CREW's Most Corrupt Members of Congress- Rep. John P. Murtha

Citizens for Responsiblity and Ethics in Washington(CREW) ^ | 9-10-08 | 2008 Annual Report

[smoothsailing]

Published on CREW's Most Corrupt Members of Congress (http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org)

Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA)

Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) is an 18th-term member of Congress, representing Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district.  Rep. Murtha chairs the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.  Rep. Murtha’s ethics violations stem from abuse of his position on the subcommittee to benefit the lobbying firm of a former long-term staffer and from threatening to block earmarks of other members for political purposes.  Rep. Murtha was included as a member to watch in CREW’s 2006 and 2007 reports on congressional corruption.
PMA Group

Paul Magliocchetti worked with Rep. Murtha as a senior staffer on the Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Defense for 10 years.  After leaving the committee, Mr. Magliocchetti founded the PMA Group, which has become one of the most prominent Washington, D.C. defense lobbying firms.  Since the second quarter of 2007 campaign cycle, the PMA Group and ten of the firm’s clients ranked in the top 20 contributors to Rep. Murtha, having made campaign contributions totaling $190,880.  In the 2006, 2004 and 2002 cycles, PMA and its clients have given $274,649, $236,799, $279,074 in contributions respectively.  In turn, many of PMA’s clients have benefitted significantly from Rep. Murtha’s earmarks.  In the Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Appropriations bill, Rep. Murtha helped steer at least $100.5 million to PMA clients–up from $95.1 million in the 2006 Defense Appropriations bill.

Other Earmarks

Other companies receiving federal earmarks have donated to Rep. Murtha’s campaign committee and PAC.  Advanced Acoustic Concepts, Conemaugh Health Systems, DRS Technologies, L. Robert Kimball, MTS Technologies, and Windber Research Institute donated to Rep. Murtha and were the recipients of earmarks in the FY 2008 Defense Appropriations bill.
                                           
Concurrent Technologies Corporation

CTC is a large non-profit that in 2006 received over $225 million in government grants. Congress has earmarked at least $226 million for CTC in the past four years.  Since 2002, CTC’s employees and employees’ family members have donated over $126,000 to Rep. Murtha’s political committees and leadership PAC.    

Critics of CTC have charged that earmarked federal funds have resulted in few new developments.  A Pentagon inspector general audit found that CTC subsidiary, the National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence, had demonstrated 63 technologies between 1990 and 2000, of which only a third were transferred over to the Defense Department, and of those only one technology has been used at more than one site.  In that ten year period the center received $212 million in appropriations.  A former CTC director characterized much of the non-profit’s work as never getting off the planning table.     

In April of 2008, the FBI and the Pentagon Defense Criminal Investigation Service issued subpoenas seeking information regarding contracts awarded to Commonwealth Research Institute (CRI) and its parent company CTC.  Investigators are seeking information about seven contracts, four of which were awarded to CTC over several weeks in May and June 2002 and worth up to $130 million.  Investigators are also seeking information regarding a 2002 CRI deal worth $10 million and a 2006 no-bid contract worth up to $45 million.  

Additionally, in December 2007, Sen. Charles Grassley began an inquiry into why CTC has been considered a tax exempt charity.    

ProLogic Earmarks

Rep. Murtha has also earmarked for ProLogic, Inc., a small company under federal investigation for allegedly diverting federal funds to develop software for commercial sale.  Despite the federal probe investigating the abuse of taxpayer money, Rep. Murtha inserted a $2.4 million earmark for the company for fiscal year 2008.  

Since 2002, executives and spouses of ProLogic have donated $42,900 to Rep. Murtha’s campaign committee, and $10,000 to Rep. Murtha’s PAC.  Additionally, ProLogic’s PAC has donated $18,000 to both Rep. Murtha’s campaign committee and PAC.  ProLogic is a PMA client.    

By earmarking funds for CTC, ProLogic and companies represented by the PMA group in return for campaign contributions, Rep. Murtha may have violated federal criminal laws and House rules prohibiting members from dispensing special favors.

           

(Go to source URL link below to download full report)

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Source URL:
http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/summaries/murtha.php

[Savage Beast]

You can't blame Congress and the Press for doing everything they can to destroy Sarah Palin. After all, she did promise to clean up corruption! For them, it's a matter of survival!

[smoothsailing]

Nonprofit Fingers Murtha as Corrupt---Headline in Somerset County PA newspaper (in Murtha's district)

[boycott]

No doubt about that.

He chairs the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee while he’s in Boeing’s back pocket.

He is without a doubt the most corrupt member of congress.

[piasa]

CREW is a vile organization.

every bit as vile as Murtha.

[smoothsailing]

Tired of John Murtha and his corruption? Support his opponent, Bill Russell!!! Click on the dogtags below...

[piasa]

* Melanie Sloan : [CREW's Executive Director] Melanie Sloan, Executive Director Melanie Sloan serves as CREW's Executive Director. Prior to accepting this position, Ms. Sloan served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia, where, from 1998- early 2003, she successfully tried cases before dozens of judges and juries. Before becoming a prosecutor, Ms. Sloan was Minority Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee from 1995 to 1998. She worked directly with the Honorable John Conyers, the ranking member of the Committee, specializing in criminal enforcement issues, including the Independent Counsel law. Her responsibilities included drafting legislation and committee reports (minority views), writing speeches, and working with interest groups. She also assisted a working group of Members of Congress in developing and drafting a Democratic alternative to the Republican juvenile justice bill. In 1994, Ms. Sloan was Counsel for the Crime Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, working for then Representative Charles Schumer. There, she drafted portions of the 1994 Crime Bill, including the Violence Against Women Act, and worked on issues including the death penalty, mandatory minimum sentencing, and habeas corpus. In 1993, Ms. Sloan served as Nominations Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, under then Chairman, Senator Joe Biden, where she researched the backgrounds of nominees to high level Department of Justice positions and to the federal courts. Prior to serving Congress, she was an associate at Howrey and Simon in Washington, D.C. and at Sonnenschein, Nath and Rosenthal in Los Angeles, California. She received her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Chicago and has published in the Yale Law and Policy Review, the Legal Times, and the Washington Post. --------11 posted on 01/28/2004 10:54:52 AM PST by jimbo123 )

[smoothsailing]

Murtha Watch Ping.

