CUNNINGHAM SCANDAL: Wilkes gets use of attorney for the indigent at trial

[Octafish]

Source: San Diego Union-Tribune

CUNNINGHAM SCANDAL

Wilkes gets use of attorney for the indigent at trial

By Jose Luis Jiménez
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

August 21, 2007

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO – Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes, charged with fraudulently obtaining millions of dollars in government contracts, will have an attorney paid for by taxpayers.

U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns made the decision yesterday after reviewing documents detailing Wilkes’ finances that were submitted under seal by his attorney, Mark Geragos.

A lawyer from Federal Defenders of San Diego Inc., a nonprofit that represents indigent people accused of federal crimes, will represent Wilkes in the criminal case with co-defendant Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, the former third-highest-ranking official at the CIA.

The childhood friends are charged with numerous counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering stemming from the bribery scandal of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Rancho Santa Fe. Cunningham pleaded guilty in November 2005 to conspiracy and tax evasion after admitting he accepted $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors. He was sentenced to more than eight years in prison.

SNIP...

New York developer Thomas Kontogiannis pleaded guilty in February to one count of money laundering in connection with the Cunningham case and is cooperating with the government, according to court records. His guilty plea was kept secret until June, when Burns unsealed it, but key details remain sealed at the prosecution’s request.

CONTINUED...

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20070821-9999-1m21wilkes.html

Gee. I wonder where all the money went?

The Cayman Islands and Switzerland are just two good places to hide money the government can't get back.


Read more: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20070821-9999-1m21wilkes.html

[tanyev]

1. Oh, those Republicans hate government lawyers for the indigent.

Until they need one, that is.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. What, they don't have wealthy lawyer friends who would be

willing to defend this man pro bono, for his/their own greedy good?


Tansy Gold, neither a puke nor a lawyer.

[Octafish]

3. Bush may soon get one appointed to him, as well.

Here's the story, courtesy of "Down With Tyranny":

WANTED: THE PHOTO OF DUKE CUNNINGHAM, TOMMY KONTOGIANNIS AND GEORGE W. BUSH, 3 CRIMINALS WORKING ON A PRESIDENTIAL PARDON SCHEME

I don't know if the San Diego Union-Tribune has turned into one of the best investigative newspapers in America or if they just happen to have the most crooked officials in their area to write about (between Duncan Hunter, Jerry Lewis, Brian Bilbray, Howard Kaloogian, Dana Rohrbacher and, of course, former area resident Randy "Duke" Cunningham). But whatever the reason, anyone who wants to follow the intricacies and machinations of the Republican Culture of Corruption in Washington DC is better off reading the San Diego Union-Tribune than even the New York Times or Washington Post!

Today Joey Cantupe has penned a much-needed follow-up on a side road of the Cunningham scandals few reporters have ventured down: sleazy New York Republican mystery man and big time briber Thomas "Gus" Kontogiannis. I started looking into Kontogiannis last summer when it started to look like Cunningham was getting caught for all the millions and millions of bribes he was taking as part of the criminal conspiracy that was Jerry Lewis' Defense Appropriations Committee.

You'll find my Kontogiannis research-- with some huffing and puffing-- on the link I've attached to his name above. The Union-Tribune has some of that background too. They make a good point that I missed, namely that Cunningham was like a kept-woman for Kontogiannis-- as they call it "a congressman on retainer." He was hoping that-- and bankrolling-- Cunningham's future, not as a prison inmate but as the next Donald Rumsfeld. An FBI agent working on the case put it like this: "Let's look at it this way. Duke Cunningham had power and no money, and Tommy Kontogiannis had money <$70 million range, not Cheney or Bush kind of wealth> but no power." (And on this not too complicated concept, Tom DeLay and Rick Santorum were able to subvert the American democratic system into the Republican Culture of Corruption that has come to rule in DC-- and that has already sent Cunningham to prison and will soon send dozens of Republican elected officials to the same fate.) Oh, and Kontogiannis is also a two-time convicted criminal, both times for bribery, and must have a pardon in order to avail himself of lucrative business opportunities with Uncle Sam.

