John Murtha and the Abscam bribery investigation
John Murtha became embroiled in the dragnet ABSCAM investigation, which
targeted dozens of congressman, in 1980. He was not indicted or
prosecuted, though he was named by the Justice Department as an
unindicted co-conspirator. An excerpt of the FBI videotaped Murtha as
saying, "I'm not interested...at this point. [If] we do business for a
while, maybe I'll be interested, maybe I won't." to $50,000 cash right
after Murtha had offered to provide names of businesses and banks in
his district where money could be legally invested.
Links to the actual videos of his involvement can be found at the following two links (Warning NSFW, Strong Language) and Full length versions of the tape show that the FBI undercover operative repeatedly attempted to offer Rep. Murtha money, whereby Rep. Murtha declined, though he implied he might be interested later, after the "Saudi representatives" invested in businesses in his district.
The U.S. Attorneys Office declined prosecution of Mr. Murtha, reasoning that the Congressman's intent was to obtain investment in his district, the very premise of the FBI operation. However, John Fund writes in the Wall Street Journal that Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill and Democratic Rep. Charlie Wilson of Texas shut the probe down before the special prosecutor, Barrett Prettyman, could finish investigating Murtha. Quoting from the 2003 book Charlie Wilson's War, by George Crile (a producer for CBS's 60 Minutes), Fund writes:
"Before Prettyman could fully deploy his investigators to move on the Murtha case, he was informed that the committee had concluded there was no justification for an investigation." The Ethics Committee chairman, Rep. Louis Stokes of Ohio, suddenly declared "This matter is closed."
Prettyman resigned that same day without having indicted Murtha.
Retired FBI Agents familiar with the investigation felt that Murtha was "stringing along" a group of "businessmen", seeing whether they would "put up or shut up" and invest in Western Pennsylvania.[citation needed] Mr. Murtha's district had been extremely hard hit economically. Full length viewing of the tape reveal Murtha citing prospective investment opportunities that could return "500 or 1000" miners to work.
* This note is publicly editable. The original source was: Wikipedia.com
Links to the actual videos of his involvement can be found at the following two links (Warning NSFW, Strong Language) and Full length versions of the tape show that the FBI undercover operative repeatedly attempted to offer Rep. Murtha money, whereby Rep. Murtha declined, though he implied he might be interested later, after the "Saudi representatives" invested in businesses in his district.
The U.S. Attorneys Office declined prosecution of Mr. Murtha, reasoning that the Congressman's intent was to obtain investment in his district, the very premise of the FBI operation. However, John Fund writes in the Wall Street Journal that Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill and Democratic Rep. Charlie Wilson of Texas shut the probe down before the special prosecutor, Barrett Prettyman, could finish investigating Murtha. Quoting from the 2003 book Charlie Wilson's War, by George Crile (a producer for CBS's 60 Minutes), Fund writes:
"Before Prettyman could fully deploy his investigators to move on the Murtha case, he was informed that the committee had concluded there was no justification for an investigation." The Ethics Committee chairman, Rep. Louis Stokes of Ohio, suddenly declared "This matter is closed."
Prettyman resigned that same day without having indicted Murtha.
Retired FBI Agents familiar with the investigation felt that Murtha was "stringing along" a group of "businessmen", seeing whether they would "put up or shut up" and invest in Western Pennsylvania.[citation needed] Mr. Murtha's district had been extremely hard hit economically. Full length viewing of the tape reveal Murtha citing prospective investment opportunities that could return "500 or 1000" miners to work.
* This note is publicly editable. The original source was: Wikipedia.com
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