Pelosi Urges Hastert to Probe Alleged Prostitution

2 May 2006 // In a move sure to increase the already high level of partisan tensions over alleged corruption in Congress, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday called for an ethics committee investigation into whether two defense contractors supplied now-imprisoned former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) and other lawmakers with prostitutes, free hotel rooms and limousine rides.

Citing media reports, Pelosi wrote to Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to urge the House’s top Republican to join her in introducing a bipartisan resolution that directs the ethics panel to look into the allegations, notwithstanding an ongoing criminal probe by the Justice Department into Cunningham’s activities. Traditionally, the ethics committee has avoided becoming involved in any matter in which DOJ has already begun a criminal investigation.

“Mr. Speaker, these disclosures, along with other indictments and allegations of unethical behavior, demand strong action by congressional leaders to uphold the integrity of the House,” Pelosi wrote in her letter to Hastert. “Since these new charges uniquely affect the House of Representatives, I believe that, regardless of what action may be taken in the [Justice Department] criminal investigation, the House must act.”

The issue of prostitutes and other illegal gratuities being provided to lawmakers beyond Cunningham was first raised by the San Diego Union-Tribune last year, and The Wall Street Journal added more details in an article last week.

According to the Journal, Mitchell Wade, a California defense contractor who in February pleaded guilty to paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to Cunningham, has told federal investigators that Cunningham would call him and ask him to procure prostitutes. Another defense contractor implicated in the Cunningham scandal, Brent Wilkes, allegedly provided hotel rooms for Cunningham and other lawmakers, as well as finding a limousine company that allegedly had “relationships” with Washington, D.C.-area “escort services.”

The limousine company in question, Shirlington Limousine & Transportation Inc., won a $21.2 million contract with the Department of Homeland Security last year to provide “shuttle services and executive transportation support” to the agency.

Wilkes has not been charged with any wrongdoing, and his lawyer insists Wilkes has done nothing illegal or improper.

Democrats, however, are using the stories to open a new front with the GOP leadership over the “culture of corruption” that they say has been brought to Capitol Hill and the White House by the GOP.

“Please join me in drafting and bringing to the floor this week a bipartisan resolution directing the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to determine whether other Members of the House participated in unethical or illegal conduct related to the Cunningham conviction,” Pelosi wrote.

Ron Bonjean, Hastert’s spokesman, said that House leaders from both parties should not dictate to the ethics committee what it should investigate.

Bonjean also criticized Pelosi for having to replace Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) as the ranking member on the ethics panel after the FBI began looking into his financial dealings with a handful of nonprofit groups he created or controls.

“The ethics committee should decide this, not the Minority Leader who just removed her top Democrat from the panel due to allegedly corrupt behavior,” Bonjean said.