Tag Archives: Brent Wilkes

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Brent Wilkes indictment imminent – CA Congressional dominoes to fall?

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(h/t to Howie Klein at Down With Tyranny!, who has a great “Brent Wilkes tag cloud” you should all have a look at if you want to understand his importance)

We know that US Attorney Carol Lam has been forced out of her post for her insistence to prosecute lawbreakers of a particular political stripe.  One thing you may not know is that her dismissal will not take effect until February 15.  Well, it appears that Lam has planned one hell of a last act:

…the Wall Street Journal says that federal prosecutors are under orders to deliver a grand jury indictment against Wilkes by Feb. 15.

A note of caution: a Wilkes indictment has been rumored for months. But this has a ring of truth to it. Why? Because according to WSJ the order comes directly from just-ousted U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, who’s been overseeing the case — and who gave the order to take Wilkes down before she leaves on — you guessed it — February 15.

Brent Wilkes is the central figure in at least three pending investigations among California’s Republican delegation in Congress, and could easily be the impetus for a fourth.  Wilkes is named in the Duke Cunningham indictment as “Coconspirator #1”.  He provided actual cash, half a million dollars’ worth, for Cunningham to help pay off a mortgage, in exchange for an ungodly amount of Pentagon contracts for his defense contracting company, ACDS.  This is the content of the investigation currently being conducted in San Diego, and this is what would be the substance of the indictment.

However, Wilkes’ tentacles reach far beyond just former Republican Congressmen who are currently in jail. 

Rep. Jerry Lewis (I’m following the mantra of Googlebombing), the former head of the House Appropriations Committee, has a close relationship with a lobbyist named Bill Lowery, having authorized ” hundreds of millions of dollars in federal projects for clients” of his.  One of the people Lowery was in the employ of was Brent Wilkes.  Lewis and Lowery have exchanged staff members on occasion; it can be said that their offices are not materially different in their goals.

Rep. John Doolittle admitted to the Washington Post that he…

helped steer defense funding, totaling $37 million, to a California company, whose officials and lobbyists helped raise at least $85,000 for Doolittle and his leadership political action committee from 2002 to 2005.

That California company was owned by Brent Wilkes.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, longshot candidate for President and former head of the House Armed Services Committee, is also tied up with Wilkes, having received hundreds of thousands in campaign funds from him and his companies in exchange for useless boondoggles of government contracts:

Cunningham and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, worked closely with two local companies – ADCS Inc. of Poway and Audre Inc. of Rancho Bernardo – to make the Pentagon pay for converting printed documents to computer files. They and a few other lawmakers got Congress to allocate $190 million for “automated data conversion” projects from 1993 to 2001.

Did the Pentagon want this “help”? No. As a 1994 General Accounting Office report noted, it already had the tools for such work.

But Cunningham, Hunter and their House allies didn’t care. Audre and ADCS were generous with contributions – and ADCS executive Brent Wilkes allegedly was bribing Cunningham…This led to such absurdities as a $9.7 million contract for ADCS to digitize historical documents from the Panama Canal Zone that the Pentagon considered insignificant. This isn’t governance. This is looting.

Wilkes was also a high school buddy of Dusty Foggo, the ex-#3 at the CIA who resigned last year amid both corruption allegations (he was the lead procurement official) and rumors of hooker parties set up by Wilkes where he would entertain lawmakers, staff, and CIA officials with poker and drinks and… hookers and stuff.

Trapping Wilkes in the vice could be the spark to send all of these California legislators tumbling down.  Carol Lam won’t be on the case should the indictment come down, and it’ll be interesting to see if the replacement decides to interfere with an ongoing investigation.  But clearly she wants to make Brent Wilkes sing before she is forced out of her post.  And the ripple effect could be tremendous.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blog Roundup, California, Environment, Prisons

California Blog Roundup for August 7, 2006

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Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: Phil Angelides, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jerry McNerney, Charlie Brown, John Doolittle, Brent Wilkes, Republican corruption, Proposition 89, minimum wage, prisons, environment, redistricting reform.

Governor’s Race

Jerry McNerney / Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

    Randy Bayne attended the opening of Jerry McNerney’s Stockton office and reports back.

Charlie Brown / 15% Doolittle / CA-04

Other Republican Paragons (Brent Wilkes Edition)

  • California Republican taught Brent Wilkes how to bribe. Awwww… isn’t that sweet?

