Paper: Indictment against Alleged Cunningham Briber “So Close”

From North County Times:

The U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego is close to seeking an indictment against Brent Wilkes, a Poway defense contractor whose company received millions of dollars in government contracts after allegedly bribing the now-imprisoned Randy “Duke” Cunningham, two federal officials with intimate knowledge of the case said Tuesday.

“I know we are so close,” said one official, who agreed to speak with the North County Times on the condition that his name not be published.

A preliminary draft indictment is under review by “many eyes on what is going to be proposed to the grand jury,” according to the source.

The big question here is whether prosecutors will focus their case on the Wilkes’ bribing of Cunningham (as detailed extensively in his guilty plea), or whether it will extend to alleged bribes of other lawmakers and government officials, such as the CIA’s former #2, Dusty Foggo.

A couple of weeks ago, The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Attorney overseeing the investigation, Carol Lam, had ordered her prosecutors to draw up the indictment before she was finally forced out in mid-February.