Posted on 06/08/2006 12:48:37 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
LOS ANGELES (AP) The stepdaughter of Rep. Jerry Lewis received more than $42,000 from a political fundraising group headed by a defense contractor whose company received millions of dollars in contracts from a House committee chaired by Lewis, records show.
Lewis' stepdaughter, Julia Willis-Leon, was given the money by the Small Biz Tech Political Action Committee led by Nicholas Karangelen, founder and president of Trident Systems Inc., according to campaign finance records.
The company received at least $11.7 million in funding in defense spending bills considered by the House Appropriations Committee, headed by Lewis, records show.
Payments were made to Willis-Leon, between February 2005 and March 2006, a time when Karangelen had been lobbying Congress for funding, the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post reported Thursday.
``I have always made every effort to meet the highest ethical standards in all aspects of my congressional work. I am confident that any review of my work will confirm this,'' Lewis said in a statement.
A phone message left for Karangelen was not immediately returned Thursday.
Fundraising efforts by Lewis, R-Redlands, have come under close scrutiny. On Wednesday, a California businessman claimed Lewis helped him get Pentagon funding for his software company, then pressed him for favors for a lobbyist, according to NBC News.
Willis-Leon, who lives in Las Vegas, received most of her payments for her work as a fundraiser, the political action committee said. She is also listed on its Web site as its director.
``I am proud to have worked for the PAC, and I am proud of what it is doing,'' Willis-Leon said in a brief interview with the Los Angeles Times.
More than a third of the $115,350 the political action committee raised was given to Lewis' stepdaughter, according to the group's financial disclosure reports.
On Wednesday, businessman Tom Casey told NBC that Lewis urged him in 1993 to hire the lobbyist, Bill Lowery, and set up stock options for him.
Lewis is under investigation by the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles over his ties to Lowery, a former congressman. Lewis denied any wrongdoing.
``I have never recommended a lobbyist to any constituent, contractor or anyone seeking federal funds,'' he said in a prepared statement.
``I have absolutely never told anyone to provide 'stock options' or any other sort of compensation to someone who is their adviser or lobbyist. To do so would be extremely unethical, and it goes entirely against all of my principles of good governing,'' Lewis said.
NBC said Casey has shared his claims with federal investigators. U.S. attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek declined comment.
A telephone message left by The Associated Press at Casey's home was not immediately returned.
Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for Lowery's firm, said his client had no knowledge of the matter.
Wow. Amazing. Too bad they haven't expended the same amount of effort towards the story of Murtha steering taxpayer dollars to his brother's company which employs his former staffer, Carmen Scialabba.
Wasn't there a similar story about Harry Reid?
Let's talk about some Democrat wives.
I'm still waiting to see when Congress is going to kick William Jefferson's smarmey a** out of Congress. Dim(wits)cRATs need to clean house before looking outside of themselves.
I notice that pseudo-Republicans like Lewis don't get anything close to the treatment that a Cunningham gets.
Hey, Lady!
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