Murtha Intervenes for Company That Broke Export Law

"They are just a constituent," Gatti said. ". . . It's just a little company that's just trying to survive."

Murtha spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said the congressman has no personal or financial ties to Electro-Glass.

"It is Congressman Murtha's policy to inquire into federal problems that constituents bring to his attention, regardless of the circumstances," Mazonkey said in an e-mail.

The 35-year-old company has laid off 16 employees and, if the penalty stands, "will likely be put out of business," James K. Schmidt, Electro-Glass's president, told Murtha in a June 26 memo.

The company is appealing its conviction and plans to formally apply for reinstatement to the State Department next month, he said.

"We want to stay legal, we want to stay aboveboard. It was an accident what happened in the first place," Schmidt said in a telephone interview.

Schmidt said he called the FBI and "they told me that India was a democracy and they should not be denied." The company later consulted U.S. customs officials and got the impression that it should not stop the shipments, he said.

But officials from both the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have denied that they gave approval.

Schmidt said his company sought Murtha's help on the recommendation of Tom Balya, chairman of the Board of Commissioners in Westmoreland County, Pa., and a political ally of the congressman.

"As a county commissioner I don't have that kind of ability to intervene with federal agencies," Balya said. "But certainly Congressman Murtha, particularly in light of it being defense-related -- he's one of the national leaders on the issue."

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which put Murtha on its list of the "most corrupt" members of Congress, said the congressman's entreaty to the State Department is unusual in one respect.

"They were convicted in a jury trial," she said. "You know, you are a member of Congress and you are upholding the law of the United States. A conviction is a conviction."