Archive for the 'Randy “Duke” Cunningham' Category

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Cunningham briber Mitch Wade pleads for mercy

November 27, 2008, by Seth Hettena. 3 Comments

Mitchell Wade, the man who bribed Randy “Duke” Cunningham and then did much to speed the congressman’s spectacular fall, is asking a judge to sentence him to a year of home detention for all the help he provided the government. Prosecutors don’t dispute that Wade was helpful, but they believe that four years in prison is more appropriate for $1.8 million in bribes.

Would Cunningham ultimately have been convicted without Wade? Probably, but Wade made it happen much, much faster.  He was debriefed 23 times by government investigators and supplied them a searchable electronic database of 150,000 documents, including the infamous “bribe menu.” And Wade’s cooperation didn’t stop with Cunningham. He provided damaging evidence against several others, including his testimony at the bribery trial of his former boss, Brent Wilkes, who’s now serving time in prison.

A 42-page sentencing memo filed by Wade’s attorneys says he aided the government in its investigation “of at least five other members of Congress” who were under investigation for “corruption similar to that of Mr. Cunningham.” These no doubt include Virgil Goode and Katherine “Pink Sugar” Harris. 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.

Prosecutors drop tantalizing hints about an even bigger, ongoing investigation. Wade was debriefed in 2006 and provided “moderately useful” background information in another “large and important corruption investigation” that also has not yet resulted in any charges.

Wade ran a mid-sized defense consulting firm, MZM Inc., and was very well-connected in military intelligence circles. After college in 1985, he started out as program manager for a highly-secret Navy program, supporting Central American counterinsurgencies and counterintelligence work in Europe and Asia. He joined the Naval Reserves as an intelligence officer and was assigned to the Middle East/Africa desk at the DIA’s National Military Intelligence Center.

During the 1990 Gulf War and again in 1992, Wade’s supervisor was John McConnell, the current Director of National Intelligence. McConnell recommended Wade for accelerated promotion. “LTJG Wade is an outstanding officer, who will excel in the most demanding positions,” McConnell wrote. (Fitness reports 1 and 2) In 1992, McConnell was named NSA director. Wade started MZM Inc., his solo consulting firm, the following year, providing what his attorneys called “technical and programmatic assistance” to McConnell’s NSA.

So how did such a smart guy go so wrong?  In a letter to the judge who will be sentencing him next month, Wade wrote that he “lost sight of the concepts of integrity and fair play” and started cutting corners to get ahead. “I realize that it was my pride, ego, and desire for power that led me down this terrible path,” he wrote.

Wade has lost his job, his career, his reputation and his marriage, and his $2 million legal team at WilmerHale has done a tremendous job of making him seem like a man who is trying to pick up the pieces of his life. It’s quite a contrast to Cunningham’s sentencing memo, which was a portrait of a war hero who had deteriorated into a man who couldn’t even buy himself a friend.

Wade’s sentencing is set for Dec. 15. Will it even make the news? I doubt it. Look at what just happened to our financial system. These guys are amateurs.

Duke Cunningham’s Pardon File

October 24, 2008, by Seth Hettena. 28 Comments

I received a response today from the Justice Department to my request under the Freedom of Information Act for former Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s petition for clemency from President Bush. I’ve written about this here.

The Office of the Pardon Attorney withheld Cunningham’s clemency application as well as correspondence from his attorney, James B. Craven III. They did, however, provide some letters written on Cunningham’s behalf, which I have posted here. Some of these letters were written before Cunningham asked President Bush to commute his sentence in December 2007.

Cunningham, a Republican who represented the San Diego-area for 15 years, is the most corrupt congressman in history. He is serving a 100-month sentence for taking millions of dollars in bribes from two defense contractors. Cunningham was also the first flying ace of the Vietnam War. As the letters show, he is still a hero to some.

I’d like to hear your thoughts about this. Please leave a comment below.

Former CIA Executive Director pleads guilty (Updated)

September 29, 2008, by Seth Hettena. 0 Comments

CIA Executive Director Kyle “Dusty” Foggo pleaded guilty today to a single count of fraud. As the former No. 3 at the spy agency, he is one of the highest ranking CIA figures charged with a crime, but the sensitivity of his position is sparing him major time in prison. Simply put, Foggo played chicken with the government, and won.

The Justice Department tries to put a brave face on this news in its press release with the true but highly misleading fact that Foggo faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. Under his plea agreement, Foggo will serve no more than three years in prison, and there’s a good chance he will serve even less.

Foggo is quite a character. (Background here). He’s the last person charged in the Randy “Duke” Cunningham scandal to plead guilty, but his was the case one that threatened to transform what was essentially an embarrassing case of congressional bribery involving yachts, antiques and a mansion into “a referendum on the global war on terror.”

That’s the prosecution’s spin, at any rate. A few weeks ago, prosecutors warned that Foggo was threatening to expose details of highly-classified programs and protected “sources and methods.” This is a legal tactic known as “graymail” which is basically a game of chicken involving information that the government doesn’t want to risk disclosing. The defense’s take on this is classified, along with much of the case.