In 2000, Kontogiannis was arrested for receiving more than $2 million in kickbacks in a bid-rigging scheme involving junk computer foisted on the Queens School District. The district Superintendent, Celestine Miller, a Republican scam artist, with absurd pretensions to get elected to Congress helped Kontogiannis defraud the district. He financed her doomed campaign, in part by giving her a brown paper bag filled with $50,000 in cash. That Cunningham sold him a presidential pardon for $400,000 is the most covered-up part of the Randy "Duke" Cunningham scandals. That's because there's only one person who can grant presidential pardons and it isn't Randy "Duke" Cunningham (nor is it Vice President Cheney, nor Irving Libby, nor Michael Brown, nor Gale Norton, nor Tom DeLay nor any of the myriad corrupt scoundrels Bush has surrounded himself with. Only Bush can grant a presidential pardon. What was his cut of the $400,000 bribe from Kontogiannis?

CONTINUED...

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2006/04/wanted-photo-of-duke-cunningham-tommy.html

No wonder Carol Lam got fired.

[bobthedrummer]

21. Carol Lam got fired. DoJ's Thelma Colbert and Shannon Ross died.

McNulty, Schlozman, Kim are the latest DoJ resignations-kick

[WhiteTara]

4. I hope he gets a sleeper

Remember the man who was convicted of murder in Texas because he had a court appointed lawyer who slept through the trial and the the appeals court told him he was provided with a lawyer, it didn't have to be a good one (or apparently an awake one either)

[gratuitous]

5. Or one without any experience

Someone more comfortable arguing dog bite cases than multi-million dollar corruption cases. That would indeed be a sweet little morsel of justice in an otherwise unrelenting flood of greed and arrogance.

[Octafish]

6. There should be a rush on narcoleptic attorneys.

Here are a few who deserve such representation:

Report: Dysfunctional committee let Cunningham have his way

Monday, July 16, 2007
(07-16) 15:52 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

The House Intelligence Committee is refusing to make public an internal report about how imprisoned former GOP Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham of San Diego was able to steer millions in contracts to corrupt defense contractors.

A version of the report prepared to be unclassified provides new details about how Cunningham got his way, but does not address whether other committee members were aware of Cunningham’s abuses or culpable, according to Monday’s Los Angeles Times, which obtained the 23-page document.

The outside investigator who wrote the report, Michael Stern, told the Times that looking at lawmakers’ roles was not in his assignment. Former GOP Rep. Porter Goss of Florida, who went on to become CIA director from 2004 to 2006, was the Intelligence Committee chairman for much of the time Cunningham’s abuses were happening.

“There was an agreement as to what they wanted to look at,” Stern said.

SNIP...

Also discussed in the report is Brant Bassett, a former CIA case officer with ties to Foggo and Goss. Bassett has not been charged with any crime.

Among details in the report:

_In a staff e-mail describing a Pentagon program Cunningham was supporting, senior committee aide Michele Lang commented: “HOOAH! Another $5 million of taxpayer money wasted.”

The money was for a Pentagon counterintelligence program known as Project Fortress being handled by contractor Mitchell Wade, who pleaded guilty last year to bribing Cunningham. The money for Wade grew to $25 million.

_Even Bassett grew uncomfortable with Cunningham’s demands and told staffers that he had “no confidence that Mitch Wade or anybody he was connected with really knew anything about counterintelligence.”

_At one point, after Cunningham apparently alienated Wilkes by working more closely with Wade, Cunningham sought to smooth the breach by sending a bottle of wine to Wilkes’ table when they were dining at the same restaurant. The report says Wilkes “told the waiter to take the wine back to Cunningham or to simply pour it out,” according to Bassett, who witnessed the scene.

_Early in Goss’ tenure he “would make a point of saying that ‘We don’t do things for constituencies behind the closed doors’“ of the Intelligence Committee. But the report concludes that this policy “tended to atrophy over time.”


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/07/16/state/n155227D58.DTL&type=politics

Of course, that would mean We the People get to the bottom of this, seeing how busy the Just-Us Department's been lately.

[bobthedrummer]

22. Mitchell Wade links from The Sunlight Foundation

It's not just anyone that can host a $2,800 dinner with Katherine Harris...
http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/186/0?page=1

[cascadiance]

7. I heard he only takes out $20 at a time from ATM's...

... from someone that has friends and family that have known him and worked with him. Kind of interesting coincidence. I wonder if he'll go back to that habit now if he's as bad off as they claim he is.

