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WHO: Rep. Chris Carney (D-Pa.) WHAT: Carney received the following dirty money: PMA Group (PAC) $5,000 in 2008 election cycle WHY IT'S DIRTY: PMA Group (Paul Magliocchetti and Associates) was a defense lobbying group that is now the focus of multiple federal investigations concerning allegations of influence peddling and other corrupt activities, mostly associated with earmarks. Before it was disbanded earlier this year, PMA Group's employees and its political action committee gave current members of Congress $3.4 million between 1989 and 2008, with 79 percent of that going to Democrats, according to OpenSecrets.org. WILL CARNEY GIVE IT BACK: Carney did...

Paula Reed Ward and Dennis B. Roddy reported today in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Federal prosecutors filed corruption charges yesterday against a onetime defense contractor who has ties to both John Murtha and a suburban Johnstown defense contractor currently under criminal investigation. Richard S. Ianieri, former president and CEO of Coherent Systems International Corp., was accused of accepting $200,000 in kickbacks. He is charged through a criminal information and is expected to plead guilty. The indictment of Ianieri represents the first charges leveled as a result of investigations into firms receiving defense earmarks – many of which benefited former aides and...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a step forward earlier this week when she directed Dan Beard, the chief administrative officer of the U.S. House of Representatives, to begin posting online quarterly reports of how representatives spend their official office accounts. Members use these accounts to hire staff, lease automobiles and office equipment, and pay for official lunches, as well as a host of other things. To grasp the importance of these accounts, one need only recall that for years, the reports could only be viewed in an obscure office buried deep in the bowels of the Capitol building. So hardly...

Democrats who now run Capitol Hill have come under fire from government watchdog groups and the issue involves one as old as politics itself – pay to play. A now defunct Washington, D.C., lobbying firm called The PMA Group is at the heart of what could be the Beltway’s next big money scandal. The FBI is looking into allegations that several lawmakers gave lucrative defense contracts to their campaign contributors. The three principle targets of this federal investigation are Democratic Congressman John Murtha of Pennsylvania, Peter Visclosky of Indiana and Jim Moran of Virginia. Investigators want to know for whose...

Groups want ethics probe of Murtha, othersBy Sean Lengell Saturday, May 2, 2009 Four political watchdog groups that typically support Democratic causes want a congressional ethics panel to probe ties between three House Democrats and the defunct Washington lobbying firm, the PMA Group, which benefited from the lawmakers' help. In a letter Thursday to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, the groups Common Cause, Public Citizen, Democracy 21 and U.S. PIRG asked for the panel to investigate whether Reps. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, Peter J. Visclosky of Indiana and James P. Moran of Virginia were influenced by...

This story may or may not become big news. But it certainly says a lot about the earmark culture on Capitol Hill. A contractor, beneficiary of an earmark that the lobbyist group with close ties to John Murtha got for them, produced combat helmets so shoddy that the military has recalled 34,000 of them. The lobbyists, PMA Group, is mostly identified with Murtha but also garnered an astonishing number of earmarks from other lawmakers from both parties. They are now under investigation by the FBI for illegal campaign contributions among other transgressions. PMA Group Watch has the details: The Army...

WASHINGTON — Federal law enforcement officials who raided the lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti’s PMA Group appear to be examining the firm’s relationship with Representative Peter J. Visclosky, a low-profile lawmaker with big influence over federal spending, people familiar with the matter said this week. One person with knowledge of the investigation into the PMA Group said prosecutors had asked specific questions about Mr. Visclosky and his staff. Two people close to Mr. Visclosky, an Indiana Democrat, said he was taking steps to prepare for legal scrutiny, including retaining lawyers to review his compliance with campaign finance laws. All spoke on condition...

Murtha: "If I'm corrupt, it's just because…." @ 3:04 pm by Eric Zimmermann In a stunning interview today in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) inadvertently stumbled over the central ethical quandary surrounding earmark legislation: "If I'm corrupt, it's because I take care of my district," Mr. Murtha said. "My job as a member of Congress is to make sure that we take care of what we see is necessary. Not the bureaucrats who are unelected over there in whatever White House, whether it's Republican or Democrat. Those bureaucrats would like to control everything. Every president would like to...

