The Noose Tightens: Murtha Pal Cops a Plea

How long until the corrupt Democrat John Murtha starts whining about vast right-wing conspiracies?

Can't be long. He's going to need a good excuse when his own indictment is handed down.

A former executive of a Pennsylvania defense firm with close ties to Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) has agreed to plead guilty to taking bribes from a partner defense company and is cooperating in a federal investigation of Pentagon contracting, records show.

Richard Ianieri, the former president of Coherent Systems International, agreed in court filings to admit that he took $200,000 in bribes from officials at a firm the company hired as a subcontractor. The charges were filed in court Monday and in more detail yesterday afternoon by federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh. They also indicate that Ianieri has consented to pleading guilty to the Pennsylvania charges in federal court in northern Florida, where he had faced unspecified but potentially related charges.

The company that allegedly paid Ianieri the bribes, identified in court filings only as "K," closely resembles Kuchera Defense Systems, which is based in Murtha's congressional district and was a subcontractor to Coherent. Kuchera Defense Systems and its sister company, Kuchera Industries, are under federal investigation for allegations of fraud and overbilling on Defense Department contracts.

Kuchera's attorney said he knows nothing about the charges. Coherent officials did not comment.

These are the first criminal charges in the probe of companies that benefited from contracts orchestrated or approved by Murtha, the powerful chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on military spending.

Naturally the bloated bag of wind pretends to know nothing.

Murtha said recently that the fraud allegations surrounding Kuchera do not involve him.

"What's that got to do with me?" he said. "What do you think, I'm supposed to oversee these companies? That's not my job. That's the Defense Department's job."

Complain as much as he'd like, but Murtha's ties to the guilty defendant go a ways back.

In April 2006, Murtha publicly touted the relationship between the two companies. A Murtha press release announced that Coherent and Kuchera were “working virtually as one company.” Murtha stated, “Coherent is a small business with high growth potential, and pairing its engineering expertise with Kuchera’s widely recognized manufacturing skills is a natural fit.”