Duke Cunningham

Wade Gets 30 Months For Bribing Cunningham

Zachary Roth | December 15, 2008, 12:58PM

Mitchell Wade, the contractor who in 2006 pleaded guilty to bribing Duke Cunningham to the tune of over $1 million, was sentenced moments ago to 30 months in federal prison, and ordered to pay a $25,000 fine.

The relative leniency of the sentence suggests that Wade may have provided prosecutors with valuable information as they seek to build cases against others involved in the scandal.

A memo filed by Wade's lawyers two weeks ago claimed that he had helped prosecutors look into five other members of Congress.

Cunningham is currently serving an eight-year sentence in connection with the scandal.

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...

Duke Cunningham

Lawyers: Wade Helped Prosecutors Probe Five Other Members Of Congress

Zachary Roth | December 1, 2008, 1:50PM

Could we see more members of Congress charged in connection with the investigation into the Duke Cunningham bribery scandal?

Lawyers for Mitchell Wade, the former defense contractor who pleaded guilty in 2006 to bribing his friend Cunningham, filed a "sentencing memo" last week claiming that Wade had helped prosecutors' efforts to look into "at least five other members of Congress" who were under investigation for "corruption similar to that of Mr. Cunningham."

The Washington Post adds:

Although none of those members is named, two are under investigation, according to the memorandum, and "three others have come under scrutiny for their receipt of straw contributions" from former Wade employees and one for the possible receipt of undisclosed gifts.

The existence of the memo -- which argued for a more lenient sentence for Wade -- was first reported on the blog of the investigative reporter Seth Hettena, who has published a book on the Cunningham scandal.

Hettena writes that former GOP Florida congresswoman Katherine Harris (yes, that Katherine Harris), and Virginia Republican Rep. Virgil Goode -- who has apparently lost his Virginia seat -- are likely on that list of five. (We told you about Harris' and Goode's connections to the scandal back in 2006).

Hettena adds: "Wade wanted to open facilities in their districts and made $78,000 in "straw" contributions to grease the wheels. Neither Harris nor Goode has been charged with wrongdoing."

Duke Cunningham

Cunningham Briber Hit with $1 Million Fine for Fake Contribs

Paul Kiel | October 31, 2007, 3:35PM

Mitchell Wade, that other high-profile (alleged) briber of Duke Cunningham, got hit with a $1 million fine from the Federal Election Commission, what the commission calls "the second largest penalty ever paid in the 32-year history of the FEC."

Update: We neglected to mention that the settlement was a result of a complaint from watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

The fine is for reimbursing employees at his firm MZM for $78,000 in contributions they made to Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) and ex-Rep. Katharine Harris (R-FL). Another MZM exec, Richard Berglund, got hit with a $42,000 fine. Both of them have already pled guilty to criminal charges for the scheme. Berglund was sentenced earlier this year to a year of probation and $5,000 in fines. Wade continues to cooperate with the government in its ongoing investigation of his bribery activities, recently testifying against fellow contractor Brent Wilkes at his trial.

Although Jim King, formerly an aide to Michael Hayden when the CIA chief ran the National Security Agency, was also under investigation by the FEC for his contributions at MZM, the FEC did not to fine him.

The FEC makes a point of saying that it uncovered no evidence that either Goode or Harris knew about the scheme. Wade wooed both of them in order to get earmarks for MZM facilities. In both cases, he was successful -- only Harris bungled the job and failed to land the $10 million she was seeking. Goode requested a total of $9 million for the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center in his Virginia district, which MZM was hired to run. Unfortunately, the center folded after Wade pled guilty, sticking the town, Martinsville, with the bill.

Surveillance

DOD 'Talon' Database Declawed

Spencer Ackerman | August 21, 2007, 2:18PM

The Quakers can sleep easier. This morning, the Pentagon announced that it's canceling a database created to monitor threats to Defense Department installations in the U.S. that ended up compiling lists of citizens engaged in peaceful, constitutionally-protected protest speech. For good measure, the Talon database was run by an intelligence office that doled out millions to crooked defense contractor MZM.

Talon, which compiled unverified threat information related to domestic Pentagon-run facilities, will go out of business on September 17. That's a long-planned obsolescence: in April, Defense intelligence chief James Clapper stated that the Pentagon needed to "lay to rest the distrust and concern about the department's commitment to civil rights." And for good reason. Internal DOD memoranda obtained and disclosed by the ACLU revealed that Talon had ensnared information on over 2,000 American citizens, some for posing little more of a threat than "the possibility" of "some type of vandalism."

