FBI Is Probing Leak of Curt Weldon Investigation, Mueller Says (PA 7)

[brooklynite]

Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting a leak investigation into the disclosure several weeks before the congressional elections that the FBI is probing U.S. Representative Curt Weldon, the agency's director said.

FBI chief Robert Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee today that the agency is pursuing ``a series'' of leak probes of its agents, including one involved in the Weldon matter. The Pennsylvania Republican, who lost his seat on Nov. 7, was involved in a tight race when the news of the investigation broke.

``I was exceptionally disappointed, and that is being charitable in terms of my response,'' Mueller said about the leak. ``It is unfair in advance of an election, but, as importantly to us, it adversely affected the investigation.''

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20061206/pl_bloomberg/almyvt8nwlpq_1

I agree - How dare voters be allowed to take into account a candidate's potential criminal activity!

[BOSSHOG]

1. How is it unfair Mueller?

The citizens of the district can take that info and decide for themselves prior to voting. And how did it adversely effect the investigation?

So if it were disclosed after the election (and Weldon had won) the FBI would not be investigating the leak?

[gratuitous]

2. Bummer Mr. Mueller

But then, if your little band of Keystone State Kops had been a little more diligent in their work, Mr. Weldon might not have even had to stand for re-election. But now, I guess justice for Mr. Weldon will have to wait while Mr. Mueller pulls out all the stops looking for who leaked the fact that the FBI was investigating Weldon.

You can't make this stuff up.

[rodeodance]

3. whinny little kids

[truthisfreedom]

4. It sorta sounds like someone wanted to impede the investigation.

I'm not unhappy about the election result, however.

[stillcool]

5. adversely affected...

their investigation? That's a hard sentence for me to parse. I was under the impression the FBI investigated subversive groups like Green Peace, anti-war protesters and some school children who don't like the president. All other investigations required only a shovel. Did someone have to stop shoveling?

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Mueller never met a Repug

he wouldn't protect.

Oh BTW Mueller, how's that 9-11 Investigation going? Oh what, FBI investigation? The one your guys never did.

[leveymg]

7. The proximate source of the leak was inside Weldon's campaign

Actually, the crime which the FBI is investigating was first reported by the LA Times two years ago:http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061106/berman

On the night of Friday, October 13, news broke that the FBI was investigating Weldon for using his stature as vice chair of the House Armed Service Committee to steer nearly $1 million in contracts from Russian and Serbian businesses to his daughter and right-hand man, between 2002 and 2004. Those implicated include two Serbian brothers linked to dictator Slobodan Milosevic; a Russian energy company, Itera, with a notoriously cloudy business history; and an obscure Russian aerospace manufacturer, Saratov Aviation Plant, that "quite unexpectedly" caught Weldon's eye, according to a company official. At the time of the contracts, Weldon's daughter, Karen, was a 29-year-old consulting novice. Her associate, local political boss and longtime Weldon ally Charles Sexton Jr., claimed "no special knowledge of Eastern Europe," according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, and spoke no foreign languages. Weldon's interventions on their behalf were first disclosed by the Los Angeles Times in 2004. Three days after the October 13 story, FBI agents raided six locations as part of the probe, including the homes of Karen Weldon and Sexton. The Washington Post subsequently reported that evidence had been presented to a grand jury and wiretaps obtained for Washington-area cellphones.

Millmon suggests the story was leaked as a damage control measure by a Weldon ally:

Weldon's campaign, predictably, is crying foul over the leak. But the timing of the story -- which hit the wires during the traditional late Friday afternoon window for dumping bad news -- suggests the leak was a damage control operation by those who have Crazy Curt's political interests, and their own, at heart.

My guess (it's only that) is that the leakers had reason to believe news of the investigation would surface, one way or another, before the election, and wanted to try to bury it in the Saturday papers. Which means the leak could have come from the Weldon camp itself, or, more likely, from GOP politicos inside the Justice Department.

Posted by billmon at October 13, 2006 09:16 PM

According to the local newspaper, the guy on the ground who broke the story was actually on the Weldon campaign payroll:

Delco Daily Times: "Weldon's FBI 'informant' on Curt's Payroll." http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17353831&BRD=1675&PAG=461&dept_id=18171&rfi=6

While Weldon identified his source as Gregory Auld, he failed to mention that Auld has been on the campaign’s payroll since May.

Campaign finance reports filed this week show that Weldon Victory Committee has paid Auld & Associates Investigations $25,000 to conduct opposition research. <...>

Auld acknowledged his firm had a six-month contract with the Weldon campaign that runs through Election Day. He said pursuing the lead at the gym "probably was part of my responsibility" as a paid opposition researcher.

Holy mackerel. And even though Auld is on Weldon's payroll to the tune of $25,000, he still says Weldon lied in recent statements:
The Republican congressman has asserted that the investigation was timed to coincide with the Nov. 7 election. He said Auld’s discovery, if true, means the Justice Department was coordinating its probe with the Sestak campaign, a claim the campaign has dismissed as "laughable." ...

Much of Weldon’s story didn’t check out with Auld, who said he had heard through a man at a local gym that another man who frequently wore a Sestak shirt said three weeks ago that "something big was going to come down on Weldon" last weekend.

Auld, of Drexel Hill, said he spoke to the Sestak supporter Tuesday, but "he never said they knew" about the investigation before it hit the newspapers.