Do you remember Katherine Harris? She was Secretary of State in Florida during the 2000 election and Co-chair of George Bush's Florida Campaign at the very same time!(1) She has "served" in the House of Representatives for Florida's 17'th District. Harris decided to run for the Florida Senate, then back off to re-run for her seat in the House, and has returned to the race for the Senate. She seemed to have a slow start in gathering support from key Republicans. (2)
Recently one of her top aides left her offices to go to work for the defense contractor who pleaded guilty in the Cunningham debacle (3) suggesting Harris had a much tighter relationship to Mr. Wade (4) then she is admitting.
Contractor Pleads Guilty to Corruption
Probe Extends Beyond Bribes to Congressman
By Charles R. Babcock
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 25, 2006; Page A01
Washington defense contractor Mitchell J. Wade admitted yesterday in federal court that he attempted to illegally influence Defense Department contracting officials and tried to curry favor with two House members, in addition to lavishing more than $1 million in cash, cars, a boat, antiques and other bribes on convicted Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.).
The new admissions, including details that identify Reps. Virgil H. Goode Jr. (R-Va.) and Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) as recipients of illegal campaign contributions, are contained in Wade's agreement to plead guilty to four criminal charges stemming from his role in the Cunningham probe. The congressman resigned after pleading guilty in November to taking $2.4 million in bribes from Wade and others in return for steering federal funds and contracts their way.
The Cunningham Scandal
The court filings indicated a new direction for the corruption inquiry, as Wade pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge that he also provided benefits to an unnamed Defense official and other Defense employees to get them to help Wade's company, MZM Inc.
Kenneth L. Wainstein, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters after the plea that the growth of MZM appeared to be "an American success story." Instead, it was built "by spreading corruption within the congressional appropriations process, the defense contracting apparatus and the financing of congressional campaigns," he said.
Wade went beyond bribing Cunningham, Wainstein added, to include the Defense Department officials who would be making the procurement decisions that affected District-based MZM. This included hiring the son of one official who oversaw the company's work and then hiring the official, too, according to the plea agreement. In return, Defense officials gave Wade's company inside budget information and favorable performance reviews, court documents said.
The description of the official-turned-MZM-employee in the court papers matches Robert Fromm, who worked at the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center in Charlottesville as program manager for a computer project known as FIRES and subsequently went to work for MZM. MZM hired the official's son, the court papers said, and months later, MZM was hired to work on the computer project. Fromm could not be reached for comment. Wainstein and Joseph Persichini Jr., acting head of the FBI's Washington field office, said public corruption in the defense contracting industry is a top priority for their staffs. Persichini noted that $97 billion in federal contracts goes to companies in the Washington region and that he hoped the Cunningham-Wade case would "instill moral outrage" in the public, who would report attempted extortion or bribe attempts to authorities.
Wade also pleaded guilty to election law fraud for making nearly $80,000 in illegal campaign contributions to "Representatives A and B," who are identifiable as Goode and Harris. He did so, the filings said, in hopes that they, like Cunningham, would "earmark" federal money for MZM. Wade gave the funds for the donations to 19 of his employees and their spouses, who then wrote $2,000 checks to the members, according to the documents.
Goode and Harris have been identified before as recipients of large donations from Wade and other MZM employees, and prosecutors said yesterday that there was no sign either knew the contributions were illegal. Prosecutors said the investigation is continuing but wouldn't say whether Goode and Harris or the MZM employees who made the illegal donations for Wade are subjects of the investigation.
The congressman identifiable as Goode received $46,000 in such disguised contributions in 2003 and 2005, the court papers said. That was part of about $90,000 Wade and his workers contributed to Goode. Wade then asked the member to request appropriations for an MZM facility in his district, the Wade papers said, and a Goode staff member confirmed to Wade that the bill would include $9 million in funding.
Goode's office said it would issue a statement, but The Post had not received one by late yesterday.
The member identifiable as Harris received $32,000 in illegal donations from Wade and his employees in 2004. Documents filed with Wade's plea say that he took Harris to dinner early last year, where they discussed the possibility of another fundraiser and the possibility of getting funding for a Navy counterintelligence program in the member's district. One source familiar with the inquiry said Harris made such a request for funding, but it was not granted.
Harris spokeswoman Kara Borie said yesterday that the congresswoman acknowledges being "Representative B" in the court papers. Harris said in a statement that Wade had "discussed opening a defense plant in Sarasota that would create numerous high-skilled, high-wage jobs in my district." She said Harris had donated all her MZM donations to charity. "This case demonstrates the perils of a process in which candidates are sometimes asked to determine the intent of a contributor."
The statement didn't address whether Wade asked Harris to seek earmarked funding for the Navy program.
Wade, 46, told U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina that he had "great remorse" in acknowledging his actions but took full responsibility for them. He said, "I feel deep sorrow for the harm I have caused my family, friends and former colleagues."