Read more »

Duke Cunningham

Report: Cunningham Alone is to Blame for His Corruption

Justin Rood | October 17, 2006, 11:33AM

The top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released a summary of the panel's probe into how Duke Cunningham used the panel's staff and resources to forward his corrupt ways.

You can read the summary here.

The probe, ordered last December, found what looks like new dirt on former CIA #3 Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who's been drawn into the Cunningham investigation. But the report concluded that the panel itself was clear of wrongdoing in Cunningham's case.

Indeed, one of Duke's main bribers, Mitchell Wade, even tried to cozy up to staffers, but he kind of weirded them out, according to the five-page executive summary released by Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), the panel's ranking member.

The report identified three troubling activities, and recommended they be referred to the Justice Department or national security agencies for further investigation:

Read more »

Duke Cunningham

Duke's Letter Revealed!

Justin Rood | October 10, 2006, 2:43PM

The San Diego Union-Tribune published excerpts from a fiery letter it received from Duke Cunningham, the felonious ex-congressman the paper helped put in jail.

But, as clever Reader DH found, the paper secretly published the entire letter, hiding it in a PDF on its site.

You can read the four-page letter here. It's clearly a response to Marcus Stern, the U-T reporter who broke the Duke scandal and now appears to be working on a book about the saga. "You write you book," Cunningham wrote in a barely-legible scrawl, "and remember what forge [sic] got from [Mitchell] Wade [one of Duke's main bribers] they you printed" he continued writing, "as truth will come out and you will find out how liablist [sic] you have & will be," he finished.

Although he wrote early in the letter that he could not discuss his case, Duke dropped some tantalizing tidbits later on.

"Ask yourself why I kicked [Wade] off his own boat twice, told him I was not going to stay on his boat and put it up for sale," Duke wrote. That appears to be a reference to the Duke-Stir, a boat which Wade bought and later gave to Cunningham.

He also appears to disclose classified information. "There is a secret paper in my file that the U.S. Airforce presented to me (both former Chiefs of USAF) to increase the MZM programs and the justification for doing so," Duke wrote.

"It was funded at less than wanted & it will today save lives in the best Aviation Humit [sic] Program in existence now ever deployed with our training forces."

Here's the entire letter. Note: he doesn't say anything about hookers.

Mitchell Wade

Former NSA Chief's Aide Under Investigation

Justin Rood | September 17, 2006, 1:25PM

The second-in-command to an admitted briber of Duke Cunningham is facing a federal inquiry for possibly improper campaign contributions, according to a new report.

The potentially illegal contributions -- all made to lawmakers representing districts of strategic importance to King's company -- were first reported by TPMmuckraker.

King is now chief of Athena Innovative Solutions, renamed from MZM Inc. when Wade pleaded guilty and sold the company. For a time, King worked as a top aide to Michael V. Hayden, then chief of the National Security Agency, on contract from MZM. Hayden is now director of the CIA.

The U.S. News piece is lengthy, and adds even more color to the established portrait of Mitchell Wade as corrupt, megalomaniacal, vengeful and petty. It also has some good details on King, too. For instance, the magazine reports that one of King's favorite aphorisms is, 'There are no lies; the truth keeps changing.'

Duke Cunningham

Duke Cunningham Investigation Sprawls into 2007

Paul Kiel | August 21, 2006, 5:57PM

Today the judge presiding over felonious defense contractor Mitchell Wade's case set a March 12th, 2007 date for their next status conference. That means the leaves will have turned, snow fallen, and the first buds of spring sprung before Mitchell Wade will know his sentencing date. It could be as late as next summer.

Why the delay? It gives him plenty of time to earn his stripes as a cooperator.

Wade's known to have told prosecutors plenty about his alleged fellow briber, Brent Wilkes. He's thought to possibly have dirt on Pentagon officials, also. But remember, Wade oversaw over $150 million in contracts throughout the defense-intelligence world. Who knows what he's giving up?

TPMm reader James Roxbury sent us this video of what appears to be Wade leaving the courthouse today:

Video courtesy of James Roxbury.

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 »

Mitchell Wade

In Scandal's Aftermath, Painful Prices Still Being Paid

Justin Rood | July 30, 2006, 10:33AM

It's official: the Virginia defense facility run -- on taxpayer dollars -- by one of the central felons in the Duke Cunningham scandal is closing Monday.

