Sources: FBI investigating lawmaker, daughter's contracts

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI is investigating whether Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., used his influence to secure lobbying and consulting contracts for his daughter, two people familiar with the inquiry said Saturday.

The inquiry focuses on lobbying contracts worth $1 million that Weldon's daughter, Karen Weldon, obtained from foreign clients and whether the congressman helped steer them, they said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of the criminal investigation.

Weldon, a 10-term Republican from the Philadelphia suburbs, long has denied any wrongdoing, and his top aide said Saturday no one had notified him of an investigation.

"I think if there was an investigation, somebody would have contacted us," said Russ Caso, Weldon's chief of staff.

Two people familiar with the investigation told AP on Saturday that the inquiry was being handled by agents from the FBI's field offices in Washington and Philadelphia and was being coordinated by the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the FBI declined comment Saturday.

Those two people familiar with the investigation confirmed that federal agents were examining Weldon's work between 2002 and 2004 to help two Russian companies and two Serbian brothers connected to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. They had hired Solutions North America Inc., a company operated by Karen Weldon and Charles Sexton, a Republican ally of the congressman.

Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is a Russian speaker regarded by some as a foreign policy expert who has clashed at times with the Bush administration. - CNN
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I am starting to believe that the Republicans are doing all this to themselves so that when Iraq falls apart, they can say, "Hey. we were winning when we controlled Congress." (It doesn't matter that only Republicans think we are winning in Iraq now. Everyone else can see the bullet holes on the wall.)

If Republicans think things are bad now, what will they thing when Congress itelf starts investigating things that should have been investigated for the last several years? I predict a spate of guys hiding out in rehab, claiming that it was booze that caused them to act that way.
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I did note something curious in the article.

" Weldon, a 10-term Republican from the Philadelphia suburbs, long has denied any wrongdoing..."

and

Weldon, a 10-term Republican from the Philadelphia suburbs, long has denied any wrongdoing, and his top aide said Saturday no one had notified him of an investigation.

"I think if there was an investigation, somebody would have contacted us," said Russ Caso, Weldon's chief of staff.

Caso said Weldon and his staff were "100 percent caught off guard" when they learned of the investigation, first reported late Friday by McClatchy Newspapers.

How long has he been denying wrongdoing, and why has he, if there is no reason for the Justice Department to investigate? What caused the denials? How could they be "caught off guard" if he "long has denied any wrongdoing"?

The Congressman doth protest too much, methinks.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,

FBI raids home of congressman's daughter

MEDIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- The FBI raided the homes of Rep. Curt Weldon's daughter and a close friend Monday as it investigates whether the congressman improperly helped the pair win lobbying and consulting contracts.

Agents searched four locations in the Philadelphia area and two in Jacksonville, Florida, said Debbie Weierman, an FBI spokeswoman in Washington. The congressman's home and his offices were not among the locations searched, she said.

Earlier Monday, Weldon called the investigation politically motivated and called the timing suspect. The Republican, who is locked in a tight re-election bid and has clashed with the Bush administration, denied wrongdoing and said he gave his daughter no special help. - CNN
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Weldon was also quoted as saying, "I've never helped my daughter get anything" which may cost him the Congressional Father of the Year Award.

This story seems to be moving quickly. Weldon may be right. It could be a political move, started by those well-known Democratic dirty trick groups called the FBI and the Department of Justice.