  • Ah, the top tier of Wilkes “transactional lobbying” recipients (purty euphemism for “bribery”, ain’t it — lots of California Republicans. Makes one proud.

  • Down With Tyranny: You simply can’t walk away from the [article] without wondering why Randy “Duke” Cunningham is the only Republican in prison for the widespread corruption that virtually defines the GOP political culture of the last half dozen years in Washington, from lowlife slimeball congressmen to a lowlife slimeball president and vice president (yes, Wilkes gave BushCheney hundreds of thousands of dollars in quasi-legal bribes too).

  • Apparently, corruption is what you get when you put Republicans in positions of power. Of course, since they don’t believe in government, they probably don’t think they did anything wrong.

Propositions

Prisons

  • Politics in the Zeros: Take control of the prisons away from the Schwarzeneggers and prison guards, and force reform.

  • Don Perata: what we’re doing with the prisons isn’t working. Time to try some actual rehabilitation.

  • Schwarzenegger’s last-minute election year stunt, calling a special session to deal with the prison crisis he’s known about for years, is pretty much guaranteed to fail. No matter what the Bush Republicans say, you don’t just whip up a solution to problems of this size, just in time for an election.

The Rest

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Brent Wilkes Speaks

The New York Times was able to do something that federal investigators have been having trouble doing – get key Republican Congress of Corruption money man, Brent Wilkes to speak on the record. In an exclusive interview published today Wilkes tells the story of his life in the world of “transactional lobbying.”

Wilkes instructor in the ways of the Republican congress was former San Diego congressman Bill Lowery. According to Wilkes, Lowery taught him how to “grease palms” in congress. His first class with Lowery was in 1992, when Wilkes was just starting and Lowery was still a member of congress. Wilkes had a business pitch and ten envelopes each containing a check for $10,000.

Mr. Wilkes had set up separate meetings with the lawmakers hoping to win a government contract, and he planned to punctuate each pitch with a campaign donation. But his hometown congressman, Representative Bill Lowery of San Diego, a Republican, told him that presenting the checks during the sessions was not how things were done, Mr. Wilkes recalled.

Instead, Mr. Wilkes said, Mr. Lowery taught him the right way to do it: hand over the envelope in the hallway outside the suite, at least a few feet away.

Wilkes learned quickly that prominent Republican congressman were easily swayed by envelopes filled with money.

Mr. Wilkes described the appropriations process as little more than a shakedown. He said that lobbyists close to the committee members unceasingly demanded campaign contributions from entrepreneurs like him. Mr. Wilkes and his associates have given more than $706,000 to federal campaigns since 1997, according to public records, and he said he had brought in more as a fund-raiser. Since 2000, Mr. Wilkes’s principal company has received about $100 million in federal contracts.

Wilkes most publicized congressional connection was convicted Republican felon Randy “Duke” Cunningham, to whom Wilkes provided over $500,000 in bribes (not to be confused with the $706,000 noted above), but the member of congress with the most to lose in the on-going Wilkes’ investigation is Jerry Lewis (CA-41). Lewis’ relationship with Wilkes was facilitated by Bill Lowery, whose lobbying firm is virtually based on its relationship to the powerful Lewis and the earmarks he controls. 

  Here’s how Wilkes describes that relationship:

“Lowery would always say, ‘It is a two-part deal,’ ” he recalled. “ ‘Jerry will make the request. Jerry will carry the vote. Jerry will have plenty of time for this. If you don’t want to make the contributions, chair the fund-raising event, you will get left behind.’ ”

Lewis continues to try and distance himself from Wilkes, but Wilkes has the goods on both Lewis and Lowery.

In recent months, Mr. Lewis has said that he barely knew Mr. Wilkes and that he did not remember seeing him in nearly a decade. But Mr. Wilkes says their relationship was closer than that.

Ever since they went on a scuba-diving trip together in 1993, he said, Mr. Lewis had referred to him as his “diving buddy.” They occasionally dined together or met at political functions, Mr. Wilkes said. At a Las Vegas fund-raiser in April 2005, Mr. Wilkes said, Mr. Lewis greeted him as “Brento” and hugged him as Mr. Wilkes surprised the lawmaker with $25,000 in campaign contributions.