The news comes just days after the Pentagon announced it would not renew the contract for the Martinsville-based Foreign Supplier Assessment Center, which was created and sustained largely through earmarks from Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA). Goode received over $90,000 in contributions from Mitchell Wade, who's spilling his guts to federal investigators in an attempt to dodge jail time.

Who's it bad news for? Just about everyone involved. Goode's getting slammed for bringing MZM to town, winning the company unusually generous financial perks and sending the bill to the city. "Rep. Goode forgot whom he should represent when he brokered a deal favorable to campaign contributors at the risk of his district," the Roanoke (Va.) Times opined Saturday.

It's bad news for MZM -- now Athena Innovative Solutions. Sources tell me this is not the only one of their contracts getting cut. The Pentagon trimmed more than 30 positions from an Athena contract to provide employees to the Counterintelligence Field Activity office (CIFA), according to two former MZM employees who are in touch with current Athena staffers.

Read more »

Mitchell Wade

In Rural VA, MZM Center To Shut Its Doors

Justin Rood | July 27, 2006, 1:57PM

It looks like one of MZM's Pentagon boondoggles will shut down soon, the Roanoke Times reports today. It's good to hear the DoD is pulling back from its MZM contracts, but it looks like bad news for the folks in the rural town that's home to the operation.

The program -- the Virginia-based Foreign Supplier Assessment Center -- was created in 2003 by an earmark tucked into a classified appropriations bill by Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), to be operated by MZM. He kept it alive with another earmark in 2005.

Before inserting the first earmark, Goode accepted many thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from MZM. Before the second earmark, he enjoyed the same largesse. In all, Goode took about $90,000 in campaign contributions from MZM president Mitchell Wade and other employees. Goode has since given the money to charity; Wade has pleaded guilty to bribing convicted congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Cunningham, of course, has gone to jail.

But here's the curious, and sad, thing: Goode didn't just fleece a few million bucks from U.S. taxpayers to give the military a facility they didn't want. He also screwed his own constituents -- the less-than-prosperous residents of Martinsville, Virginia.

Read more »

Mitchell Wade

MZM Exec Pleas Out

Justin Rood | July 21, 2006, 8:36PM

AP reports:

WASHINGTON — An ex-employee at a defense contractor pleaded guilty Friday to making illegal donations to the campaign of Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., marking the latest chapter in a congressional bribery probe.

Richard Berglund, who formerly supervised the Martinsville, Va., office of MZM Inc., faces up to a year in prison for engaging in a scheme with company owner Mitchell Wade to reimburse MZM employees for campaign donations. The scheme violates the Federal Election Campaign Act.

In February, Wade pleaded guilty to bribing former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, in exchange for help in getting $150 million in Defense Department contracts.

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.

Read more »

Mitchell Wade

Biz Week: MZM Worked Prewar Iraq Intelligence

Justin Rood | July 11, 2006, 11:45AM

Buried in this new Business Week article by Eamon Javers and Dawn Kopecki is a startling revelation: MZM Inc., the company once owned by admitted felon Mitchell Wade, worked on assessing Saddam Hussein's nuclear capabilities during the runup to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

"[B]efore the invasion of Iraq," the duo writes, "[MZM's business] included helping with [the] controversial analysis of Saddam Hussein's nuclear capabilities."

Wade, of course, has confessed to bribing former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) with over a million dollars in money, gifts and favors.

Others, including Warandpiece.com's Laura Rozen, have long suspected Wade's MZM to have played a role in throwing the calls on Saddam's nuclear programs. It's been known for some time that MZM provided contract employees to the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC), which handled much of the Pentagon's pre-war WMD analysis. But Javers and Kopecki are the first to report that those MZMers were involved in the center's (mis)interpretation of the pre-war Iraq nuke intel.

The two note that while the White House's WMD Commission directed heavy criticism at the NGIC for "misscharacterizing" Saddam's nuclear program, it didn't fault MZM directly. (Of course, as we reported earlier, MZM had at least three staffers on the commission's staff.)

While the White House's own panel didn't fault MZM, an earlier Senate study had found that an unnamed contractor was directly involved in blowing the nuke call. See Rozen's post from last December for details.

There's a kicker to all this, of course. Despite having a hand in one of the biggest intelligence failures in recent history, folks in the intel community seem to think MZM has just done great work for them. Before the company was bought last August, the new owner, Veritas, hired former CIA General Counsel Jeffrey Smith to do due diligence on MZM, and according to his interviews, MZM did top-shelf work. "Smith. . . reported back that the half-dozen intelligence agencies he approached thought highly of MZM."

