Republican Congressman Randy Cunningham's recent plea agreement is full of descriptions of the types of bribes he took including furniture. The furnishings were items he himself chose on trips to antique stores. KPBS Reporter Amita Sharma has more.
Sources say Congressman Cunningham walked into an antiques store on the East Coast in November 2001 and handpicked what he wanted. He chose three nightstands, a leaded glass cabinet, a washstand, a buffet and four armoires. Cunningham put them on hold.
Then, just days later defense contractor Mitchell Wade visited the same store, bought those items, and had them delivered to Cunningham.
The same pattern played out in February 2002. Cunningham visited an antiques store, this time choosing four drawers, a Louis Phillipe period commode and a Restoration period commode. Wade went in a short time later and paid for them.
Cunningham's wife accompanied the congressman to the store at least once.
In return for the furnishings and hundreds of thousands of dollars in other bribes Wade paid to Cunningham, the defense contractor with the Congressman's help, won tens of millions of dollars in military contracts. Amita Sharma, KPBS News
