[6] "Prosecutors also laid out a second, separate conspiracy in which Wade was alleged to have paid bribes to a Defense Department official and other employees in return for their help in awarding contracts to his company.
"[7] On April 27, 2006, Scot J. Patrow, writing for The Wall Street Journal, reported prosecutors were investigating whether other members of Congress or their staff received the services of prostitutes provided at Cunningham's request by Mitchell Wade.
One of Wilkes's companies received more than $80 million in Pentagon contracts over the past decade that stemmed from earmarks that Cunningham slipped into spending bills.
According to reports in the Wall Street Journal and the San Diego Union-Tribune, prostitutes regularly accompanied guests at the suites.
In fact, in 2000 the Pentagon's inspector general blasted the company's biggest project, a $9.7 million contract to convert documents in Panama.
The report said the program was created under pressure from two congressmen, whom Pentagon procurement officials have identified as Cunningham and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif), chairman of the Armed Services Committee," to whom Wilkes had also donated heavily.
[11] Reuters reported: In violation of campaign-finance laws, Wade was found to have reimbursed employees at his company, MZM Inc., who made campaign contributions to two other members of Congress.
A spokeswoman for Harris, who as Florida's secretary of state played a key role in the 2000 disputed presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, said she had given the $52,000 she received from MZM employees to charity.
MZM operates several facilities in Goode's south-central Virginia district, including one that conducts background checks on foreign-owned defense contractors.