It's a piece well worth reading.

Update: Rozen has more details about NGIC and WMD intelligence.

Brent Wilkes

First You Get The Congressman, Then You Get The Earmarks, Then You Get The Money

Justin Rood | July 5, 2006, 5:36PM

Vanity Fair's lengthy takeout on the Duke Cunningham scandal reminded me of why I find it so engrossing: the details.

And what colorful details the magazine serves up: There's Duke on the phone, just days before pleading guilty, desperately cajoling his antiques dealer to hide some of his furniture so the feds won't find it. And there's former top CIA official Dusty Foggo, flashing his agency credentials to the strip club bouncer, before taking a seat in front of the stage and talking about his sexual preferences all night.

And there's admitted Duke briber Mitchell Wade, strolling through his office. "Where's your Rolls-Royce?" an aide asks him Oh, Wade answers breezily, Cunningham's got it today, it's parked in the congressional parking lot.

Read more »

Hookergate

Hookergate Comes to Vanity Fair

Justin Rood | July 5, 2006, 11:29AM

Vanity Fair weighs in on the slow-emerging D.C. saga: Duke Cunningham was a bad father, Brent Wilkes got congressmen laid in Honduras, Dusty Foggo is a dirty, dirty man, and Mitchell Wade is an evil genius.

Mitchell Wade

Will Bribery Probe Nab Former Top Intel Official?

Justin Rood | July 3, 2006, 1:14PM

Is former top intelligence official James King under pressure from federal prosecutors?

If not, it looks like he should be. As we reported several weeks ago, King -- the former head of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency -- twice aided the bribery schemes of Mitchell Wade, making $12,000 in illegal campaign donations to help Wade buy favors from lawmakers.

At the time, King was a top executive at Wade's defense contracting firm, MZM. He took over the company, which is now named Athena Innovative Solutions, after Wade's felonies became public.

King could be a dangerous fellow to go down -- for many folks. He was a trusted aide to Michael V. Hayden, former NSA chief and now head of the CIA, who employed him as a contractor from MZM. While at MZM, King also played a key role in developing the Pentagon's troubled domestic spying operation, CIFA. And as a senior MZM executive, he was likely a witness to many of Wade's hijinks.

As the Washington Post reported Friday, Feds have convinced another MZM executive, Richard Berglund, to plead guilty to making the same kind of fraudulent donations. (Check out our guest-blogging TPM Reader DK's thoughts on this.)

Read more »

Jerry Lewis

Report Shows General Atomics Gave Most Trips to Lawmakers, Staff

Justin Rood | June 6, 2006, 9:45AM

The Center for Public Integrity yesterday released a huge (and hugely disturbing) report on corporate-funded travel for federal lawmakers and staff.

Who was at the top of the list of corporate junket-givers? General Atomics, a name which should be familiar to our readers. As we have reported, it's enjoyed close ties to several figures under investigation by the FBI. The company spent over $660,000 on trips for 86 Capitol Hill staffers and lawmakers from 2000 to 2005.

TPMmuckraker fans already know two of those staffers: Letitia White, a former trusted aide to House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) (now under investigation); and Nancy Lifset, a General Atomics frequent-flyer who held a day job in the offices of now-imprisoned former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA). (In addition to flying the staffers around, GA also gave generously to both lawmakers' campaigns, and helped raise money for them.)

According to CPI's data, Lifset took more trips on General Atomics' dime than any other staffer, Medill News Service reports.

In addition to dropping big bucks to fly staffers around the world, General Atomics paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a lobby shop now under federal investigation: Copeland Lowery. As we reported, the firm employs Letitia White, and it has extraordinarily close ties to her former boss Lewis. Oh - White herself is also being investigated by the FBI, the New York Times reported last weekend.

If Lewis is under investigation, and Copeland Lowery is under investigation, and Letitia White is under investigation, does it follow that General Atomics -- which pumped so much money into Congress with this trio's help, in order to pump many millions back out -- is also a target of the probe? When we called the company, an aide to its spokesperson said the company had no comment.

Duke Cunningham

Marriage Tied MZM to Pentagon Spy Chief's Office

Justin Rood | May 16, 2006, 4:07PM

Anybody remember the Foreign Supplier Assessment Center? That's the operation MZM spent so much time and money trying to win a contract to run. Mitchell Wade bundled thousands of dollars in illegal contributions to Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure MZM got the deal. (Wade is also the top briber of Duke Cunningham.)

