A question on the limo service retained by Brent Wilkes getting a $21.2 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security last year, despite the fact that its owner apparently has a 62-page rap sheet which reporter Ken Silverstein has obtained. Until now we've been hearing a lot about congressmen from the appropriations and intel committees specifically cultivated by Wilkes and Wade. So, this DHS contract makes one wonder: who on the Homeland Security committee might have steered business to Shirlington? Anyone at the poker parties?

P.S. A lawyer/reader writes, "This may prove to be the most important paragraph in today's San Diego Tribune story about hookergate":

Two of Wilkes' former business associates say they were present on several occasions when Shirlington Limousine & Transportation Service of northern Virginia brought prostitutes to the suite. They say they did not see lawmakers in the suites on those occasions, though both had heard rumors of congressmen bringing women to the rooms.

"The limousine company was in Virginia and, it appears, it transported prostitutes across state lines into the District of Columbia. That's a federal crime - and one that's in an entirely different class than merely providing an illegal gratuity to a congressmen. If Wilkes is convicted of sex trafficking, he'll face significant jail time. More importantly for him, such a conviction will affect where he serves time - sex traffickers don't go to minimum security work camps - they go to, at best, medium security prisons."

Update: A contact who knows Wilkes and his limo driver Chris Baker and Foggo -- the whole crew -- from way back called me as I was running out the door for lunch. I was trying to write as I was walking down the street on a scrap of paper, and commit the rest to memory, mostly just context for some of the stories above and below. In any case, some of this person's recollections: apparently Wilkes used to basically live and work out of the Watergate when he was in DC. Later, he got a deal on a presidential suite at the Westin Grand, so his business office, and apparently the poker parties moved there. Two of the former congressmen who this person remembers at some of the poker parties are Bill Lowery and Charlie Wilson, the latter as the SDUT has already reported.

Apparently Chris Baker of Shirlington Limo was Wilkes' driver from way back when.... he would pick up documents and stuff around town for Wilkes.

Also recollected: that one evening a reporter from the Washington Post came to one of the poker parties, and wrote about it in the paper (I take it this would have been in the 1990s). Apparently people (congressmen and lobbyists) were a little bit nervous about the piece, but I've been scouring Nexis for it and can't find it.

Posted by Laura at April 28, 2006 08:45 AM