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Actually, the crime which the FBI is investigating was first reported by the LA Times two years ago: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061106/bermanOn the night of Friday, October 13, news broke that the FBI was investigating Weldon for using his stature as vice chair of the House Armed Service Committee to steer nearly $1 million in contracts from Russian and Serbian businesses to his daughter and right-hand man, between 2002 and 2004. Those implicated include two Serbian brothers linked to dictator Slobodan Milosevic; a Russian energy company, Itera, with a notoriously cloudy business history; and an obscure Russian aerospace manufacturer, Saratov Aviation Plant, that "quite unexpectedly" caught Weldon's eye, according to a company official. At the time of the contracts, Weldon's daughter, Karen, was a 29-year-old consulting novice. Her associate, local political boss and longtime Weldon ally Charles Sexton Jr., claimed "no special knowledge of Eastern Europe," according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, and spoke no foreign languages. Weldon's interventions on their behalf were first disclosed by the Los Angeles Times in 2004. Three days after the October 13 story, FBI agents raided six locations as part of the probe, including the homes of Karen Weldon and Sexton. The Washington Post subsequently reported that evidence had been presented to a grand jury and wiretaps obtained for Washington-area cellphones. Millmon suggests the story was leaked as a damage control measure by a Weldon ally: Weldon's campaign, predictably, is crying foul over the leak. But the timing of the story -- which hit the wires during the traditional late Friday afternoon window for dumping bad news -- suggests the leak was a damage control operation by those who have Crazy Curt's political interests, and their own, at heart.
My guess (it's only that) is that the leakers had reason to believe news of the investigation would surface, one way or another, before the election, and wanted to try to bury it in the Saturday papers. Which means the leak could have come from the Weldon camp itself, or, more likely, from GOP politicos inside the Justice Department.
Posted by billmon at October 13, 2006 09:16 PM According to the local newspaper, the guy on the ground who broke the story was actually on the Weldon campaign payroll: Delco Daily Times: "Weldon's FBI 'informant' on Curt's Payroll." http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17353831&BRD=1675&PAG=461&dept_id=18171&rfi=6
While Weldon identified his source as Gregory Auld, he failed to mention that Auld has been on the campaign’s payroll since May.
Campaign finance reports filed this week show that Weldon Victory Committee has paid Auld & Associates Investigations $25,000 to conduct opposition research. <...>
Auld acknowledged his firm had a six-month contract with the Weldon campaign that runs through Election Day. He said pursuing the lead at the gym "probably was part of my responsibility" as a paid opposition researcher.
Holy mackerel. And even though Auld is on Weldon's payroll to the tune of $25,000, he still says Weldon lied in recent statements: The Republican congressman has asserted that the investigation was timed to coincide with the Nov. 7 election. He said Auld’s discovery, if true, means the Justice Department was coordinating its probe with the Sestak campaign, a claim the campaign has dismissed as "laughable." ...
Much of Weldon’s story didn’t check out with Auld, who said he had heard through a man at a local gym that another man who frequently wore a Sestak shirt said three weeks ago that "something big was going to come down on Weldon" last weekend.
Auld, of Drexel Hill, said he spoke to the Sestak supporter Tuesday, but "he never said they knew" about the investigation before it hit the newspapers.
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