Weldon Probe: Feds raid homes of Sexton and Curt’s daughter

17 Oct 2006 // As U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon was proclaiming his innocence Monday morning in Media, FBI agents were raiding the home of his daughter and the leader of the Springfield Republican Party as part of an investigation into whether Weldon used his influence to help the pair obtain nearly $1 million worth of overseas lobbying and consulting contracts.

Starting about 9 a.m., agents began descending on a total of six locations, including Karen Weldon’s home in the Queen Village section of Philadelphia, Charles Sexton’s Springfield rancher on Kelli Lane and the office of their company, Solutions North America, in Media.

"I don’t know anything about an investigation. I have no idea, no clue," Weldon, apparently unaware of the raids, told reporters at a 10:15 a.m. press conference about an airspace redesign plan at Philadelphia International Airport. "I have not done anything wrong."

Federal agents searched two locations in Jacksonville, Fla., one of them the headquarters of Itera energy group, FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman confirmed.

The Russian-based Itera International Energy Corp. signed a $500,000 contract with Solutions North America on Sept. 30, 2002, six days after Weldon introduced a House resolution to encourage U.S. "cooperation with the Russian Federation on energy development issues" and hosted a Library of Congress dinner to honor the company’s chairman. The contract included a $170,000 up-front payment and a 10 percent "finder’s fee" for any sales Solutions generated, according to published reports.

The FBI also searched the Philadelphia office of attorney John Gallagher, according to a law enforcement official. Gallagher introduced Sexton to another Solutions client, Saratov Aviation Plant. Weldon visited the Russian company in 2003, reportedly with his daughter, and later brought its experimental aircraft to the Navy’s attention.

News of the investigation throws Weldon’s re-election campaign into disarray as he tries to stave off hard-charging Democrat Joseph Sestak, a retired Navy admiral who is running evenly with the 10-term incumbent in the 7th District Keystone Poll conducted late last month. Sexton, a longtime political ally of Weldon’s who was handling the bulk of his fund-raising, immediately stepped down Monday as a senior adviser to the campaign.

The congressman’s staff had insisted Friday evening that "there is no investigation" because they had not been contacted by the Justice Department or the FBI. Weldon spokesman Michael Puppio said Saturday that their attorneys were considering filing a defamation lawsuit against McClatchy Newspapers, which broke the story Friday night.

Weldon said Monday he believed the FBI raids were linked to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the left-leaning watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Days before the story broke, a DCCC-funded mailer began circulating the district, accusing Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, of using his position to "help his lobbyist daughter win defense contracts potentially worth millions for her clients."

DCCC spokeswoman Jen Psaki denied any connection between the mailing and reports of the investigation, calling Weldon "paranoid."

At a late-afternoon press conferenceoutside his campaign headquarters, Weldon repeatedly denied that he had helped his daughter attain any contracts.

"What bothers me as a father is to see somebody say she’s inexperienced," Weldon said of Karen Weldon, now 32 years old. "I’ll put my daughter up against anyone, anyplace in terms of her capability. She’s a very competent young lady and I stand behind her 1,000 percent."

Weldon, of Thornbury, said he would "fully cooperate" with the investigation while he asked voters to see through what his campaign said was the work of "left wing liberal activists" -- specifically CREW’s executive director, Melanie Sloan.

"I’m not here to point fingers, but that article, that mass mailing was done on Wednesday, went to every house in my district. Maybe it was a coincidence," he said. "But I’m also aware that the person who filed the one complaint against me with the Justice Department, Melanie Sloan, was a key staffer for (U.S. Rep.) John Conyers, who stands to become the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, assuming the Democrats will win control of the Congress.

"I think it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this district could swing control of the Congress," he continued. "Melanie Sloan filed the complaint, I have a copy of it, and on her board she has one of my opponent’s biggest single contributor(s), a fellow by the name of Dan Berger."

In April 2004, CREW asked the Justice Department to investigate Weldon’s role in how Solutions landed contracts with Itera, Saratov and the Serbian Karic Foundation.

Sloan said Saturday her group has heard nothing from the department since. Sestak did not declare his candidacy in the 7th District race until February.

Berger, a Philadelphia attorney and prominent Democratic fund-raiser, is a CREW board member whose law firm, Berger and Montague, is one of Sestak’s largest campaign contributors. CREW spokeswoman Naomi Seligman Steiner said her group did not influence the timing of the FBI investigation.

"We knew when everyone else knew," Steiner said, referring to the McClatchy report that was posted online Friday night. "If he’s looking to blame anyone," she said of Weldon, "he should blame himself."

Asked Monday morning why a Justice Department under a Republican administration would play a role in a Democratic scheme to undermine his campaign, Weldon said: "The bureaucracy, it’s not Democrat or Republican."

Three weeks before Election Day, the investigation plays into the Democrats’ theme that 12 years of Republican control has created a "culture of corruption" in Washington. It follows the recent resignation of U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., for sending sexually explicit messages to former congressional pages and a guilty plea from U.S. Rep. Robert Ney, R-Ohio, on corruption charges related to the Jack Abramoff scandal.

Sestak spokesman Ryan Rudominer called the developments "very troubling" but otherwise declined to comment.

After the Los Angeles Times first reported in 2004 on Weldon’s ties to Solutions clients, the congressman voluntarily provided the House Ethics Committee with the relevant documentation. He has refused to share that documentation with the Daily Times.

Weldon said Monday that the committee asked some follow-up questions and eventually gave him a "written letter closing the case." Asked if the letter cleared him of the current allegations, he responded: "I didn’t say clearing, I said closing the case. I’ll use their exact terminology."

Weldon said he spoke to committee Chairman Doc Hastings on Sunday and Hastings said he "was not aware of any contact between the ethics committee and the Justice Department."

The congressman refused to comment on the "substance of what the investigation might be about," other than to say he has not received a target letter or been contacted by the FBI or Justice Department. He has retained attorney William Winning, and his campaign said it would provide no further comment due to the ongoing investigation.

Karen Weldon could not be reached for comment Monday. Sexton and Solutions attorney Joseph Fioravanti did not return phone calls. Gallagher, the Philadelphia attorney whose office was raided, said Saturday that federal investigators hadn’t contacted him. "It sounds pretty outrageous," Gallagher said, when told about reports of an investigation.

"We look forward to getting back to the issues of this campaign, although this obviously makes it very difficult," Weldon said. "And to the constituents out there who’ve supported me for 30 years, all I can say is I hope you’ll bear with me through this process.

"It is a difficult one, I would not have wished this on anyone, and three weeks before the election, that makes the campaign that much more difficult. But, you know, life goes on and we will survive."