The Cunningham–Shirlington Connection

By Ken Silverstein

The chickens of “Hookergate” (or as Wonkette has called it, “Watergategate”) are coming home to roost. Today, the House Homeland Security Committee held hearings on the $21.2 million contract with DHS that was won by Shirlington Limousine of Arlington, Virginia.

As I first reported here on April 27th, Shirlington was used as a personal limousine service by defense contractor Brent Wilkes. Wilkes, who allegedly bribed Randy "Duke" Cunningham in exchange for Cunningham's help in winning federal contracts, allegedly used Shirlington to ferry prostitutes to Cunningham (who is now serving jail time). Shirlington was also notable because its president Christopher Baker has a lengthy federal rap sheet—which is a bit surprising for a DHS contractor.

This murky story became slightly more clear today when House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Peter King and Representative Bennie Thompson announced that Christopher Baker has submitted a signed affidavit stating that then-Representative Cunningham supported Shirlington when the firm was seeking the DHS contract.

For its part, Homeland Security has insisted that there was no wrongdoing, and says it is unable to find the affidavit. But it also came out at today's hearing that Shirlington apparently submitted its bid three months before DHS announced that there would be a contract, which suggests that the limo company may have had inside information.

This appears to confirm what I have suggested all along—that Shirlington Limousine had powerful political friends. Recall also that Jerome Foster, one of the company's directors, is another defense contractor who was represented by the same lobby shop as Brent Wilkes—the firm of former congressman Bill Lowery (who, coincidentally, is very close to Congressman Jerry Lewis, currently under federal investigation, as I have previously discussed). So it seems that Shirlington, which is apparently part of an ongoing federal grand jury investigation, is the newest target in a long list of people and companies being investigated in multiple probes into members of Congress and Beltway lobbyists.

Note: This story was reported with assistance from Katherine Jentleson.

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