Did a Powerful Democrat Steer No-Bid Defense Contracts to Family and Campaign Donors?

By Jeremy Scahill

Rep. John Murtha says earmarks are ‘my business… for 35 years.’ He is generous in giving US taxpayer money to donors. But have laws been broken?

The heat continues to be on Pennsylvania Democrat Rep. John Murtha, chair of the powerful House Appropriations subcommittee on defense. For months, Murtha has been at the center of a brewing scandal over the awarding of contracts to firms that make major campaign contributions to Murtha and other members of Congress, including other powerful Democrats. Now the focus is expanding to no-bid Pentagon contracts that have been awarded to businesses controlled by Murtha’s family members.

The Washington Post, which has been on Murtha’s trail for a while, today highlights a new layer to the story, focusing on Murtech, a defense contractor run by Murtha’s nephew:

Murtech received $4 million in Pentagon work, all of it without competition, for a variety of warehousing and engineering services. With its long corridor of sparsely occupied offices and an unmanned reception area, Murtech’s most striking feature is its owner — Robert C. Murtha Jr., 49. He is the nephew of Rep. John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has significant sway over the Defense Department’s spending as chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

Robert Murtha said he is not at liberty to discuss in detail what his company does, but for four years it has subsisted on defense contracts, according to records and interviews. He said Murtech’s 17 employees “provide necessary logistical support” to Pentagon testing programs that focus on detecting chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, “and that’s about as far as I feel comfortable going.” Giving more details could provide important clues to terrorist plotters, he said.

[…]

Murtha’s power has had beneficial effects within his family. His brother, Robert C. “Kit” Murtha, built a longtime lobbying practice around clients seeking defense funds through the Appropriations Committee and became one of the top members of KSA, a lobbying firm whose contractor clients often received multimillion-dollar earmarks directed through the committee chairman.

Robert C. Murtha Jr. of Murtech is Kit Murtha’s son. He also is a former Marine who once served as a presidential security officer and aide to the president for White House functions.

A Pentagon spokesperson told the Post, “Congressman Murtha has had no influence over any contract award by our organization.” On May 2, The New York Times reported that another of Murtha’s nephews was named as a lobbyist for the US Marines: “Col. Brian Murtha, to the office charged with advocating for its interests on Capitol Hill, where Representative Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania, helps write the military budget. In relocating to be near the Pentagon, Colonel Murtha has even moved into a unit in the same condominium building where his influential uncle lives in Arlington, Va.” Additionally, according to the Times, “The congressman earmarked millions of federal dollars to an institution in his district, St. Vincent College, while the Rev. John F. Murtha, his cousin, was its president.”

These are the latest twists in a pretty scandalous story. Murtha has been targeted by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) as one of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress. “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,” CREW alleged. The lobbying firm, The PMA Group, was run by Paul Magliocchetti, a former committee aide to Murtha. In February 2009, the firm’s offices were raided by the FBI in an investigation into potential illegal campaign contributions. More than 100 US Representatives secured earmarks totalling nearly $300 million for clients of PMA in a single bill, the fiscal 2008 Defense appropriation. “[T]he same House members who took responsibility for PMA’s earmarks in that spending bill have, since 2001, accepted a cumulative $1,815,138 in campaign contributions from PMA’s political action committee and employees of the firm,” according to CQMoney Line. Among the  Congressmembers involved, along with Murtha, were several leading House Democrats, like Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman and Silvestre Reyes. For a complete list see here.

Murtha does not seem to mind his reputation for politically-motivated earmarks, saying last month, “That’s my business… I’ve been in it for 35 years.” As CBS News put it, Murtha’s “not shy about directing money to those who give generously to his election campaigns.” The network reported, “10 recent Murtha donors are slated to receive $31 million in Murtha earmarks for 2010.” Despite the thick stench of corruption emanating from these statements, government watchgroups say that the earmark system is not against the law unless donations were required to receive earmarks.

Highlighting a potentially illegal action, CBS interviewed one unnamed contractor who alleges that there was an attempt to shake him down in return for winning a defense contract:

The contractor was set to receive $1 million tax dollars. He said the military told him the money would come through a company called Commonwealth Research Institute, whose parent company, Concurrent Technologies, ranked among the largest earmark recipients. Both were set up with Murtha’s help in his own hometown. The defense contractor said Commonwealth officials told him to get the money, he should “consider opening an office” in Johnstown, Murtha’s hometown, and chided his company for not giving “enough campaign contributions to Murtha,” and not making “a showing at Murtha’s annual defense contractor fair.”

The contractor told CBS News: “I wouldn’t do it. We’re just not going to play.” He didn’t get the funds.

The Washington Post today characterized Murtha’s position like this: “Over the years, John Murtha has proudly claimed credit for using his Appropriations Committee seat to steer hundreds of millions in Pentagon work to companies in his district, many of them fledgling enterprises run by campaign contributors.”

The obvious outrage here is that this corrupt system thrives, backed up by shady and shaky legal justifications supported by the leadership of both the Democrats and the Republicans.