WASHINGTON - The FBI conducted six searches Monday, reportedly as part of an investigation into whether Pennsylvania Rep. Curt Weldon used his public office to steer business to his lobbyist daughter.
Weldon, a 10-term Republican from the Philadelphia suburbs and vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, questioned the timing of the FBI's actions — amid other scandals involving sitting Republicans — and suggested that they were politically motivated.
"What I find ironic, if there is an investigation, is that no one would tell me until three weeks before the election," Weldon said in Media, Pa.
He blamed the searches on a complaint an independent watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), filed with the Justice Department in April 2004 on whether Weldon violated federal bribery laws by using his public office to benefit companies that hired his daughter as a lobbyist. The CREW complaint was based on reports in the Los Angeles Times
Naomi Seligman Steiner, a spokeswoman the of the non-partisan non-profit CREW, said in response to Weldon, "We did the right thing and ultimately the Justice Department did as well."
The FBI is part of the Justice Department, which is run by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, an appointee of President Bush.
The Associated Press quoted an anonymous Washington official as saying the FBI conducted the raids Monday because of news reports over the weekend exposing the federal investigation. The investigation was first reported Friday by McClatchy Newspapers.
FBI agents conducted four raids in the Philadelphia area, including the home of Karen Weldon; the home of Charles Sexton, her business partner and the congressman's close friend; and the office of their company, Solutions North America, in Media. Agents conducted two more searches in the Jacksonville, Fla., area. Jacksonville is home to the U.S. headquarters of Russian-based Itera International Energy, which reportedly had hired Karen Weldon's lobbying firm for about $1 million.
Weldon said his daughter received no special consideration because of him. "I've never helped my daughter get anything. My kids are qualified on their own," he said.
Weldon's campaign manager, Michael Puppio, accusing Democrats of "attempting to smear the congressman and his entire family" in the final weeks of the campaign. He was referring to fliers the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent to voters last week alleging that Karen Weldon had received help from her father on lobbying projects.
Weldon, 59, is in a close race for re-election against Democrat Joe Sestak, a retired Navy vice admiral whose well-financed campaign has made him one of the biggest threats yet to Weldon's continued incumbency.
The raids came just three days after Rep. Bob Ney, a Republican from Ohio, entered guilty pleas to corruption charges in the expansive federal investigation of disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's influence peddling on Capitol Hill. They also came amid the House ethics committee's investigation of the circumstances that led to the recent resignation of Republican Mark Foley of Florida from Congress following reports of his lewd electronic messages to former underage congressional pages.
The investigations of Ney, Foley and earlier probes that led to the resignations of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California have contributed to difficulties the GOP is facing in trying to retain control of Congress in the Nov. 7 election.
"This could be a Forrest Gump victory for the Democrats - good things swirling around them sort of out of their control," said John Zogby, head of the independent Zogby International polling firm.