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Ousted CIA No. 3 Is Target of Raids
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"Porter asked him to step down because of his concerns that the allegations against Foggo had become a distraction for the employees and had the potential to damage the agency's reputation," an intelligence official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The official said Goss had no knowledge that federal agents were preparing to issue search warrants at the time or even that his own resignation was only days away from being announced by President Bush.
Foggo spent 25 years in the CIA in several posts at headquarters and overseas, including Honduras; Vienna, Austria; and Frankfurt, Germany.
Federal investigators are trying to determine whether Foggo steered contracts to Wilkes while he served in Frankfurt in the years before being named the agency's executive director, sources have said. The FBI has already sent a team of investigators to Frankfurt. Hundley, Foggo's attorney, said earlier this week that his client "never knowingly" arranged for a CIA contract to be awarded to one of Wilkes's companies.
Hundley also said Foggo did not report family vacations with Wilkes as gifts because Foggo picked up his share of the expenses.
Foggo and Wilkes have been friends since high school in San Diego and attended poker parties in Washington, sometimes with members of Congress and other CIA officers, participants have said.
Nancy Luque, a Washington lawyer who represents Wilkes, said yesterday that she was "surprised" by the Foggo raids. "We feel confident, just as with [the search of] Mr. Wilkes' business, that no evidence of wrongdoing will be found," she said.
Last summer, as part of the Cunningham probe, federal agents searched Wilkes's home and office, as well as Cunningham's home and the office, home and boat of Mitchell J. Wade, a Washington defense contractor who has pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe Cunningham.
Another Goss aide also had a relationship with Wilkes, according to financial disclosure statements. Brant G. Bassett, a former CIA officer who was a member of Goss's staff on the House intelligence committee, reported receiving a $5,000 "consulting fee" from a Wilkes company, ADCS Inc., in May 2000. Bassett has not commented on the fee.
Staff writer C. Woodrow Irvin and researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