Until recently, a fellow named Joe James was MZM's number-two in charge of the center, the Martinsville (Va.) Daily reports. He recently stepped down "voluntarily."

Now, the paper tells us that James' wife -- FEC records identify her as May James -- worked at the Pentagon office which oversaw MZM's contract. (MZM has since been renamed Athena Innovative Solutions.)

Last year, May James joined the staff of Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone, which has authority over the FSAC, her husband's outfit, the paper reports.

If you recall, MZM/Athena has a pattern of hiring relatives of Defense officials, apparently as a strategy to win -- or keep -- contracts. The company signed on the son of National Ground Intelligence Center manager Robert Fromm; months later they picked up an NGIC contract. (They eventually hired Fromm himself.)

MZM also hired William Rich III, the son of NGIC Chief William Rich, two months after receiving their first NGIC contract. As well, MZM employed the wife of Rich's longtime chief of staff, Robert Canar, as a secretary.

Mitchell Wade

Mitchell Wade: Cooperator Extraordinaire

Paul Kiel | May 15, 2006, 2:01PM

There's a race on in the District of Columbia's U.S. Attorney's Office - who's the more dangerous cooperator: Jack Abramoff or Mitchell Wade?

Abramoff, you've heard plenty about. But it's time to start giving Mitch Wade his due. He brought down Duke Cunningham, supplying prosecutors with most of the information in Duke's plea agreement. And we have Wade to thank for hookergate, since he was the one who told investigators that Brent Wilkes was supplying Duke and possibly others with prostitutes. It's likely that Wade, continuing to dish on his old pal Brent Wilkes, was also behind the recent widening of the Cunningham investigation to other members of the Appropriations Committee.

Well, it looks like there's a lot more where that came from. In a recent filing, prosecutors and Wade's attorney have asked to postpone the preparation for Wade's sentencing - he pled guilty back in February - because his cooperation is ongoing. In fact, it's likely to "continue for quite some time," according to prosecutors. As a result, they don't even want to set a sentencing date when they meet with the judge as scheduled on August 21. If they get their wish, it's unlikely that Wade will be sentenced until next year. And that gives him plenty of time to do all he can to lighten his sentence.

I think the smart money is on Mitchell Wade.

Mitchell Wade

Expert: Hayden Aide Broke Law, Likely Won't Suffer Consequences

Justin Rood | May 10, 2006, 8:22AM

I wrote yesterday about how former MZM executive James C. King, a onetime aide to former NSA chief Michael Hayden, participated in two campaign "straw donor" scams on behalf of his company, according to government records. Basically, he wrote checks to candidates at the direction of MZM head Mitchell Wade, and Wade immediately reimbursed him in cash.

I wondered, if King was considered a lawbreaker, why had he apparently escaped punishment? I called oft-quoted political finance expert Brett Kappel, or Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, and put it to him.

Read more »

Mitchell Wade

EXCLUSIVE: Hayden Aide Assisted in 2nd MZM Donor Scam

Justin Rood | May 9, 2006, 12:18PM

I wrote yesterday about how former NSA Director Michael Hayden's aide, a top MZM executive, participated in an illegal campaign donation scam run by the head of his company, Mitchell Wade. (Wade, of course, has confessed to bribing Duke Cunningham, and is cooperating with prosecutors.)

I was wrong, as my colleague Paul gently noted to me. The executive -- James C. King, on contract to the NSA from MZM -- appears to have participated in two illegal campaign donation scams.

In addition to faking $8,000 in personal contributions to Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) on his company's behalf, government records indicate King faked several thousand dollars in donations to Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), also.

Read more »

Katherine Harris

Hayden Aide Assisted in Illegal MZM Donation Scam

Justin Rood | May 8, 2006, 1:51PM

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.

Read more »

Mitchell Wade

EXCLUSIVE: CIA Nominee Hayden Linked to MZM

Justin Rood | May 8, 2006, 11:33AM

While director of the National Security Agency, Gen. Michael V. Hayden contracted the services of a top executive at the company at the center of the Cunningham bribery scandal, according to two former employees of the company.

