Contractor denies bribing lawmaker
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — A defense contractor emphatically denied bribing former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham as he took the stand in his own defense yesterday.
Brent Wilkes' attorney, Mark Geragos, surprised prosecutors by calling Wilkes to testify as the trial resumed yesterday, after a weeklong pause while wildfires ravaged Southern California.
"Did you ever bribe him?" Geragos asked Wilkes.
"No, I didn't," Wilkes replied. He later reiterated, "I never bribed anyone, I never asked anyone to do anything for any reason other than that they believed in the projects."
He has steadfastly denied prosecutors' claims that he bribed Cunningham with luxurious trips, meals and even a rendezvous with prostitutes at a Big Island resort in exchange for help securing nearly $90 million in federal contracts, mainly for digitizing documents. Geragos has said the transactions between Wilkes and the lawmaker were all legitimate.
Wilkes insisted he had never hired prostitutes for himself or the congressman, telling jurors that his nephew, an employee, had hired masseuses on a trip to Hawai'i. Wilkes said he had not recognized the two escorts who testified for the government that they had been paid to join the men in the hot tub of their private bungalow at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel in August 2003. One of the women said she went upstairs and had sex with a man she identified as Cunningham after he fed her grapes while she sat naked in the tub.
"I never had sex with them," Wilkes said. Neither of the women who testified identified Wilkes in the courtroom.
Throughout his testimony, Wilkes blamed shady dealings with Cunningham on his nephew, Joel Combs, and his former colleague, Mitch Wade, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to bribing Cunningham.
Cunningham, 65, is in a federal prison facility across the street from the courtroom where Wilkes' trial is taking place. The disgraced congressman is serving more than eight years after pleading guilty in 2005 to accepting $2.4 million in cash, mortgage payments and other perks from defense contractors.
