The news that the FBI has raided the offices of the PMA Group spawned broader questions about the lobbying firm's deep ties to Rep. John Murtha (Pa.) and other senior House Democrats. Here is some of Roll Call's coverage of the company's Capitol Hill relationships.
Created by RollCall on Apr 29, 2009
Last updated: 03/11/10 at 01:48 PM
A former Air Force employee pleaded guilty Monday to skimming money from an earmark that was provided to a Pennsylvania defense contractor by Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.).
http://www.rollcall.com/news/36998-1.html
The House ethics committee has announced that it is investigating the links between earmarks and campaign contributions, but if investigators are looking at any activity prior to 2007, they could run into a problem: The documents underlying those earmarks may have been destroyed.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/55_6/news/36770-1.html
A contracting firm that had hired the brother of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) as its lobbyist took the proceeds from a Murtha-provided, $8.2 million Air Force earmark and distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to other companies represented by the Congressman’s brother for items that were not part of the project, the Justice Department charged Thursday.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/36647-1.html
The Justice Department this week filed criminal charges against a defense contractor who has received millions of dollars worth of earmarks from Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), bringing together two parallel cases that are swirling around a host of firms with ties to the Congressman.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/55_3/news/36560-1.html
For the past several years, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) has funneled more than $3 million in earmarks to a company in his district to build an underwater “swimmer detection” sonar system for the Navy to use to protect its docks and ships.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/55_2/news/36510-1.html
The PMA Group, the lobbying titan that closed its doors in March after an FBI raid, has filed more than a dozen lawsuits against former clients for failure to pay outstanding debts. Now, one company has responded with a $3 million countersuit that alleges PMA cheated it out of an earmark it was expecting to receive.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_150/news/36139-1.html
Last year, Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) secured five defense earmarks for private companies in his hometown of Bremerton, Wash., worth a total of $10 million. Four of the companies shared something in common — they were all represented by the PMA Group, the now-defunct lobbying firm that has spurred an investigation of earmarks by the House ethics committee.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_147/news/35929-1.html
The House ethics committee is investigating the PMA Group and its ties to lawmakers, the panel confirmed Thursday.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/35788-1.html
House Democrats on Wednesday tried to neutralize a months-long Republican attack on senior Democratic appropriators’ ties to the now-defunct lobbying firm PMA Group by calling on the ethics committee to disclose whether it is investigating the matter.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_140/news/35506-1.html
Two veteran House Democrats could face more complicated bids for re-election next year, depending on the outcome of a federal investigation into PMA Group, a now-defunct lobbying firm.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_140/politics/35505-1.html
Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) is handing off control of the energy and water spending bill as he confronts a federal investigation into his ties to a now-defunct lobbying firm.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/35409-1.html
Federal investigators examining Rep. Peter Visclosky’s (D-Ind.) ties to a now-defunct lobbying firm could face constitutional hurdles if they hope to examine how earmarks were doled out to the firm’s clients.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_138/news/35391-1.html
Chuck Brimmer has resigned as chief of staff to Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) after being served with a subpoena as part of the federal grand jury probe of the PMA Group, a now-defunct lobbying firm.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/35417-1.html
Federal investigators have subpoenaed Rep. Peter Visclosky’s (D-Ind.) offices and certain employees as part of a grand jury probe of the lawmaker’s ties to a now-defunct lobbying firm, the lawmaker said in a statement Friday.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/35297-1.html
Hoping to head into the Memorial Day recess with a bang, House Republicans used a procedural motion on Thursday afternoon to try to block funding for a little-used airport named after Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), who continues to be plagued by ethics troubles.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/35190-1.html
At the request of the federal government, a Virginia-based defense contractor with close ties to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) is providing information for a criminal investigation in Florida surrounding allegations that three men skimmed money from earmarks, according to sources familiar with the case.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_131/news/34917-1.html
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) is renewing his challenge to House Democrats to confront the ongoing scandal surrounding the PMA Group, the now-defunct lobbying firm with close ties to senior appropriators.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/34672-1.html
A federal court in Florida is scheduled to begin a criminal trial next month featuring an intriguing cast of characters, with multiple links to the PMA Group and other entities in the orbit of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) that are under investigation by the FBI. Neither Murtha nor PMA is mentioned in the Florida case.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_123/news/34446-1.html
Good-government advocates pressed the House ethics committee Thursday to investigate three lawmakers with close ties to the defunct lobbying firm PMA Group.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/34455-1.html
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called reports about the little-used airport named after Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) “appalling” and said the ethics committee should look at the relationship between defunct lobbying firm PMA Group and key lawmakers at his weekly press conference Thursday morning.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/34458-1.html
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday brought her quiet push to contain the fallout from the unfolding PMA Group scandal to a critical front: her own freshmen.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/34429-1.html
Democracy 21 and other good-government groups are expected to ask the House ethics committee next week for an investigation into lawmakers with close ties to defunct lobbying firm PMA Group, Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer said on Friday.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/34292-1.html
After a long silence on the unfolding federal probe of the PMA Group and its ties to senior Democrats, House Democratic leaders are cobbling together a defense to offer political cover to their rank and file.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/33974-1.html