Hayden, President Bush's pick to replace Porter Goss as head of the CIA, contracted with MZM Inc. for the services of Lt. Gen. James C. King, then a senior vice president of the company, the sources say. MZM was owned and operated by Mitchell Wade, who has admitted to bribing former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham with $1.4 million in money and gifts. Wade has also reportedly told investigators he helped arrange for prostitutes to entertain the disgraced lawmaker, and he continues to cooperate with a federal inquiry into the matter.

King has not been implicated in the growing scandal around Wade's illegal activities. However, federal records show he contributed to some of Wade's favored lawmakers, including $6000 to Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) and $4000 to Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL).

Read more »

Katherine Harris

For Harris Campaign, Worst Hits Come From Own Party

Justin Rood | May 4, 2006, 8:15AM

Poor Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL). She's got enemies all around her -- her former staffers, former advisers to her Senate campaign, even her own Republican party.

Now, they seem to be conspiring to bring her down with leaks. In a way, it's almost noble that the party will smear its friends as easily as it would smear an opponent. In Harris' case they're even gentlemanly about it -- her former campaign strategist Ed Rollins has now gone on the record twice to share derogatory information about her.

This time, he backs up two former staffers who tell the Orlando Sentinel she made an earmark for Mitchell Wade's MZM, Inc. "a priority," overruling their objections to it. Before Wade found himself singing like a canary to federal investigators, he was busy helping to procure hookers, spreading cash around Capitol Hill, and taking Harris to a $2,800 dinner, all apparent efforts to win fat government contracts. Rollins told Harris he thought her dealings looked bad -- and now he's telling you:

"I said, 'Duke Cunningham got cash from Wade, and in your case he's promising to raise money,'" said Rollins. . . "I told her, 'This is how it's going to look.'"

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Hookergate

Hookergate: What About the Limo Service?

Justin Rood | May 2, 2006, 3:45PM

Ah, the Shirlington Limousine Service.

I dismissed the angle at first, despite the curious details surfacing about the car company which ferried the hookers to Wilkes' parties, and also brought Cunningham to the hookers, according to reports. Also noted: the company owner has a 62-page rap sheet; he had a contract with the Department of Homeland Security, and one with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Also, he had tax problems.

That was all interesting, I thought. But it diverts us from the crux of the story: Who got the hookers? Who had sex with hookers? Who paid for the hookers?

I'm now reconsidering my conviction. Why? Shirlington Limo appears to connect a growing list of high-powered Washington elites to the world of crime. On the one hand, the company's contracts with sensitive agencies, and comments by company owner Chris Baker, imply it has connections with power brokers. On the other, Baker's rap sheet and tax complications point to his more-than-passing familiarity with the underworld.

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Hookergate

WPost on Hookergate: "Smells Like There's A Whole Lot More"

Justin Rood | May 2, 2006, 3:02PM

WPost's Tom Edsall, in an online chat: "This is the kind of story that smells like there is a whole lot more there, and if there is, it will be one great story."

Hookergate

Hookergate: Everybody Wants a Piece of the Action

Justin Rood | April 29, 2006, 8:14AM

It's me-too time for Hookergate. The AP filed its story on the scandal last night, with no new details. The WPost, no doubt burned up that they missed the biggest Watergate-related scandal since, well, Watergate, cast a frantic net for a second-day story (even though we're on Day 3) -- and brought up mostly inconsequential details about the car company, Shirlington Limousine, which Wilkes allegedly used to ferry around Cunningham and hookers. I hope and expect we will hear more from the Post on this mess.

Editor and Publisher helpfully reports that in the wake of the two articles that broke this open -- the WSJ piece from Thursday and the San Diego Union Tribune piece yesterday -- other papers are rushing to catch up.

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Hookergate

Contractors' Hooker Ring Lasted 15 Years

Justin Rood | April 28, 2006, 7:54AM

More details this morning about the Brent Wilkes-Mitch Wade hooker ring, courtesy of the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Several of Wilkes' former employees and business associates say he used the hospitality suites over the past 15 years to curry favor with lawmakers as well as officials with the CIA, where both Wilkes and Wade sought contracts.

Wilkes hosted parties for lawmakers and periodic poker games that included CIA officials as well as members of the House Appropriations and Intelligence committees. Cunningham, who sat on both committees, was a frequent guest, according to some of the participants in the poker games.

And I'll be darned: Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, now the executive director of the CIA, liked to come to those "parties." The same ones now-CIA Director Porter Goss may have attended:

People who were present at the games said one of the regular players was Kyle Dustin "Dusty" Foggo, who has been Wilkes' best friend since the two attended junior high school in Chula Vista in the late 1960s. In October, Foggo was named the CIA's executive director -- the agency's third-highest position.

