Free Republic

Senate Democrats signaled Sunday that of the eight U.S. attorneys abruptly fired by the Bush administration, the case in San Diego is emerging as the most troubling because of new allegations that U.S. Attorney Carol Lam was fired in a direct attempt to shut down investigations into Republican politicians in Southern California. ...Lam spearheaded the case against Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the former Republican congressman from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., who pleaded guilty to bribery and income-tax evasion. He was sentenced in March 2006 to eight years and four months in prison.

REDLANDS Federal investigators probing Rep. Jerry Lewis' ties to lobbyists are looking into a land deal that put nearly 41 pristine acres in the congressman's neighborhood off-limits to developers, The Associated Press has learned. The land was given to the city of Redlands by Jack and Laura Dangermond, who have donated generously to Lewis. The Dangermonds founded and run a company Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. of Redlands that has gotten tens of millions of dollars' worth of contracts through the powerful House Appropriations Committee that Lewis, a Republican, now chairs. One government contract came months after the land donation....

Depending on your perspective, Letitia White is either the epitome of a Capitol Hill success story or a prime example of an unsettling mix of money, politics and public policy. White was a receptionist when she joined the staff of Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands. More than two decades later, she's an influential lobbyist whose connections to Lewis - now chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee - and others on the Hill have translated into millions of dollars for her and her firm. They also have made her part of a federal investigation into Lewis' ties to the lobbying firm where...

WASHINGTON The investigation stemming from the bribery conviction of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., will continue well past the November midterm elections under a federal court schedule set Monday. The development came at a status hearing for defense contractor Mitchell Wade, who is cooperating with federal prosecutors after pleading guilty in February to bribing Cunningham in exchange for government contracts. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina agreed to delay sentencing proceedings against Wade and set the next status hearing in his case for March 12. That will allow Wade's cooperation to continue in the investigation, which still has several unresolved...

The pay of a former staffer of Inland Rep. Jerry Lewis was cut less than a year before she took a job with a Washington lobbying firm, enabling her to avoid a rule prohibiting high-ranking congressional staff members from lobbying their old bosses or committees for one year, House records show. Letitia White worked as an assistant to Lewis, R-Redlands, on the House Appropriations Committee before leaving to take a job as lobbyist in 2003 with the firm then known as Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez, Denton & Shockey. Congressional staff members who earn 75 percent of a House member's salary are...

When then-Rep. Bill Lowery dropped his re-election bid in 1992, he was caught up in a House banking scandal and facing a tough opponent with an effective slogan: "A congressman we can be proud of." Fourteen years later, that opponent - ex-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham - is in prison for taking bribes. And Lowery, now a lobbyist, is back in the spotlight. This time Lowery is at the center of a federal investigation that grew from the Cunningham probe to focus on a more powerful member of Congress - House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, a good friend of Lowery's...

SAN DIEGO – The prosecutors who sent former U.S. Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham to jail for taking bribes now are focusing their attention on his friend Brent Wilkes, a San Diego defense contractor who won nearly $100 million in contracts in the past decade. Wilkes also has links to other corruption investigations. Cunningham was sentenced in March to more than eight years in prison after pleading guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes – including payments for a 7,628-square-foot mansion, a Rolls-Royce and a 65-foot yacht – in return for funneling contracts to certain companies. Wilkes' lawyers have confirmed he...

Jerry Lewis is a man embattled. In nearly 40 years of public service, he has risen from humble roots on the school board of San Bernardino to become one of the most powerful members of the United States House of Representatives - chairman of the Appropriations Committee, which oversees nearly $900 billion in federal funding. He touts his successes in developing federal clean-air standards, crafting crime and drug legislation and securing emergency funding for disaster relief for California. Closer to home, he counts the establishment of a high-tech cancer center at Loma Linda University Medical Center, the expansion of Ontario...

Former defense contractor Tom Casey, who accused Rep. Jerry Lewis this week of trying to trade his influence for favors and stock options, is either a subject of the same federal investigation or should be, a former employee said Thursday. Meanwhile, the FBI has widened its probe of Lewis' ties to lobbyists Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White to include Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona. At the same time federal prosecutors were issuing subpoenas in late May in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, the FBI sent a special agent from its Riverside office to retrieve records of Lewis and Calvert from...

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...

Congressman Jerry Lewis is at the center of a federal investigation into a lobbying giant in the nation's capital, but he's not keeping a low profile. "This is not a difficult time at all,'' Lewis said Saturday from his home in Redlands. "Since I haven't seen any of these subpoenas or had anybody contact me about them, I don't think I should comment. I have served this community for 40 years, and I expect to continue to do so.'' San Bernardino County, the city of Redlands, and Cal State San Bernardino are among local agencies and businesses that have confirmed...

The federal grand jury investigating the relationship between Rep. Jerry Lewis and a Washington lobbying firm has subpoenaed records from Riverside County and the Cal State San Bernardino Foundation, in addition to San Bernardino County and the city of Redlands, The Press-Enterprise confirmed Friday. Officials with the University of Redlands, Loma Linda University Medical Center and Redlands-based ESRI declined to say whether their organizations had been served. All are or have been clients of the lobbying firm Copeland, Lowery & Jacquez, which has been linked to former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. The Rancho Santa Fe Republican pleaded guilty last year...

San Bernardino County, Calif., has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury for records connected to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, and a lobbying firm with strong ties to Lewis, a county official said. The subpoena asked for all records of the county's correspondence with Lewis and his staff and with the lobbying firm, Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez, Denton, & White, which employs former California Republican congressman Bill Lowery, said San Bernardino County's chief deputy counsel, Daniel B. Haueter. Haueter said that the county, which hired Copeland, Lowery in 2002, was complying. Lewis represents portions of the inland Southern...