[…]

As he grew more confident, Mr. Wilkes said, he often considered dropping Mr. Lowery, whose fees had escalated to $25,000 a month by 2005, from $2,500. But Mr. Wilkes said Mr. Lowery threatened to block future projects if their relationship ended. Mr. Wilkes said Mr. Lowery had warned several times that doing so could prompt Mr. Lewis to cut off earmarks, saying, “You don’t want me telling those guys on the committee that you are moving on without me.” That meant, Mr. Wilkes said, “I’d be out of business.”

Brent Wilkes bought lots of members of congress. Jerry Lewis is the one with the highest profile, but Wilkes is also closely associated with John Doolittle (CA-4) and Duncan Hunter (CA-52). If Wilkes decides to break his silence with the feds, Duke Cunningham is going to have some company in jail.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blog Roundup, California, Environment, Prisons

California Blog Roundup for July 11, 2006

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: Phil Angelides, Arnold Schwarzenegger, CA-04, CA-11, Richard Pombo, John Doolittle, Jerry Lewis, Brent Wilkes, corruption, immigration, environment, prisons, environment.

Governor’s Race

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

15% Doolittle / CA-04

Jerry Lewis / CA-41

Other Republican Paragons

Environment

Prisons

Immigration

Miscellany

San Diego

Wilkes in the news

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Brent Wilkes, the Duke Cunningham bribing, prostitute poker providing defense contractor, is all over the news lately.  He appears in the latest issue of Newsweek.  Good job Brent!

There is nothing unusual or illegal about a defense contractor with an open checkbook for campaign fund-raisers and seats to fill on a corporate jet. But federal prosecutors want to find out more about how Wilkes tapped into what may be one of Washington’s sweetest post-9/11 honey pots—secret defense and intelligence contracts that are often awarded without competitive bids or oversight but with plenty of congressional meddling. Wilkes appears to be at the center of a Washington scandal that has the potential to shake Capitol Hill and the Pentagon.
***
According to published reports and congressional and law-enforcement sources who did not want to be identified discussing a sensitive investigation, the Feds are also reviewing Wilkes’s ties to other powerful House leaders. Former GOP majority leader Tom DeLay, Armed Services Committee chairman Duncan Hunter and Appropriations Committee chairman Jerry Lewis all reportedly had dealings with Wilkes. None has been accused of any wrongdoing; a spokesman for Lewis said the congressman had not seen Wilkes for 10 years. Hunter’s spokesman said his boss urged the Pentagon to ignore congressional pressure on contracting, and DeLay’s lawyer had no immediate comment. (Newsweek 6/5/06)

And nobody wants to play with poor Brent Wilkes anymore.  Nobody goes to his poker prostitute parties, nobody gets him $10million contracts.  And nobody even wants to admit knowing the poor guy:

His life is getting lonelier. He has been dropped by charities; his office building is for sale; his federal contracts are drying up. Once a ubiquitous figure in San Diego politics, Wilkes might as well have ceased to exist. Former San Diego congressman Brian Bilbray, a Republican who was in the House until 2001 before retiring to become a lobbyist, is running for Duke Cunningham’s vacated seat. Bilbray told NEWSWEEK, “I may have met Brent once or twice, but I really do not remember.” Bilbray did discover that Wilkes had donated $7,000 to his campaigns, but the candidate has given the money to charity. “I wouldn’t know Wilkes if I saw him in the street,” said Bilbray.

Even his fellow lobbyists, like Brian Bilbray, are throwing the guy under the bus.  What indignation the man has suffered.  All this for trying to pursue the American dream.  And what’s the problem anyway?  Everybody loves poker these days.  And prostitution is the oldest profession.  It’s got a long, cherished history.  Poor, poor Brent.  I think it’s jealousy.

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Doolittle’s Home Business

Northern California’s powerful Republican congressman, John Doolittle (CA-4), won’t find anything positive to say about an article out today in the San Diego Union Tribune. In a front page story, reporter Dean Calbreath, connects the dots between Doolittle and Cunningham co-conspirator, Brent Wilkes.

Many of those connections go directly through Doolittle’s wife, Julie, who ran a one-person fundraising business out of the couple’s Virginia home. Her primary client, John Doolittle.

Acting as her husband’s campaign consultant, Julie Doolittle charged his campaign and his Superior California Political Action Committee a 15 percent commission on any contribution she helped bring in.

