CIA Confirms Official Attended Poker Games

2 May 2006 // The Central Intelligence Agency confirmed its third-ranking official, Executive Director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, attended poker games in Washington, D.C., hotel hospitality suites, the use of which is the focus of a federal criminal investigation.

A CIA spokeswoman said Mr. Foggo strongly denies anything improper occurred while he was present during the games, held at times in the Watergate and Westin Grand hotels in Washington.

As reported, federal prosecutors in San Diego and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have evidence the suites were paid for by Poway, Calif., defense contractor Brent Wilkes, an unindicted co-conspirator in the bribery case involving former California congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham.

Mr. Foggo's longstanding friendship with Mr. Wilkes has been known for months, after it was detailed in the San Diego Union Tribune and other news outlets. The CIA hadn't commented until now on Mr. Foggo's socializing with Mr. Wilkes.

Prosecutors are looking into whether Mr. Wilkes and contractor Mitchell Wade, who has pleaded guilty to bribing Mr. Cunningham, had supplied prostitutes and the suites' use to Mr. Cunningham and possibly other members of Congress from the 1990s until 2005. The CIA in March confirmed that its inspector general is investigating the relationship between Messrs. Foggo and Wilkes, to see whether Mr. Foggo may have played any improper role in the awarding of CIA contracts to Mr. Wilkes's companies. A 27-year CIA veteran, Mr. Foggo became the agency's executive director in 2004. His duties have included overseeing the letting of CIA contracts. The two have been close friends since junior high school.

The CIA has said that the inspector general's inquiry was a routine response to public allegations of improprieties involving contracts and that launching the investigation didn't imply evidence of wrongdoing. CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Millerwise Dyck said "Mr. Foggo maintains that government contracts for which he was responsible were properly awarded and administered. If he attended occasional card games with friends over the years, Mr. Foggo insists they were that and nothing more." She said Mr. Foggo says he never witnessed any prostitutes at the games and that any allegation to the contrary would be "false, outrageous and irresponsible."

Mr. Wilkes' lawyer has denied his client had any involvement in hiring prostitutes.