In July 1981, the House ethics committee ruled there was no evidence Mr. Murtha acted improperly, although E. Barrett Prettyman Jr., the special counsel assigned to the committee, resigned in protest. The FBI listed Mr. Murtha as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the scandal.
Near the end of the 54-minute video of the meeting, Mr. Murtha and Philadelphia lawyer Howard Criden return to the room after a brief absence. Mr. Criden then begins speaking to undercover FBI agent Anthony Amoroso, who posed as "Tony DeVito," the purported sheik's representative.
"John says it's OK for you to give me what's in the drawer," Mr. Criden says, according to the Spectator's transcript of the video.
"Is that all right, Tony?" Mr. Murtha asks Mr. Amoroso. Then, referring to Thompson and Murphy, Mr. Murtha says: "Let me make it very clear. The other two guys do expect to be taken care of. ... And you're gonna have to deal through [Mr. Criden]. Me, you've got my deal."
Mrs. Irey played excerpts from the video at a press conference in Washington yesterday. "Leaving a room where one has just been offered $50,000 in cash, only to return two minutes later with a bag man saying, 'John says that it is OK for you to give me what's in the drawer,' is not something done by a man who's not aware he's trying to take a bribe," Mrs. Irey said.
Blogs For Bush has a lot of fun with Murtha's love of earmarks and self-anointed "dealmaker" reputation.
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