Urbina set an Aug. 21 hearing date to check on how the contractor was cooperating with authorities before he is sentenced. The court papers said Wade offered to cooperate shortly after the investigation started last June. That was when the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Wade had purchased Cunningham's home in San Diego for $1.675 million in late 2003 and then resold it for $700,000 less several months later.
Wade stepped down from MZM last June. It was sold to an investment firm last fall and renamed Athena Innovative Solutions Inc.
Staff writer Walter Pincus and staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.
[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/...[/url]
(1)[url]http://mikehammer.tripod.com/...[/url]
(2)
Harris Requested Funds At Behest of Contractor
By Charles R. Babcock
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 4, 2006; Page A06
Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) has acknowledged that she requested last year that $10 million in federal funds be set aside for a Navy intelligence program in her district at the request of Washington contractor Mitchell J. Wade, who pleaded guilty last week to bribing another House member.
Harris, who gained notoriety as secretary of state in Florida during the contested Bush-Gore presidential race in 2000, is running for the Senate this year. News media in her home state have been focusing on her dealings with Wade since prosecutors disclosed last week that she was the unwitting recipient of $32,000 in illegal campaign donations from Wade in 2004.
In a statement Thursday, Harris said: "I never requested funding for this project in exchange for any contributions, but rather to bring more high-skill, high-wage jobs to the region."
In court filings as part of Wade's plea for bribing convicted former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.), prosecutors said Wade had had dinner with Harris early last year and discussed another fundraising event and possible funding for an unnamed Navy counterintelligence program. The court filing said the project was not funded but did not address whether Harris sought funding. She did not respond to questions about such a request last week.
On Thursday, she released copies of letters she sent to appropriations subcommittee chairmen in 2004 and 2005 requesting funding for more than 80 specific projects. She said she was doing so to bring transparency to the appropriations process, and that she supports identifying the individuals and organizations making the requests.
Last year, she first requested five defense projects totaling $15.8 million. A month later, she wrote another letter to Reps. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), the senior members of the panel, adding the Wade project. It was for Naval Criminal Investigative Service airborne capability, which she placed third on her list of funding priorities. She said it was "to support counterintelligence and combating terrorism missions."
Harris said she has not been contacted by any officials regarding the incident.
[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/...[/url]
(3)excerpt:
WASHINGTON -- An aide to Rep. Katherine Harris quit last year to work for a defense contractor who at the time was pressing the Longboat Key Republican to secure federal funding for a counterintelligence project.
Mitchell Wade, principal owner of that defense contractor, MZM Inc., pleaded guilty last Friday to bribing a California congressman and to charges he gave illegal campaign contributions to Harris and another lawmaker from Virginia.
The move by Mona Tate Yost, Harris' former schedule coordinator, last April to MZM suggests the contractor was more tightly tied to the congresswoman's office than previously known. Wade had asked Harris over dinner last year to seek funding for a project in her district that would benefit MZM.
[url]http://theledger.com/...[/url]
(4)More on Harris's problems, from the Saint Petersburg Times:
Excerpt:
The year before, Wade and his employees had given her $50,000 in campaign contributions.
Harris, who is running for U.S. Senate, released a flood of documents Thursday evening as she tried to combat questions about her actions days after federal prosecutors publicly linked her to Wade, who is at the center of a bribery case.
The Longboat Key Republican consulted an attorney and campaign staffers before making the decision to release a statement and all 58 pages of her funding requests for last year.
"I requested a $10-million appropriation for the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Services project because I thought it would bring new jobs to Sarasota," Harris wrote. "I never requested funding for this project in exchange for any contributions, but rather to bring more high-skill, high-wage jobs to the region."
Prosecutors have said Harris did not appear to be aware that the contributions from Wade were illegal. She said her office has not been contacted by investigators. Despite Harris' new round of trouble, there were signs this week that the Republican Party is finally starting to get behind her campaign, which has been marred for months by weak fundraising and revolving staffers.
Harris' latest problems began Friday, when Wade pleaded guilty to paying more than $1-million in bribes to a former California congressman. He also admitted he illegally contributed thousands of dollars to Harris.
Court documents say Wade took Harris, described as Representative B, to dinner early last year to discuss a possible Harris fundraiser and MZM's hope for a facility in Sarasota.
Wade later prepared a proposal for the program and submitted it to Harris' staff.
On March 18, Harris sent her original request for $15.8-million for five defense projects to Rep. C.W. Bill Young, the Indian Shores Republican who heads the defense appropriations subcommittee.
Later, after the deadline to submit projects had passed, she sent a second brief letter on April 26 asking for an undisclosed amount of money for the "US Naval Criminal Investigative Service Airbourne Capability to support counter intelligence and combatting terrorism missions."
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