Big Los Angeles Times piece detailing multiple aspects of staff and associates of Appropriations committee chairman Jerry Lewis interacting with companies ADCS and Audre seeking federal contracts. The paper, which had earlier reported that Lewis traveled with ADCS founder (and alleged Duke Cunningham co-conspirator) Brent Wilkes to Guatemala in the early 1990s, seems to have caught Lewis in misremembering how recently he has seen Wilkes:

Lewis has repeatedly said he was only dimly aware of Wilkes. He recently said that the last time he could recall meeting with Wilkes was "well over 10 years ago," and he said they never discussed federal contracts.

But records show that Lewis traveled to the Poway, Calif., offices of Wilkes' firm shortly before it received one of its first major government contracts in 1998. He met with executives and got a briefing on the company, ADCS Inc., which was formed a few years earlier and sought government contracts to convert paper records to electronic format.

The trip to ADCS headquarters was uncovered by the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog organization.

And also has more details on how much in earmarks Trident Systems Inc. -- whose founder, Ken Silverstein has reported, bought property with a former top aide to Lewis -- received from the Appropriations committee in recent years -- $11.7 million. They also interview Lewis' step-daughter Julia Willis-Leon, a fundraiser based in Las Vegas, who was paid $42,000 by the PAC* listing that property as its address, as Justin Rood previously reported. The lobbying firm, Copeland Lowery, for which two of Lewis' top aides worked, along with its clients, have contributed about half a million dollars to Lewis and his PAC over the years, the San Diego Union Trib reported in December. According to Tom Casey, the head of the now defunct defense contractor Audre, Lewis in turn solicited lobbying work for Copeland Lowery, co-owned by Lewis' friend, former San Diego Congressman Bill Lowery, and other favors to benefit Lowery. Lewis has denied it.

*More from the San Diego Union Trib/Copley News:

Small Biz Tech PAC was registered with the Federal Election Commission in February 2005, one month after Lewis became chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

"I'm shocked by this,” said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense. “They put the daughter of the House's most powerful appropriator on their payroll.”

So when the investigators put together the whole monster timeline of lobbying contracts, political donations, interactions between staff, lobbyists and defense contractors seeking earmarks, and the earmarks, relatives on the payroll of groups also handling PAC contributions, and various travel, will it be enough to prove a quid pro quo? I guess that's the question. Or is it enough to flip someone to tell them more? It seems Letitia White and Jeff Shockey are emerging as the Neil Volz and Ed Buckham of this case.

Posted by Laura at June 8, 2006 06:39 AM