As a member of two key committees in the House – Appropriations and Administration – Doolittle is well-positioned to help contractors gain funding through congressional earmarks. Between 2002 and 2005, Wilkes and his associates and lobbyists gave Doolittle’s campaign and political action committee $118,000, more than they gave any other politician, including Cunningham.

More on how to start a money-making home business follows.

Julie Doolittle’s business, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, operates out of the couple’s home in an affluent Washington, D.C. suburb. Although she claims to have other clients, the only identified patrons of her services represent a who’s who of disgraced lobbyist elite.

…Greenberg Traurig, the lobbying firm that employed Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and tax-evasion charges. The second was Abramoff’s Washington restaurant, Signatures. The third was the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, founded by Ed Buckham, one-time chief of staff for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. 

The Korean group, which lobbied for improved U.S.-Korean relations, was based at the headquarters of Buckham’s Alexander Strategy Group, which dissolved in January because of negative publicity over its ties to Abramoff. Wilkes also was an Alexander Strategy client.


Julie Doolittle’s home business earned her over $180,000 in commissions from campaign contributions to John Doolittle’s Superior California Political Action Committee.  Money that, based on community property laws, also belongs to her husband, Representative John Doolittle. The Doolittle’s jumped on this particular gravy train virtually the day John Doolittle became a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

Julie Doolittle launched Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions in March 2001, two months after her husband was named to the Appropriations Committee.

The business, which is based at the couple’s home in Oakton, Va., has no phone listing or Web site. The firm has no known employees other than Julie Doolittle. The congressman’s office would not specify what previous fundraising experience she had.

Within months of its opening, the firm was receiving commissions from her husband’s campaign. Within the next two years, it was planning fundraising events for Abramoff and handling bookkeeping for the Korean lobbying group in Buckham’s office suite, where DeLay’s wife, Christine, also was working.

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Brent Wilkes connection with the Doolittle’s lines up closely with Doolittle ascension to power.

Julie Doolittle was working at Buckham’s offices in 2002 when Buckham introduced Brent Wilkes to her husband. Federal contracts for his flagship company, ADCS Inc., were drying up, partly because the Pentagon had been telling Congress it had little need for the company’s document-scanning technology. So Wilkes was trying to get funding for two new businesses.

[…]

In October 2002, as Doolittle pushed for funding for PerfectWave, Wilkes and his associates donated $7,000 to his campaign and $10,000 to his political action committee. Julie Doolittle made $1,500 from Wilkes’ contributions.

[…]

In November 2003, Wilkes held a fundraising dinner for Doolittle at ADCS’ headquarters in Poway that was catered by Wilkes’ wife, Regina, who ran a catering company based in the corporate cafeteria. The 15 guests on Wilkes’ invitation were all ADCS employees or partners on projects Wilkes was trying to get funded, together with their spouses.

Over the next four months, members of the group gave a total of $50,000 to Doolittle’s political action committee.

Guess who got a 15% commission on every penny of that $50,000? Yes, Julie Doolittle’s company, run out of the congressman’s home in Virginia. A $7,500 payday for going to a political dinner that was organized and financed by a contractor trying to influence Representative Doolittle to earmark funds for his companies. According to numerous sources, this November dinner was organized and catered by Brent Wilkes wife, Regina.

In May 2004, vehement anti-gambling crusader, John Doolittle held a major fundraiser for his political action committee at a Las Vegas casino-resort. Brent Wilkes was there and, as always, Julie Doolittle’s home business was raking in a piece of the action for the family bank account.

John Doolittle’s last known meeting with Wilkes came in May 2004, when Wilkes flew to Las Vegas to attend a fundraiser for the congressman’s political action committee. Wilkes used his corporate jet to bring the keynote speaker, Tom DeLay, and one of DeLay’s staffers.

Federal election records show that Julie Doolittle took a 15 percent commission for contributions made during the event at The Venetian hotel-casino, including an estimated $1,650 from the $11,000 donated by Wilkes, ADCS and Karl Gallant, a Buckham employee who was then lobbying on Wilkes’ behalf.

To say that Doolittle is running a perfect scam would be an understatement. It’s not the big league bribery and extortion that put Wilkes’ other partner, Randy “Duke” Cunningham in jail, but it is a scam that nets Doolittle a nice income directly from his political action committee, with no strings attached and no reporting requirements.

