"Cunningham Demanded......Bribe"

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego today filed court papers containing the following allegation concerning Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham:

"...Cunningham 'demanded and received' a bribe from a Pentagon contractor who paid 'an amount far greater' than market value for the congressman's Del Mar Heights home in 2003..."

The legal papers documenting these charges we originally filed in secret as part of an action by the U.S. Attorney's Office to insure that the federal government had a say in any potential sale of the Rancho Santa Fe home that Cunningham purchased with the money that the feds contend he received as a bribe from Mitchell Wade of MZM Inc.

"Cunningham and his wife sold their Del Mar house to a company owned by Mitchell Wade, the president and owner of Pentagon contractor MZM Inc., on Nov. 20, 2003, for $1.675 million, "an amount far greater than its true fair market value," a prosecutor said in the papers.

"Cunningham demanded and received this money in return for being influenced in the performance of his official acts as a public official," prosecutor Jason Forge said in the papers.

Government lawyers originally filed the suit seeking to seize Cunningham's house in secret, but put a notice with county property records advising potential buyers of the suit."

The U.S. Attorney certainly believes that Cunningham's home sale, which netted as much as $700,000 over the market price of his Del Mar home, was more than the "error in judgement" that Cunningham claims it to have been.

To date, not a single Democrat in Congress has demonstrated the courage to file the papers required to initiate an ethics investigation of Cunningham.

Cunningham continues to pretend to represent the people of the 50th District, while he hides from them and organizes and finances his legal defense activities.

It is an embarrassment that Cunningham is still in office.