Curt Weldon will be investigated on corruption by the FBI.
WASHINGTON - The
FBI is investigating whether Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., used his influence to secure lobbying and consulting contracts for his daughter, two people familiar with the inquiry said Saturday. The inquiry focuses on lobbying contracts worth $1 million that Weldon's daughter, Karen Weldon, obtained from foreign clients and whether they were assisted by the congressman, they said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of the criminal investigation.
This provides a great opportunity for his opponent, Admiral Joe Sestak. Looks like the "liberal media" spoke too soon in calling the culture of corruption a dead issue in this campaign. Weldon, best known for his inexplicable defense of Bush's assertion that there was WMD in Iraq despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, once again faces another hurdle in being able to keep this suburban Pennsylvania seat in Republican hands.
Caso said Weldon and his staff were "100 percent caught off guard" when they learned of the investigation, first reported late Friday by McClatchy Newspapers. This account cited two individuals with specific knowledge of the existence of the investigation; they declined to be identified because of the confidentiality of criminal investigations.
Caso, whose boss is in a tight race for re-election on Nov. 7 against Democrat Joe Sestak, tried to cast doubt on reports of the investigation. "Unidentified sources mean nothing," Caso said. "There's no substance in that story. It's a flimsy story."
More evidence that the Republicans in Congress are crooks seems almost redundant in the face of Ney's guilty plea and Foleygate, but this may be the hole in the dam that opens the floodgates of a Pennsylvania and national Democratic wave.