Wilkes/Foggo Indictments: The GOP Culture of Corruption On Display

Defense contractor and top Republican fundraiser Brent R. Wilkes and former leading CIA official under Porter Goss, Kyle Foggo were indicted today in a continuation of the GOP earmark/appropriations scandals that brought down Rep. Duck Cunningham.  In fact, Wilkes is the same defense contractor who bribed jailed former Rep. Duck Cunningham with prostitutes and other favors.

The 11-count indictment states that Wilkes subsidized meals and lavish vacations for Foggo and his family in Washington, Hawaii and Scotland and promised to employ Foggo after his retirement from the CIA. It also accuses Foggo -- a former ethics official in two divisions at the CIA -- of improperly providing classified information to Wilkes about the CIA, his contracting competitors and "other matters."

Interestingly, the federal prosecutor who made the indictments, Carol Lam, was one of the seven federal prosecutors recently fired for apparently political reasons under a little known clause of the Patriot Act. 

While the probe has threatened to sweep in other members of Congress, some uncertainty surrounds it. A key U.S. attorney involved in it -- Carol C. Lam in San Diego -- has been fired by the administration for unspecified "performance-related" deficiencies along with a handful of other federal prosecutors. Lam oversaw the Foggo investigation and is to leave Thursday. The head of the local FBI field office praised Lam's performance and said her firing appeared to be "political," an accusation that the Justice Department has denied.

For more complete coverage, not to mention all the prurient details, check out the TPM Muckraker.