SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Former U.S. Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham has returned to San Diego, nearly 17 months after a federal judge here sentenced him to more than eight years in prison for accepting $2.4 million in bribes.
Cunningham is listed as an inmate at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a downtown jail across the street from the courthouse where he was sentenced in March 2006.
Cunningham has been cooperating with federal prosecutors as they prepare for the September trial of Brent Wilkes, a defense contractor charged with bribing the congressman in exchange for contracts.
Wilkes has pleaded not guilty to more than 30 counts of bribery, fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.
An attorney for Cunningham, K. Lee Blalack III, declined to comment on why his client had been returned to California and said he did not know how long the former lawmaker would remain in San Diego.
Prosecutors declined to comment on Cunningham's transfer. An attorney for Wilkes did not immediately respond to a phone message.
Cunningham, 66, has served time at a medical facility in North Carolina and at a low-security work camp near Tucson, Ariz.
FBI records filed last week with a federal appeals court in connection with the case show that Cunningham, 66, gave interviews last February with federal investigators and prosecutors at the Tucson prison, shortly before indictments were returned against Wilkes and another alleged co-conspirator, John Michael.
The eight-term former Republican congressman from San Diego catalogued fancy trips, dinners and sports events he attended with Wilkes, much of which had been documented in court records.