Prosecutors said those secrets were irrelevant to the charges that Foggo was using his influence at the CIA — his executive director “grease,” as he put it in an e-mail — to helping both his mistress and his best friend, a defense contractor named Brent Wilkes, who is serving 12 years in prison.

What were those secrets? No one really knows, which is how the CIA likes it.

There are few clues in court papers, but they are tantalizing ones. Among other things, Foggo was trying to help Wilkes land a multi-million dollar contract providing air support services for the CIA. The government refused to declassify the highly-secret information Foggo passed along to his poker buddy.

CIA air support. Sources and methods. A referendum on the war on terror.  It doesn’t strain credulity to wonder whether the secrets involved the CIA’s rendition program, which involves snatching suspected terrorists and whisking them to secret prisons and has proven to be a major black eye with some of our allies. But those who know aren’t talking. Not to me, at any rate.

Foggo’s plea agreement carries conditions I haven’t seen for anyone else in this case. The government had Foggo sign away his rights to information that was obtained during the government’s investigation of him. Foggo also waived his rights to profit from publicizing the circumstances of his crime.

The Justice Department’s reluctance to proceed is ironic given the other bit of news today involving the former U.S. Attorney in San Diego, Carol Lam. There have been incessant rumors in the liberal blogosphere that Lam was forced to resign because she poked her fingers into the Bush administration’s beehive by prosecuting Foggo. A report today by the Justice Department’s Inspector General Glenn Fine says that ain’t so, but bloggers aren’t letting facts get in the way.

There’s an interesting footnote in Fine’s IG report. Far from trying to hinder Lam’s investigation of Foggo, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty’s office tried to help her prosecutors “to obtain classified documents from the White House or the CIA that were relevant to an investigation.”

In the summer of 2006, as Foggo was being indicted, Lam’s office reached out to McNulty’s staff to obtain classified  information from the CIA on several matters, and “the White House Counsel’s Office was involved in those discussions.” Sensitive stuff indeed.

Who could have imagined that when the FBI drilled the locks and stepped into Cunningham’s mansion, the investigative trail would lead all the way to the White House and the executive offices of the CIA?

P.S. The Washington Post says Foggo is the “highest-ranking member of a federal intelligence or law enforcement agency to be convicted of a crime.” I guess CIA Director Richard Helms‘ 1977 conviction for lying to Congress doesn’t count.

McCain in San Diego: “Washington changed us.”

August 28, 2008, by Seth Hettena. 0 Comments

John McCain stopped in San Diego tonight for a fundraiser and reminded us of our major contribution to Washington politics in the past 20 years, the most corrupt congressman ever.

From the Union-Tribune:

“We came to Washington and gained a majority to change Washington and Washington changed us,” said the Arizona senator, who will officially claim the Republican presidential nomination next week. “We let spending get completely out of control.”

Without mentioning Cunningham by name, McCain alluded to the former Rancho Santa Fe Republican congressman who was driven from office in 2006 by a massive bribery scandal.

“I don’t use the word corruption lightly,” he said. “We have former members of Congress residing in prison, and it’s because of this practice of earmarks. And it’s going to stop.”

ABC News reports that McCain is preparing to ramp up attacks on Obama contributor Tony Rezko. Mentioning Cunningham will probably go over like warm champagne with McCain’s moneybags at The Grand Del Mar, but at least somebody’s talking about corruption in Washington. About damn time!

Create Your Own Caption

August 13, 2008, by Seth Hettena. 0 Comments

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It’s the End of CIFA As We Know It…

July 30, 2008, by Seth Hettena. 0 Comments

The Pengtagon has made it official: The Counterintelligence Field Activity is no more.

It’s being rechristened the Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center and put under the authority of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Effective August 3, all CIFA personnel and its contractors will start reporting to DIA. CIFA was run by a civilian, but the DCHIC will be run by a  two-star general who reports to Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, the head of the DIA.

In the business world, this would be called a merger and there would be all sorts of talk of synergies. The DIA has its own human intelligence or HUMINT service, which brought us the infamous Iraqi informant known as Curveball who sold a bunch of bs in the hopes of getting a Green card.

But the truth is that CIFA’s days were numbered ever since its director and his deputy resigned in the wake of the Randy “Duke” Cunningham scandal. Duke helped create CIFA, and then allowed it to become a playground for his Rolls-Royce supplier and personal antiques shopper, Mitchell Wade.

But that’s not to say that CIFA is a bad idea. DoD counterintelligence is an important job. Just look at all the spy cases that came out of the Defense Department like the Walker spy ring, Jonathan Pollard, Ronald Pelton, and so on. Somebody needs to guard the henhouse.

It appears that the new agency has authority that CIFA never did. It is being granted “administrative and management oversight of national security investigations (e.g., espionage) and related activities conducted by DoD CI organizations.” Contrast that with CIFA, which was a “single coordination focal point” for these matters. Whatever that means.

