Melanie Sloan on CNN's "Situation Room" Discussing the Weldon FBI Investigation

16 Oct 2006 //

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: To our viewers, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM where new pictures and information are arriving all the time. Standing by, CNN reporters across the United States and around the world to bring you today's top stories.
Happening now, another October surprise in the battle for Congress. The FBI raids the homes of a Republican congressman's daughter and close friend. Why is Curt Weldon being targeted and why now three weeks before Election Day?
Also this hour, an axis of anxiety. North Korea's dictator sticks to his nuclear guns while the body count in Iraq reaches a disturbing new level. It's 4:00 p.m. here in Washington. We have a brand new poll on Americans' worst fears about North Korea and the prospect of another war.
Plus, a political holy war. A new push to get Christian conservatives fired up and into the voting booth. And a new charge by a former White House insider that the Bush administration has manipulated people of faith.

I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
Up first this hour, another Republican congressman under federal investigation and in political peril. That would be Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania. Today the FBI raided the homes of Weldon's daughter and a close friend. Sources say the Justice Department is looking into allegations that Weldon used his position in the Congress to direct contracts -- lucrative contracts to his daughter's firm.
Weldon denies any wrong-doing and he charges the probe is politically motivated and the timing, he says, is suspect, three weeks before America votes. Let's go to our congressional correspondent Dana Bash, she is watching this story for us -- Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, a federal law enforcement official acknowledges that they were concerned about this investigation becoming public and the result of that perhaps some of the potential evidence being tainted. And that is why the FBI moved fast to move up the raids that they conducted today on places from Philadelphia, all the way to Jacksonville, Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): A senior federal law enforcement official confirms the FBI conducted six searches Monday of businesses and residences relating to the Weldon probe, including the Philadelphia home of Karen Weldon, the congressman's daughter.
Neither Karen Weldon nor her attorney returned CNN's calls for comment. Congressman Weldon told reporters in Pennsylvania, quote: "I've not done anything wrong. I've never helped my daughter get anything. My kids are qualified on their own."
The investigation appears to be focused on whether the congressman helped two Russian companies and two Serbian brothers become clients of his daughter's lobbying firm. One source with knowledge of the inquiry tells CNN these lobbying contracts, apparently worth about a million dollars a year, have been under investigation for more than six months.
Both Weldon's attorney and chief of staff say they have not been alerted by the FBI about the investigation. Weldon attorney William Canfield tells CNN: "Here is a sitting member of Congress, pretty high up, who unnamed sources said is the subject of an investigation. We, however, can't possibly confirm that because no one has told us if that's true."
The Pennsylvania Republican, a 20-year veteran of the House, is in a neck-and-neck race to keep his seat. He calls the timing of this, three weeks before Election Day politically motivated, and blames Melanie Sloan, head of a liberal-leaning watchdog group for spurring the issue.
Sloan says she did file a complaint with the FBI but did that two-and-a-half years ago when questions were first raised by The Los Angeles Times.
MELANIE SLOAN, CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY & ETHICS IN WASHINGTON: We don't control what the Justice Department does. The Justice Department is investigating Curt Weldon. And I can't force the Justice Department to do anything.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: Meanwhile, government officials say they don't open or close investigations based on political pressure, they do that based on the evidence that they see. And also, Weldon's attorney tells us, Wolf, that they did -- take documentation, a lot of it, he says, to the House Ethics Committee two-and-a-half years ago, which he says proves that Curt Weldon did nothing wrong.
Also he says that Weldon's office put safeguards in place once his daughter became a lobbyist in order to show or at least avoid any impropriety -- Wolf.
BLITZER: He's a Republican in Pennsylvania, Dana. He was in deep trouble. He was potentially facing the life -- the race of his life even before these allegations now have surfaced. Is that right?
BASH: That's absolutely right. And it had nothing to do with -- or at least didn't have a lot to do with anything related to any potential corruption or any potential probe. The issue mostly in the 7th District of Pennsylvania so far has been Iraq. He has a Democratic opponent who is a retired three-star admiral, somebody who has been making Iraq a big issue.
And if you look at the polls and talk to even Republicans in Pennsylvania, it has been working for the Democrats. So already Curt Weldon is in a tough race about something completely different. This is certainly, his aides acknowledge, the last thing he needs. But as you see, they're trying to fight back and say that this is politically motivated.
BLITZER: Yes. Good timing for him, couldn't have been worse, Dana. Thanks very much.