In fact, Foggo didn't just attend, he occasionally hosted the parties at his Virginia home, the paper reports.

The SDUT has a couple other "names" of participants: Former Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-TX) says he was there, although he never stuck around for the prostitutes, he says. Others tell the paper a CIA agent was present known as "Nine Fingers" because, yes, he only had nine fingers.

Who else? More lawmakers? As Young Sherlock Holmes might say: The game is afoot.

Porter Goss

CIA's Goss Drawn Into Hooker Probe?

Justin Rood | April 27, 2006, 7:23PM

Ken Silverstein reports at Harper's blog on the spreading Cunningham-Wade-Wilkes prostitute scandal. He says more lawmakers, past and present, are being investigated. Sounds like he thinks House Intel Chair-turned-CIA Director Porter Goss is one of them:

I've learned from a highly-connected source that those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence comittees -- including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post. [emphasis added]

Yowzah.

Actually, make that a double-yowzah: Remember that Goss is the one who plucked one of Wilkes' old San Diego friends, the unusual and colorful Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, out of CIA middle-management obscurity to be his #3 at the agency. At the time of Foggo's appointment, no one could figure out where he came from, or how Goss knew him.

But if Goss was at the "parties," I wonder, was Foggo there too? Did they see each other? Is this where Goss had an opportunity to gauge Foggo's abilities, and determine he was qualified for the CIA executive director post?

Duke Cunningham

MZM Had Employees at Secret U.S. Data Hub

Justin Rood | April 27, 2006, 4:03PM

The company belonging to Mitchell Wade -- the guy who helped Duke Cunningham get laid -- had a contract to provide staff to the National Counterterrorism Center, and may still, according to former employees. NCTC is the hub of the intelligence community's counterterrorism efforts, and keeps a master list of over 200,000 names associated with terrorists or terrorist organizations.

NCTC is a super-secret place, for good reason: its computers have access to more classified data than those of any other government installation in the world. It was created in large part to "fuse" the reams of intelligence generated and held separately by the many different U.S. spy agencies, and it does a respectable job at it, from what I hear. It looks kind of like a bigger, fancier version of CTU from the TV show "24" -- although, I'm not kidding you, it has a Starbucks.

The employees once placed in NCTC by Wade's company, MZM Inc., may still be there under the corporate banner of Athena Innovative Solutions -- that's what MZM was renamed after Wade left. Athena has not returned my call, and NCTC declined to comment.

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Hookergate

Duke's Hooker Sex: How Long Has This Been Going On?

Justin Rood | April 27, 2006, 3:29PM

How long did Duke Cunningham -- and other lawmakers, possibly -- have sex with hookers, courtesy of Brent Wilkes and Mitchell Wade?

The Wall Street Journal piece this morning doesn't say. From talking with sources, I gather that most of the indiscretions in the piece probably happened over the past few years, ending only when the San Diego Union Tribune ran its first piece on Cunningham last June.

But many people looking into the case believe it started long before that -- as far back as 1994, some say. After all, Wilkes was working D.C. from the early 1990s, with Wade by his side, winning friends and influencing legislation.

I'm hearing that Wilkes and Wade regularly hosted Congressmen and others to drink, play cards, smoke cigars -- and, yes, be entertained by prostitutes. (Remember that "hospitality suite, with several bedrooms?")

And I'll stick by my statement from earlier today: We're going to hear more about this. We'd better -- we haven't had a sex scandal in this town since forever, it seems like.

Hookergate

Get Ready for More Cunningham Sex

Justin Rood | April 27, 2006, 10:40AM

Expect more juicy details (eeew) on the Cunningham sex scandal shortly.

I'm told that while the Wall Street Journal was first to press with details on the prostitute angle of the Cunningham-Wade-Wilkes scandal, at least two other publications have been delving into the matter for months. What's more, they've got details that are a good deal more salacious than what the WSJ reported. I'd look for them to rush what they've got into print as soon as it gets past the lawyers.

We may soon have more details of our own, so stay tuned. . .

Hookergate

Cunningham Scandal: Enter the Hookers

Justin Rood | April 27, 2006, 7:35AM

The Wall Street Journal reports today that admitted briber Mitchell Wade of MZM, Inc. helped procure prostitutes for former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) -- and possibly for others:

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 [two] hotel suites, originally at the Watergate Hotel, and subsequently at the Westin Grand.

