By June 2009, the FBI had homed in on Murtha’s relationship with KSA Consulting, a lobbying firm where Murtha’s brother worked and whose clients won millions of dollars in Murtha-steered earmarks. The investigation suggested that several defense companies that used KSA were “suspicious” entities, sometimes sharing the same business address as KSA, the documents say.
It’s unclear whether the FBI dropped the Murtha investigation for lack of evidence or whether circumstances rendered the probe irrelevant. The lawmaker died in February 2010 from complications of gall bladder surgery. His office repeatedly insisted that he was not the subject of a criminal inquiry, and Murtha had denied any wrongdoing.
These documents from the FBI’s internal file on the investigation, just released in a public records lawsuit, show investigators’s concerns that Murtha could be guiding federal contracts to companies doing little tangible work. Investigators also explored numerous leads, some provided by news reports, about whether Murtha’s actions were improperly enriching his brother, a defense lobbyist, and his nephew, a defense contractor, the documents show.
The memos detail grand jury testimony, much of it redacted, and accounts from confidential informants and witnesses interviewed by federal agents.
The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sought the records to learn about the Justice Department’s progress in investigating and prosecuting public officials.
“There is utter clarity now that Mr. Murtha was under criminal investigation,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW. “And given all the people the FBI was talking to, it seems he probably knew it.”
The Murtha case appears to have begun when a cooperating witness told the FBI that a lobbying firm, PMA Group — founded by a former defense appropriations staff member and friend of Murtha’s — could be providing Murtha with a paid driver at no cost to the lawmaker.
PMA, its founder Paul Magliocchetti, and his defense company clients together gave the largest portion of contributions to Murtha’s campaigns. They also were the greatest beneficiaries of earmarks that the lawmaker steered to defense contracting firms.
Magliocchetti pleaded guilty in September 2010 to illegally funneling $386,000 in campaign donations to lawmakers, including Murtha, by pretending that they were donations from his family members and associates. Once a sought-after power broker in the defense industry, he was sentenced earlier this year to 27 months in prison.
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