Paul J. Magliocchetti, the former House Appropriations staffer who went on to be a top lobbyist for earmarks, got out of prison today. Magliocchetti pled guilty to charges that he made illegal campaign donations. He was served a 27-month sentence for admitting to funneling more than $380,000 to House and Senate campaigns through straw donors.
PMA Group, Magliocchetti's firm, boasted a stable of lobbyists who had gone through the revolving door, some 33 in all, including 7 who worked for the congressional appropriations committees or their members. Of those, 28 are still registered to lobby the federal government ...
Continue readingDCCC invokes Murtha to aid Critz
A friend and colleague passes along the following email the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is sending out, signed by the widow of the late Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., Joyce Murtha:
It is bittersweet to write this e-mail so soon after Jack's passing. While nobody can ever fill Jack's shoes, I am heartened to see Mark Critz, Jack's former Director for Economic Development, running for the seat my husband proudly held for 36 years. With the polls neck and neck heading into the final stretch, I am asking for your support so Mark can win this ...Continue reading
Potential Murtha successor Norm Dicks knows the favor factory
Follow the (Airport) Money
Murtha’s earmark recipients: How hands off (or on) is he?
Paul Singer reports in Roll Call on a tangled story that apparently involves the undisclosed hand of Rep. John Murtha but certainly involves his brother Kit (a retired lobbyist) and his former lobbying firm, five different companies doing business, directly or indirectly, with Defense (including one under federal indictment and one that allegedly wanted to outsource earmarked defense work to "China or someplace"), an earmark from the pre-disclosure era, some technical corrections added to the Tsunami relief bill that moved the funds for that earmark from one recipient to another (because the original recipient allegedly wanted to do the work ...
Continue readingCREW visualizes Murtha web
Here's a picture worth well over a thousand words: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has assembled an interactive, "You Don't Know Jack" graphic showing the connections between Murtha, a trio of lobbying firms, relatives, staffers and the companies for whom he's gotten earmarks.
Well worth a look. Well worth remembering too that PMA Group isn't just a John Murtha scandal -- the firm was a top donor to 32 members of Congress in the 2008 election cycle.
Continue readingPressure building on Murtha?
Justin Rood reports on the ABC News Investigative blog on the several different investigations of Rep. John Murtha, the defunct PMA Group which funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions to Murtha from its PAC, employees and its clients, many of which were the beneficiaries of Murtha earmarks. Rood notes that these investigations are all distinct inquiries:
The federal probes do not appear to be directly connected or controlled by a single office, agency or prosecutor, but instead involve various combinations including the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the Defense Criminal Investigation Service, the ...Continue reading
Congress’ family business, John Murtha edition
From the Washington Post:
The headquarters of Murtech, in a low-slung, bland building in a Glen Burnie business park, has its blinds drawn tight and few signs of life. On several days of visits, a handful of cars sit in the parking lot, and no trucks arrive at the 10 loading bays at the back of the building.Continue readingYet last year, Murtech received $4 million in Pentagon work, all of it without competition, for a variety of warehousing and engineering services. With its long corridor of sparsely occupied offices and an unmanned reception area, Murtech's most striking feature is ...
Hill: No campaign cash for Visclosky from former PMA Group clients
On April 3rd, we noted that Rep. Pete Visclosky, one of the most prolific recipients of campaign cash from and earmarker of federal dollars to PMA Group clients, had requested no earmarks--not a single one--for former clients of the firm for fiscal year FY 2010. Oddly enough, employees and PACs of former PMA Group clients donated nothing to Visclosky's reelection campaign in the first quarter of 2009, according to Roxana Tiron of the Hill.
Let's see...could there be a connection?
Yesterday, Glenn Reynolds linked a Hill story noting that for Rep. John Murtha, it was "business as ...
Continue readingFormer PMA Group Clients Get Defense Earmarks from Murtha for 2010
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., has requested defense related funding for five companies that hired the PMA Group last year, according to a review of the earmark requests released on the Congressman's website. Murtha has requested a total of $23.8 million to be directed to these companies.
You can search for the clients here (links to the search pages don't work).
And here's a breakdown for each of the five companies.
Advanced Acoustic Concepts - $5,000,000
Argon ST - $8,000,000
MTS Technologies - $5,000,000
Planning Systems Inc. - $2,300,000
QTL Bio Defense Systems ...
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