A source points out that Trident Systems Inc., the defense contractor whose owner bought a $1 million Capitol Hill property with a former top staffer to the House Appropriations committee chairman, and which received this year a $2 million earmark from that chairman, Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands CA), doesn't have any business in Lewis' destrict -- or in the whole state of California. The source, knowledgeable about the process, says that is very unusual. "Letitia [White] has been getting earmarks for this company," he notes. "If a member of Congress is giving an earmark, it is almost always in his district." Not in this case. Trident Systems' homebase in Fairfax Virginia is 3,000 miles away from Lewis' home district. Its other offices are in Pennsylvania, Spokane, and North Carolina.

“I encourage a thorough review of any project I have helped secure for my constituents," Lewis said in a statement in June, as carried by the AP.

Posted by Laura at June 7, 2006 04:02 PM