Realize I’m a bit late in getting this up, but since a lot of folks at the CIA have been perusing my site lately, I thought I would post the Copley News Service and the CIA Article I mentioned in my Peanut Gallery column on the departures of Marcus Stern and Jerry Kammer and the end of Copley News Service.
But as Michael Corleone said: “they keep pulling me…BACK…IN!”
So defense attorney Mark Geragos wants Judge Larry Burns to subpoena me to testify at a December 11th hearing about the sources for my book, Feasting on the Spoils.
Here’s what the subpoena would look like (Click for larger image):
Here’s his explanation for why:
Seth Hettena is a journalist, who authored “Feasting on the Spoils: The Life and Times of Randy Cunningham, History’s Most Corrupt Congressman.” Mr. Hettena called defense counsel and inquired regarding the investigation into Mr. Wilkes and his alleged role in wrongdoing with former Congressman Cunningham. Mr. Hettena claimed to have a draft(s) indictment prior to its issuance and revealed portions of the proposed charges to defense counsel. Mr. Hettena had to have received the draft(s) of or any substance of a proposed indictment(s) from someone on the prosecution team.
I’m putting the Cunningham trial aside for a while. You heard me right, you Cunningham case obsessives, you Duke haters, I’m taking a break. I need to get a life. It’s time to do some incisive D.C. reporting like the LA Times:
A senior Bush administration official, speaking on White House rules of anonymity, said the administration had looked at concrete steps over the last week.
“We had some ideas. The Turks have had some ideas. The Iraqis have had some ideas. The Kurds have had some ideas,” the official said.
(Hat tip, Kevin Drum)
If you’re looking for insight as to what is was like in the courtroom when the jury pronounced Brent Wilkes guilty on all counts, I’m not the one who can give it to you. The Wilkes jury reached its verdict just as Judge Burns was sentencing a major Tijuana drug kingpin, so all the reporters were already in place. I rushed downtown, and I was a disheveled mess when I got there, but it was all over. Then I left too soon and missed the jury forewoman.
So I had a pretty bad day. But Brent Wilkes had a far worse one.
The 53-year-old defense contractor was found guilty on 13 counts of fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, and bribery. The jury found that Wilkes plied Cunningham with more than $700,000 in bribes in exchange for millions of dollars in government contracts.
Wilkes gambled everything on the only hand he had to play, and lost. He figured that if he could tell the jury his side of the story of his relationship with former Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham, he could clear everything up. Then everyone would see how badly the prosecution had twisted things. But the prosecution just had too much evidence that contradicted him. Even if the jury wanted to believe the charming and funny defense contractor, they just couldn’t.
What bounces around and around in my head is the fact that Wilkes is no fool. He’s been a poker player since high school and he knew exactly what cards the government was holding — they included Cunningham, the prostitutes, and Wilkes’ own nephew — and he had to have known that the odds weren’t good. Once the government has you in its sights, it just will not quit. Far wealthier and more powerful men have pleaded guilty rather than take their chances before a jury.
So why didn’t Brent Wilkes?
I’ve posted what I think are some interesting exhibits from the trial of Brent Wilkes, but by any standard exhibit 60-01 is extraordinary. This is the photo lineup federal agents presented to an escort in Hawaii for the purposes of identifying her client on the night of August 15, 2003:
Trump / Russia 