. . . [I]nvestigators are focusing on whether any other members of Congress, or their staffs, may also have used the same free services, though it isn't clear whether investigators have turned up anything to implicate others.

Wade says his mentor and fellow Cunningham briber Brent Wilkes had set up the ring -- rented the hotel rooms, found the limousine company and the hookers. According to the WSJ, Wade says he usually passed off Cunningham's requests to Wilkes to set up.

More on this later. . .

Mitchell Wade

MZM Newsletter: Those Were The Days

Justin Rood | April 26, 2006, 12:40PM

It was winter 2003: the lightning raid on MZM headquarters by federal agents was a year and a half away. Then-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) was out of jail, still had his boat and antiques, and ate fancy meals with his favorite briber, MZM chief Mitchell Wade, at the Capitol Grille. In short, it was a happier time.

We got our hands on what appears to be an internal company newsletter from that time. Ah, 12 pages of golden memories:

- Mitch and his wife dancing at the MZM holiday party;
- Senior company exec Jim King accepting National Security Medal from then-CIA Director George "Slam Dunk" Tenet;
- Wade, chumming with Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) and former VA Gov. Mark Warner (D); and
- Timeless advice on Mad Cow Disease, Hep A and SARS.

Duke Cunningham

The Real Mitchell Wade

Justin Rood | April 18, 2006, 2:30PM

In an effort to better understand the man who gave former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham over $1.4 million in bribes, I've spent a good amount of time finding and talking to former employees of Mitchell Wade at his company, MZM Inc. They don't paint a flattering picture of the man.

Former employees rarely do, of course. But even accounting for the typical bad feelings harbored by disgruntled former employees, he is clearly not a nice man. None were willing to be named. Why?

"Vindictive," "petty," "calculating" and "paranoid" are words that come up again and again. "You were either on his team, or he wanted you destroyed," said one person. "Everything Mitch did, he did for a reason," said another. "And he's still doing it." He liked to open all the mail delivered to MZM, just to see what people were getting, one employee recalled.

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Duke Cunningham

MZM on Both Sides of Pentagon "Secret Police" Merger

Justin Rood | April 13, 2006, 2:25PM

Newsweek's Mark Hosenball has an interesting and important new article noting that the Pentagon is considering the merger of two security offices, raising fears that they are creating a "military secret police" with too much information and too much power.

But there's more to the story.

Hosenball reports that one of the outfits is CIFA -- Counterintelligence Field Activity -- which has gotten into hot water for spying on Americans engaged in political protests, among other things. MZM held numerous contracts with that operation, thanks to the earmarking efforts of Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who took $1.4 million in bribes from MZM's founder, admitted felon Mitchell Wade.

The other outfit is the Defense Security Service, which handles security clearances and sensitive personal information for 4.5 million defense and intelligence workers.

According to Newsweek, DSS has turned down several inappropriate requests from CIFA for sensitive information on individuals.

What Newsweek doesn't mention is that MZM had employees working at DSS as well as CIFA. In fact, the company continues to provide employees to DSS under its new name, Athena Innovative Solutions, according to news accounts and former employees.

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Duke Cunningham

MZM Worked on Iraq War

Justin Rood | April 10, 2006, 11:18AM

"I know we've made tactical errors, thousands of them," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said recently of the U.S. execution of the war in Iraq.

Wouldn't you know, MZM, Inc. -- the company run by admitted felon, briber and ripoff artist Mitchell Wade -- was involved in making tactical warfighting decisions and handling intelligence in the thick of the U.S. invasion and occupation?

"MZM has a team of intelligence professionals placed with the Joint Intelligence Center (JIC) in U.S. Central Command," states an internal MZM document dated late 2003 and obtained by TPMmuckraker.com. "This team. . . develops targets for the Commander of U.S. Central Command, which is combating enemy forces in Iraq."

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Mitchell Wade

MZM in Homeland Security Dept?

Justin Rood | March 30, 2006, 7:48AM

It looks like MZM was in the Department of Homeland Security, and may still be there. Here's why:

As we reported last week, Mitchell Wade's MZM held a contract with the Pentagon's homeland defense office to provide "watchstanders."

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that the office of Paul McHale, Asst. Sec. of Defense for Homeland Defense, has no "operations centers" -- the 24/7 intelligence monitoring centers where watchstanders monitor intelligence feeds and sound alarms when big stuff happens. (McHale's office held the MZM contract we reported.)

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