John Murtha has been accused of committing various crimes but he has no convictions. Today, he is perilously close to becoming the target of another congressional ethics investigation concerning his ties to now defunct PMA Group.
PMA was founded by Paul Magliocchetti, who happens to be a former Appropriations Committee staffer.
According to reports, Magliochetti set up and made “straw man” campaign deposits to Murphy and other members of Congress on behalf of his employees and others. Democrats who campaigned on a promise to “drain the swamp in Washington,” are reluctant to investigate their own when it comes to Murtha, a vehement anti-war crusader during the Bush years.
The FBI raided PMA Group in November, seizing many documents from the organization. The company was quickly dissolved and Magliochetti has since moved to Florida.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D – Calif.) has opposed the investigation from the start even though she campaigned against such corruption. Meanwhile no less than 25 Democrats have joined Republicans in calling for an official ethics investigation of the matter.
According to a report by Merv Benson in
prairiepundit.com, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) got 17 Democratic votes after introducing a resolution in February that called for an ethics investigation into “the relationship between earmark requests already made by members and the source and timing of past campaign contributions.” Since then, a steady “trickle “of Democrats have crossed the aisle putting increasing pressure on Pelosi to act.
Murtha has been the subject of ethics investigations since at least 1980 when he was snared in a sting operation by undercover
FBI agents posing as Middle Eastern Sheiks. Five other senators were indicted but Murtha was named as an unindicted co-conspirator because he refused to reach in a drawer to remove $50,000, insisting instead that he would feel more comfortable if a middleman could take possession of the money. The FBI agent refused and Murtha set up a second meeting. Ultimately Murphy testified against his congressional colleagues and all charges against him were dropped.
Pelosi continues to resist an investigation of her controversial colleague despite a growing number of defections within the Democratic Party and an advancing investigation from outside the halls of Congress that she controls.