If there is anything worse than a bully its a bully with questionable ethics. John Murtha is one of perfect example of a bully. He wrongly convicted some of our military heroes in the court of public opinion by claiming a "massacre" of which they were later cleared (and he still hasn't apologized). He didn't do it for any moral reasons, (if he did he would have apologized for the mistake) Murtha slandered our Heroes for political gain. We have been reporting about Murtha's newest scandal. The FBI raided the offices of the PMA group, founded by a Murtha aide,...

Advice From Murtha Allies Guided Funding Requests, Documents Show A Pennsylvania defense research center regularly consulted with two "handlers" close to Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) as it collected nearly $250 million in federal funding through the lawmaker, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and sources familiar with the funding requests. The center then channeled a significant portion of the funding to companies that were among Murtha's campaign supporters. The two advisers included a lobbyist for PMA Group, a firm with close ties to Murtha that is the subject of a federal investigation into whether it made illegal...

Virtually every member of Congress- including Orange County’s six House members and California’s two senators – have shared in $40 million that an embattled Washington lobbying firm and its clients have contributed to lawmakers since 1998. And the biggest O.C. winner in this sweepstakes is Rep. Loretta Sanchez. The firm is the PMA Group, which is the latest Beltway lobbying firm to reportedly be under investigation by the FBI for violating campaign finance laws. The firm’s bread and butter are getting federal earmarks for its clients. According to a tally by the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign cash watchdog,...

The House voted Wednesday to kill a resolution calling for an ethics investigation into potential quid pro quo between lobbyist campaign donations and lawmakers. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., sponsored the proposal that would have forced the House Ethics Committee to launch a probe into ties between the source and timing of campaign contributions by lobbyists and subsequent legislator requests for special projects or earmarks. While open-ended, Flake's resolution was a direct response to the ongoing federal investigation into the PMA Group, a lobbying company accused of making fraudulent donations to lawmakers using names of people who did not exist. The...

U.S. Reps. Paul E. Kanjorski and Chris Carney plan to wait before deciding whether to return thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from a firm that lobbies for defense contractors and is under investigation by the FBI. Both congressmen said they won’t return the contributions now because no wrongdoing has been found in the case of the PMA Group. The FBI is investigating the group for funneling bogus campaign contributions to Rep. John Murtha and other lawmakers, according to The New York Times. Mr. Kanjorski also said he won’t return a $2,500 contribution from an official of the Stanford Financial...

WASHINGTON — Three lawmakers said Tuesday that they were returning campaign contributions from donors listed as employees of the PMA Group, a Washington lobbying firm whose founder is under investigation for purportedly funneling money through bogus donors. The decision by the three lawmakers — Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, and Representatives Zoe Lofgren of California and Peter J. Visclosky of Indiana, all Democrats — puts new pressure on others who received cash from the PMA Group and its founder, Paul Magliocchetti. Other big beneficiaries include Representative John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who is chairman of the House defense appropriations...

The FBI raided the offices of a defense lobbying firm with close ties to Democratic Rep. John Murtha (Penn.), sources tell ABC News. The FBI searched the Virginia headquarters of the PMA Group in November, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. PMA was founded by former Murtha aide Paul Magliochetti and specializes in winning earmarked taxpayer funds for its clients. Good government groups have long criticized Murtha's cozy relationship with a handful of lobbyists and defense firms, ties that see millions of dollars in government spending go out from Murtha's office, and hundreds of thousands...

The PMA Group, a lobbying firm with close ties to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), was raided by the FBI in November, a PMA spokesman confirmed... Developing

We alerted you here and here regarding Murtha's dealings with the Kuchera Industries, a local PA-12 beneficiary of Murtha's largesse, as well as a heavyweight donor to Murtha's campaign coffers. Well, get ready for yet another corrupt company with Jihad Jack Murtha's greasy-grimy fingerprints all over it (emphases mine):Possible Shakeup At Firm Tied To John Murtha Washington-Based PMA Group Has Close, Controversial Ties To Congressman Scott MacFarlane Thursday, January 29, 2009 – updated: 4:47 pm EST January 29, 2009 WASHINGTON -- WJACTV.com has learned a Washington lobbying powerhouse with close connections to Johnstown Rep. John Murtha is undergoing a shakeup.Its...