Wilkes Scheduled for Court Appearance

Brent Wilkes has a court date today where we’ll find out if his trial will proceed next week as scheduled, in the wake of the blitz of subpoenas his lawyer served to 12 members of Congress and had issued for some senators and high-ranking administration officials, The Hill reports. It looks unlikely that the trial will forge on, on time.

A hearing is scheduled for Monday on the House’s motion to quash the subpoenas to the congressmen.

The House general counsel’s motion rejected the subpoenas for “a host of reasons,” primarily because the information sought is protected under the Speech and Debate Clause, which bars members of Congress from being investigated for work related to legislative activity.

The motion notes that in Hunter’s and Lewis’s cases, the subpoenas sought documents related to appropriations, authorizations and earmark requests in three categories: a) those pertaining to programs of interest to Cunningham and Wilkes, b) documents related to Wilkes’s bribery of Cunningham, Hunter or Lewis, and c) documents “evidencing bribes ‘offered to you or accepted by you.’”

Hunter and Lewis have no documents responsive to categories B or C, the motion said, although Hunter “may have” some documents responsive to category A.