WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon denied helping his lobbyist daughter win lucrative contracts on Monday, just hours after federal agents searched her home and that of a party activist.
"My daughter doesn't need my help now and she never has," Weldon told a news conference in Springfield, Pennsylvania.
...
Weldon said in a statement: "I have received confirmation that the Justice Department has opened a preliminary inquiry into items previously reported on by the L.A. (Los Angeles) Times in 2004."
He said he would provide investigators all documents and information they sought.
"I am confident that investigators will reach the same conclusions as the House Ethics Committee, which looked into these allegations in 2004 at my request, and found that I had engaged in no wrongdoing," Weldon said.
Weldon accused Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a public advocacy group that requested a Justice Department review of the matter two years ago, of engaging in "the politics of personal destruction."
Weldon said the group is closely tied to his Democratic challenger, "and now, just weeks before my re-election word that the inquiry is occurring has mysteriously trickled out."...
A U.S. law enforcement official said the government investigation went beyond the 2004 allegations. He said the Justice Department had received additional information that "has renewed interest in this issue."
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2006-10-16T231338Z_01_N16149452_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-POLITICS-WELDON.xml
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