Pressure building on Murtha?
By Bill Allison May 19 2009 12:16 p.m.Justin Rood reports on the ABC News Investigative blog on the several different investigations of Rep. John Murtha, the defunct PMA Group which funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions to Murtha from its PAC, employees and its clients, many of which were the beneficiaries of Murtha earmarks. Rood notes that these investigations are all distinct inquiries:
The federal probes do not appear to be directly connected or controlled by a single office, agency or prosecutor, but instead involve various combinations including the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the Defense Criminal Investigation Service, the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, and the FBI.
Two ways to look at this: With so many investigators looking at so many different threads, the pressure must be mounting. On the other hand, with the inquiry spread over so many different agencies and without any central oversight, it sounds more likely that each investigation is looking at the periphery (PMA Group, the earmark recipients) rather than what links them (Murtha).
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