Considering Doolittle’s position of power on a key congressional committee, how much effort is required to keep funds flowing?

“After several years on the Appropriations Committee, John Doolittle has reached the point in his career where fundraising should be on autopilot,” said Massie Ritsch, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that monitors campaign fundraising. “He shouldn’t have to rely on his wife or anyone else to keep his coffers full.”

Perhaps it is true that John Doolittle doesn’t have to rely on his wife to keep money flowing into his political action committee, but it is nice to have her depositing PAC money directly into the family bank account.

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Doolittle’s Rat PAC

Representative John Doolittle (CA-4) is, by all reports, a devote Mormon. He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t smoke. And, he is vehemently anti-gambling. Except, apparently, when being pro-gambling helps out his friend Jack Abramoff’s clients.

Why would a straight-laced guy like Doolittle hold a Republican Party fund raiser in Las Vegas? Why do people rob banks? That’s where the money is says Doolittle in the Sacramento Bee.

According to Doolittle, Las Vegas “is a place that our target audience, namely these $5,000 donors, would like to go.”

More from the Strip follows.

The Bee focuses on a major Doolittle fund raising event held at the exclusive and expensive Venetian Resort Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The 2005 event was designed to haul in big bucks for Doolittle and the Republicans.

Behind the need for fundraisers such as Doolittle’s is the increased demand for money to fuel political campaigns. As a member of the House leadership, Doolittle is required to raise $250,000 for House Republicans each year.

When asked about that, Doolittle said he had just been told he needed to raise an additional $100,000 for an upcoming House Republican dinner.

So, in essence Doolittle was sent out by his party’s leadership to raise money so that the crew in Washington could have a nice meal.
We don’t know what kind of deals had to be struck to insure that congressional Republicans were able to eat filet mignon instead of hamburger, but we do know that Doolittle’s event featured a stellar cast of co-conspirators and potential government witnesses.

…the biggest draw of all for the Doolittle event – then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

DeLay, now facing a trial in Texas for campaign finance irregularities, knew them all. Under pressure from House Republicans worried about the growing Abramoff scandal, DeLay permanently surrendered his commanding leadership job in December.

Former DeLay staffers who started the now-infamous Alexander Strategy Group lobbying firm were there with DeLay.

The firm, which closed its doors last month as a result of the scandals, employed DeLay’s wife. Among its clients were those connected both to Abramoff and to defense contractors whose cash payments to Cunningham brought down the Vietnam War hero.

DeLay flew into Las Vegas on the private corporate jet of Group W, one of the companies owned by Brent Wilkes. Doolittle’s PAC paid $358.50 for DeLay’s privileged seat.

Doolittle pays the standard commercial airfare and DeLay rides out to Vegas on Brent Wilkes’ private jet. Just business as usual for Doolittle. But, not only did Wilkes provide DeLay with a $20,000 private jet ride, Wilkes also had some sugar for his pal Doolittle.

Wilkes also attended Doolittle’s event, giving Doolittle $10,000 in personal and PAC checks, almost certainly unaware that his businesses would be raided about two months later as federal agents built their bribery case against Cunningham.

Also attending was Ed Buckham, DeLay’s former chief of staff and a founder of the Alexander Strategy Group. Buckham was Wilkes’ lobbyist.

Doolittle said it may have been Buckham who first introduced him to Wilkes, setting up a relationship that the congressman says he still cannot believe was tainted by corruption.

Karl Gallant, another Alexander Strategy Group lobbyist, was there. He also ran DeLay’s political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority.

Not since the days of Sinatra has Vegas seen a “rat pack” to equal this crowd. Although, now days the “pack” has been replaced by “PAC”. And speaking of PACs, Julie Doolittle was in attendance with her husband.

By the time of the fundraiser – Doolittle’s second at the Las Vegas complex – his wife, Julie, already had been subpoenaed by the Justice Department for business records related to work she had done for an Abramoff interest, the Capital Athletic Foundation.

John Doolittle continues to insist that he has done nothing wrong. Yet, it is hard to understand how a man who claims to have such a strong moral compass could surround himself with so much corruption and remain untainted by it.

Doolittle’s personal morality may not have been compromised by his association with Abramoff, Wilkes, DeLay and their retainers, but his public morality certainly seems to have been sold to the highest bidder.