Posted on 02/27/2007 2:56:44 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Three House committees subpoenaed in connection with the bribery investigation into imprisoned former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and his associates reached an agreement with federal prosecutors Tuesday allowing the subpoenas to be withdrawn, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
Under the agreement, five outstanding subpoenas will be withdrawn and the committees will voluntarily hand over documents in addition to material already provided, according to a statement released by Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Pelosi.
Two committee staffers will appear March 1 before the grand jury in San Diego that has been considering evidence stemming from the Cunningham case, Daly said.
The subpoenas were sent in December and January to the Appropriations, Armed Services and Intelligence committees and the two staffers.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego did not immediately return a call for comment.
Cunningham, a San Diego-area Republican, was sentenced in March to more than eight years in prison for accepting $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for steering government business to defense contractors.
Earlier this month, the grand jury indicted a former top CIA official and a San Diego defense contractor on fraud and money laundering charges in an investigation that spun off from the Cunningham probe. The defense contractor, Brent Wilkes, was also charged in a separate indictment along with a New York mortgage banker on charges of bribing Cunningham.
The subpoena deal comes after nearly a year of negotiations over the documents that began while the House was still under Republican control.
"The agreements permit the committees to cooperate with the investigation in a manner that respects the constitutional prerogatives of the House and does not impair the committees' functioning or compromise their legislative and oversight responsibilities," Daly said.
The Justice Department has clashed with Congress in the past over its investigations of lawmakers. Republicans and Democrats alike were furious when the FBI raided the office of Democratic Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana in May for evidence in a corruption investigation.
Lots of stonewalling going on and 'the truth' dies a slow death in the meantime.
Must have been Democratic papers that they didn't want seen.
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