Wear a Blue Hat in a Red Town

Justin Rood | June 24, 2006, 5:27PM

Want to know what $16,500 a month buys you in D.C.?

Let's start with fashion tips. When officials from San Bernardino County (Calif.) asked their lobbyists -- the folks at the scandal-linked Copeland Lowery firm -- to take them to a Washington Nationals baseball game, they didn't just get tickets. They got some helpful advice, too. Reports the San Bernardino Sun:

"There is something of a `dress code' when it comes to wearing the Nats baseball caps," [Copeland Lowery's] Larson wrote [to one County official]. "Just tell Bill not to go to a game wearing a blue hat blue hat = blue state."

The county, which currently pays the firm $16,500 a month for lobbying services, chose Copeland Lowery at the advice of Arlene Wilis, chief of staff (and wife) of Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

In 2002, Arlene told county officials she didn't know three of the firms they said they were considering, but knew Copeland Lowery "quite well." (Indeed she did; by then, two longtime Lewis staffers -- her former employees -- were working as big-bucks lobbyists at the firm.)

"Staff is easy to deal with," the notes from the conversation state, according to the Sun. Partner (and former Lewis aide) Jeff "Shockey is knowledgeable, likeable, a visionary and a problem solver."

In case you were wondering: there will be more stories like this. San Bernardino County alone has released to media outlets thousands of pages relating to its relationship with Copeland Lowery and Chairman Lewis. At least a dozen cities are believed to be cooperating with federal investigators, and they are essentially required by law to share with reporters whatever they share with the feds.

So who knows what will surface. I'm hoping for more fashion tips.