Brent Wilkes’ Secret Admirer

July 28, 2008, by Seth Hettena. 0 Comments

Just got back from court. For the Cunningham junkies: The judge shot down Brent Wilkes’ request to have his secret admirer bail him out of prison.

For the rest of you: Wilkes, a former defense contractor, was sentenced in February to 12 years for bribing former Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham with hookers, cash, and meals at DC’s Capital Grille. But Wilkes has been eating daily specials at Terminal Island FCI in San Pedro for weeks because he can’t come up with $1.4 million in collateral to secure release.

Some unnamed person was willing to bail Wilkes out, but only if he or she can shield their identity from the public. The judge, Larry Burns, said no. Either you step up and say “I’m with Brent the consequences be damned” or Wilkes stays in the clink. Larry stressed that he’s not trying to make Brent’s life hell, even though he did call him a lying sack of shit who’s an “economic danger” to the community. Whatever that means.

The reporters there asked me if I knew who this person is. I have no idea.

Wilkes’ attorney did offer a clue. He talked about how a person at a “publicly-traded company” might have obligations that go beyond him or herself. Such a person has “fiduciary” duties. Here’s the legal definition of a fiduciary duty:

A fiduciary duty is an obligation to act in the best interest of another party. For instance, a corporation’s board member has a fiduciary duty to the shareholders, a trustee has a fiduciary duty to the trust’s beneficiaries, and an attorney has a fiduciary duty to a client….

A person acting in a fiduciary capacity is held to a high standard of honesty and full disclosure in regard to the client and must not obtain a personal benefit at the expense of the client.

Any ideas out there?

I Have a Castle

July 23, 2008, by Seth Hettena. Closed

Rep. Mark Souder, a Republican from Indiana who looks like Radar O’Reilly from M*A*S*H*, has just introduced a bill with the noble goal of preventing another Duke Cunningham.

Souder wants members of Congress, federal candidates, and top admininstration officials to disclose the mortgages they hold on their castles, mansions, compounds, and beach homes. “Transparency,” Souder says, “is fundamental to public trust.”

He took the first step by disclosing that he has eight years left on his mortgage, owes $75,000 and is paying 6.875 percent interest.

As insanely greedy as Duke was, even he would have thought twice before listing that he owed $0 on a $2.55 million mansion he had bought the previous year. But what prompted this wasn’t Duke, but the low-cost loans two senators got from the “Friends of Angelo” program. Souder and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, one of the wealthiest representatives, are calling for a House investigation.

It’s a good first step, but the bill doesn’t go far enough. A survey by Politco.com found more than one of four senators have no mortgages.

How about requiring members of Congress to disclose the values of their homes?

Who’s buying?

July 22, 2008, by Seth Hettena. Closed

The story of Duke’s clemency application seems to have  touched a nerve. I was on KUSI-TV this morning to discuss the Cunningham pardons. People seem to be outraged at the possibility that Duke might wriggle off the hook.

Well, I don’t think there’s much chance of that. George W. Bush has granted clemency a total of SIX times since he took office. Yes, one of those cases was Scooter Libby. But the rest were nobodies, small-time drug dealers you’ve never heard of. By contrast, Clinton granted clemency 61 times — half of which came on his last day in office.

But the bigger problem — and the more meaningful one for Duke — is the huge backlog of 2,300 cases that is overwhelming the system. The Justice Department’s Office of Pardon Attorney, which has to review and make a recommendation on each request, is drowning in paper. There are thousands of people equally, if not more deserving of clemency than Cunningham.

So, who’s representing Duke? It’s not Cunningham’s criminal attorneys at the firm of O’Melveny & Myers, as I’ve previously noted. But who is? And why?

I’m assuming here that Duke didn’t file his own application. It’s possible, but unlikely. As Duke’s former commanding officer pointed out, the man can’t write a simple declarative sentence.

Hiring an attorney at $500/hour is tough for an ex-congressman who had to forfeit all his ill-gotten gains and owes a $1.8 million fine. Then again, he is still collecting his congressional pension.

Issa, Bilbray on Duke’s Clemency

July 22, 2008, by Seth Hettena. Closed

From the North County Times:

“I don’t think I can overstate the damage that Mr. Cunningham did to the institution of government,” U.S. Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, said Monday. “The damage done by Randy Cunningham was deep and broad.”

And…

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, said: “I know of no reason at this time that would make a commutation of the sentence appropriate.”

Nice to see that corruption isn’t a partisan issue.

But wait! Someone’s missing here. Who could it be?

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Border Fence. Hunter is the dean of San Diego’s congressional delegation, who is retiring from office and bequeathing his seat to his son, also named Duncan Hunter. The elder Hunter recruited Cunningham for Congress, taught him how to sing and dance, got the evangelicals to back Duke.

Duncan’s already forgiven Duke, and thinks all Good Christians should too.

“I think that as Christians, if we can forgive our enemies, we can certainly forgive our friends. So I didn’t run away from Cunningham,” he told the LA Times.

Of course, Duncan doesn’t have the grace in his heart to forgive criminals. Except for his friend Duke.