I heard that a while back someone saw him rubbing shoulders with Ollie North.

I guess though he won't be hanging out at the Mexicocina here in Poway much any more if he really is that hard up for cash.

[bobthedrummer]

8. Was Wilkes's Archer Logistics privately held? Were all the "sex industry workers" overcharging

this poor man? Did he have to pay street prices for his dope? The human trafficking market is in recession? That poor man needs an appointed attorney now after all he's been through.

Brent Wilkes: Wilkes Corporation page from Source Watch
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Wilkes_Corporation

:puke::argh:

[cascadiance]

10. Wasn't this the sort of bankruptcy that our supposed bankruptcy reform bill was supposed to target?

Wasn't it supposed to be about making those folks that "wasted their money in Vegas" not able to get the government to bail them out?

Well, it looks like average folks that are getting hit hard with job losses, huge health care bills, divorce settlements, etc. are the ones getting nailed, and real "louts" like Wilkes are still living off of the "government dole". That's this justice department's "justice" for ya! :eyes:

[bobthedrummer]

12. In reality it's part of black budget operations-of which we, the people

aren't supposed to discuss-just like citizens of ancient Rome or the good Germans of the Third Reich or the citizens of the former USSR.

You can take that to the nearest privatized central bank, calipendence, despite legislation and laws-it's up to the Decider and his criminally extreme loyalists and their "assets".

[cascadiance]

14. Normally, perhaps the CIA would fund folks like Wilkes...

... but perhaps with Kontogiannis in another "tight lipped" case that noone wants to talk about (Dems or Republicans or the 9th Circuit Appeals Court) that's closely related to Wilkes' case, they are trying to keep a distance, since Kontogiannis might have helped launder some of the "CIA dollars" that this German paper alleges are being produced and blamed on North Korea...

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/46471/

That's probably your black budget ops, that are trying to avoid getting "caught" with this Wilkes court case.

[fooj]

13. My sentiments exactly.

:puke:

[Demeter]

9. Dear Wilkes: You Get What You Paid For!

So, by paying nothing for your legal representation, that means....you get nothing! Brilliant!

[Canuckistanian]

11. Boy, all his "friends" sure abandoned him, didn't they?

Where's the Cunningham Legal Defence Fund?

I guess those funds are only for friends of Cheney.

[cascadiance]

15. There's something very smelly about MZM and Wilkes' crowd as well...

That I think many Republicans are aware that they don't want to be caught showing ANY favoritism at all to them or they are ultimately going to get nailed BIG time when the truth comes out. That's probably also why the Rethuglican Party pretty much stood back why Katherine Harris's campaign imploded in Florida too, since she along with Cunningham was one of the top three recipients of campaign donations from MZM. They probably didn't want to have anything to do with her if she gets caught in this mess too.

[Canuckistanian]

16. Ah, thanks!

A light bulb just clicked on for me about Katherine Harris!

I always wondered why she became radioactive to the big GOP members. After all, she did them a HUGE favor in FLA.

But yes, I remember now. Wasn't there a dinner she went to with Wilkes?

[Zorro]

19. I suspect the real scandal

is that not only was Cunningham getting bribed to throw business to these crooks, but that part of the deal was to provide significant donations to the RNC.

I wouldn't be surprised that if the feds continue digging for the truth, they'll find out that there was a conspiracy to loot the US Treasury to fund the Republican party.

That may very well be a major reason why the Bush administration is fighting the subpoenas tooth and nail. They want to protect the secret that they were funnellling federal money to their party.

Oh, and I think another reason why they are fighting the subpoenas is that a detailed investigation would discover that the administration was intercepting communications between Democratic leaders.

This administration has shown over and over again that they will abuse the power of their office with no regard for their sworn constitutional obligations.

[cascadiance]

20. Or worse yet, either black ops or the RNC was getting funded by CIA counterfeitted money!

Since Dusty Foggo is a part of this and tied to the CIA, and rumors are that Kontogiannis has played a part in laundering money, it wouldn't be surprising that these guys have their "secret" funding coming from here:

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/46471/

... and then they can conveniently blame it on the North Koreans if the money gets "found" somehow.

[bobthedrummer]

17. .

[bobthedrummer]

18. One more kick.

[NYC]

23. Isn't it likely he hid the money under someone else's name?

?