Report says congressman got help in fixing contracts

WASHINGTON – Former congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif., channeled more than $70 million in Pentagon and intelligence agency contracts to two companies that paid him bribes, and required the “cooperation or at least the noninterference of many people” to pull that off, a congressional investigation has found.

Since Cunningham had no authority to award contracts, he needed the acquiescence of some members of Congress, congressional staff members and Defense Department officials, according to the executive summary of an investigation by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence into his activities as a panel member.

“This was a lot of people to persuade, cajole, deceive, pressure, intimidate, bribe or otherwise influence to do what they wanted,” the executive summary says.

Although the congressional inquiry was directed at Cunningham’s activities and found no evidence of corruption among panel staff members, the five-page summary written by the panel’s special counsel, Michael Stern, indicates how the continuing federal criminal investigation of corruption and bribery has continued to spread since it began almost two years ago.

The summary discloses for the first time that the government is investigating the CIA’s award of “several large contracts” that involved Kyle Dustin “Dusty” Foggo when he was No. 3 at the agency under then-Director Porter Goss. Foggo was a longtime friend of contractor Brent Wilkes, who federal investigators say was one of Cunningham’s co-conspirators along with contractor Mitchell Wade.

Foggo resigned in May after being linked to the Cunningham inquiry. Days later, federal agents searched his agency office and his rented home in suburban Northern Virginia.