[piasa]

... CREW’s three board members are Mark Penn, President Clinton’s former pollster; Daniel Berger, a trial lawyer from Philadelphia and a Clinton fundraiser; and Louis Mayberg, the president of a mutual fund company. ...10 posted on 01/28/2004 10:52:10 AM PST by jimbo123 —http://www.citizensforethics.org/news/20030719_natljrnl.php

[smoothsailing]

I couldn't agree more! They are heavily biased in favor of democrats. That's why I take pleasure that they are going after one of their own.

[piasa]

AUGUST 24, 2004 : (CREW GOES AFTER SWIFT BOAT VETERANS FOR TRUTH -- See BIDEN'S LITIGATING BROWN SHIRTS)
To: National Desk
Contact: Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, 202-588-5565
WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Earlier today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) with the White House asking it to detail its contacts with individuals connected to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT).
CREW asked the White House to release information regarding contacts between the Executive Office of the President and: any member of SBVT; SBVT donors Harlan Crow, Bob J. Perry and Paraclete Armor & Equipment; Merrie Spaeth, who has coordinated the public relations efforts of SBVT; any employee of Stevens Reed Curcio & Poltholm, the advertising agency that has made SBVT's commercials; Rupprath and Associates, the detective agency that gathered the SBVT affidavits; SBVT fundraiser The McIntosh Company; and Kenneth Cordier, a former member of the Bush campaign's veterans steering committee.
The White House has claimed no involvement with SBVT or the group's anti-Kerry campaign ads, a claim undermined by recent revelations that Cordier, who appears in one of SBVT's advertisements was on the Bush campaign's veterans steering committee at the time he made the ad, and by the fact that a Kerry campaign volunteer picked up a flier for SBVT at the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign offices in Gainesville, Florida.
CREW's executive director Melanie Sloan stated "Despite evidence to the contrary, the Bush Administration has repeatedly claimed that it has nothing to do with SBVT or its ads. If this is true, then the White House should have no qualms about releasing information regarding any contacts between White House officials and those connected with SBVT."
Sloan decided to send the FOIA after reading that, upon being asked whether she had worked with White House officials, SBVT public relations coordinator Merrie Spaeth said "The answer is 'no' unless you refresh my memory."
(NYT 8/20/04). Sloan said that she was also skeptical of Bush political advisor Karl Rove's claim that he has not spoken with his friend and large Republican donor Bob Perry in over a year. The FOIA was sent, said Sloan, "to gather the information Ms. Spaeth, Karl Rove and others may need to have their memories refreshed as to whether or not SBVT illegally coordinated with the White House."
A copy of CREW's FOIA request can be found on the Web at http://www.citizensforethics.org
---------- "CREW FOIAs White House Contacts with Swift Boat Veterans Group," U.S. Newswire, August 25, 2004http://www.usnewswire.com/

[Reily]

To all

TERM LIMITS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 terms in the Senate (12 years)
6 Terms in the House (12 years)
Sit 1 term out for the Senate before you can run again.
Sit 2 terms out in the House before you can run again.
Murtha, Byrd, Stevens (The corrupt GOP’er from Alaska!), fate Ted and others are all walking poster-children for term limits

[smoothsailing]

Enough, piasa! ;-) I told you I agreed with you!

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“The group lists 15 Republicans and five Democrats on its list of the “20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress.”

[jazusamo]

This report shows just how corrupt Murtha is because CREW is a left leaning group. Murtha has to be one of if not the worst offender in Congress for CREW to be going after him.

Thanks for the post and ping, smoothsailing.

Murtha Watch Ping!

Code Pinkos

To be added to the Murtha Watch ping list please notify myself or RedRover.

[Reily]

To all

TERM LIMITS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 terms in the Senate (12 years)
6 Terms in the House (12 years)
Sit 1 term out for the Senate before you can run again.
Sit 2 terms out in the House before you can run again.
Murtha, Byrd, Stevens (The corrupt GOP’er from Alaska!), fate Ted and others are all walking poster-children for term limits

[smoothsailing]

Yeah, CREW is heavily biased in favor of dems. That's why it's so much fun to see them nail Murtha.

[piasa]

When pressed, CREW has confirmed that Mark Penn, President Bill Clinton’s former pollster, and Daniel Berger, an attorney and big-money donor to Democrats or their allies — $100,000 to America Coming Together last May and $13,750 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee the following month — are on its board. If CREW wants clean politics in Washington, it needs to learn that transparency starts at home. ------Who is CREW?The Hill ^ | March 30, 2005 | The Editors

America Coming Together is a George Soros group.

[smoothsailing]

This report shows just how corrupt Murtha is because CREW is a left leaning group. Murtha has to be one of if not the worst offender in Congress for CREW to be going after him.

Absolutely, and that makes this especially sweet!!!

[jazusamo]

For them, it's a matter of survival!

Excellent point! From her actions as Governor of Alaska and the way she has spoken out these last two weeks the corrupt in Congress want no part of her, can't wait for her to go to work as Vice President.