Despite the fact that the firm will be closing its doors shortly, the PMA Group has filed several lawsuits against its clients in recent weeks for failure to pay a combined $150,000 in fees the firm believes it is owed, and more suits are apparently in the works.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_106/news/33392-1.html
The PMA Group, the lobbying firm with close ties to key House Democrats that was raided by the FBI last fall, has deep financial ties with many of the firms that it was lobbying for, according to a Roll Call review of financial records.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_103/news/33201-1.html
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday filed yet another resolution aimed at triggering a House ethics probe of the PMA Group, the defense lobbying firm under criminal investigation for allegedly providing improper campaign contributions.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/33239-1.html
The Senate on Wednesday rejected a proposal to strip from the omnibus spending bill a series of earmarks associated with a lobbying firm now under federal investigation, despite warnings from reformers that lawmakers would be forced to answer for their vote in the coming election cycle.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_97/news/32889-1.html
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pushed back Tuesday against Republican attempts to eliminate spending in the omnibus appropriations bill for clients of PMA Group, a lobbying firm under investigation by the FBI.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/32805-1.html
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) wants to offer dozens of amendments to the 2009 omnibus appropriations bill to strip out earmarks that would benefit clients of the PMA Group, the lobbying firm that was raided by the FBI in November.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/32773-1.html
The House curtailed Rep. Jeff Flake’s (R-Ariz.) attempt Wednesday to force an ethics investigation into the relationship between earmark requests and campaign contributions, which he sought in response to the ongoing federal investigation into the PMA Group.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/32642-1.html
Tracking Federal Election Commission records of campaign donations attributed to the PMA Group is a comedy of errors, misinformation and mysteries, making it difficult to determine exactly how much money people affiliated with the firm have donated to campaigns.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_90/news/32503-1.html
It has been a vertiginous fall for Paul Magliocchetti, clearly the least-known of the city’s best-known lobbyists.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_90/streettalk/32495-1.html
Dozens of House and Senate lawmakers are contemplating whether to purge their campaign accounts of as much as a combined $5 million in contributions, as federal investigators pursue separate probes of two major donors.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_90/news/32501-1.html
Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) plans to dump $2,000 in campaign cash from sources affiliated with the PMA Group, becoming the first Republican to return donations from the heavily Democratic lobbying shop at the center of a federal probe.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/32468-1.html
The PMA Group plans to cease its lobbying activities on March 31, according to three sources with knowledge of the firm.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/32453-1.html
In the wake of a federal raid of a Virginia lobbying firm that has doled out millions of dollars in campaign contributions to lawmakers, questions about the relationships between Members and the PMA Group could land before the House ethics committee — where Federal Election Commission records show five of 10 panel members have themselves received donations.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_89/news/32421-1.html
In 2006, the PMA Group, a powerhouse Washington, D.C., lobbying firm, added to its board of directors two Floridians who were not lobbyists and apparently had no connection to politics, but who became prodigious donors to the firm’s favored Members of Congress.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/32403-1.html
The PMA Group, a 20-year fixture of the Washington, D.C., lobbying scene, suffered a potentially fatal blow this week, with news that eight of its lobbyists had walked out the door to form their own shop and that the firm was raided in November by the FBI.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_87/news/32270-1.html
With the recent raids on a Virginia lobbying firm and Pennsylvania contractors with close ties to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), federal agents appear to be circling the powerful defense spending chief.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_87/news/32276-1.html
The FBI raided the offices of a defense lobbying firm with close ties to Democratic Rep. John Murtha (Penn.), sources tell ABC News.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6840438
Facing a surprisingly tough re-election challenge in the closing days of his 2008 campaign, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) called on a well-established network of his earmarking beneficiaries to bail him out. And the defense industry contractors, several of whom had pulled down millions of dollars in Murtha earmarks in the 2009 defense spending bill, responded by flooding his coffers with what amounted to rescue cash.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_78/news/31774-1.html
WINDBER — Three federal agencies on Thursday raided the business and home addresses of brothers and prominent area businessmen Bill and Ron Kuchera.
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/local/local_story_022234644.html
Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) has steered hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal and private money to a charity run by a Murtha protégé, which has as its primary mission handing out $250 checks to high school students in and around Murtha’s Congressional district.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/53_148/news/25734-1.html
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. — In a former cornfield 10 miles south of the blighted core of Gary, the once-thriving steel capital, stands an ultra-modern technology incubator that locals hope will spark an economic resurgence.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/53_37/news/20310-1.html
A new political action committee created by the brother of Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) raised $50,000 this spring almost entirely from staff and clients of powerhouse lobbying shop PMA Group, and within weeks, those same donors reaped millions of dollars in earmarks from Reyes and other Members of Congress closely affiliated with PMA.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/53_35/news/20256-1.html
From their perch on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, three House Democrats have steered $100.5 million to clients of a lobbying firm that is emerging as a top source of their campaign funds.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/53_27/news/20015-1.html
NDIANA, Pa. — In April 2004, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) celebrated the groundbreaking for a gleaming new office building here, designed around its anchor tenant, a Rockville, Md.-based technology company called Aeptec Microsystems.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/52_145/news/19117-1.html
While Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) spent the first months of the year railing against President Bush’s troop increase for the Iraq War, he was experiencing his own surge closer to home.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/52_112/vested/18090-1.html
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