Whatever happened to the former DC Madam escort who contacted Ken Silverstein over Shirlington Limo and Hookergate?

Washington D.C.--Inquiring minds want to know! I don't think Mr. Silverstein or Harper's were lying when he posted in early May 2007 that an intern lost the phone number of this woman-in-question, but surely they could have checked their own phone bills for the call that day? Perhaps it all got lost in the shuffle? That's the most likely reason, and considering the level of intimidation the government's investigators and prosecutors were putting out with former escorts of Pamela Martin & Associates, she probably got cold-feet and went into hiding.

She should know that I have her name and the names of virtually every escort that ever worked for the late Ms. Palfrey.

I want to talk to you--any of you--who worked for Jeane at one time. I will not divulge your identities without your express permission, my word is my bond. But this is a missing piece-of-the-puzzle here, this Shirlington lead, because it probably exposes illegal lobbying practices in the nation's capital and might even bring Palfrey a little justice, some vindication.

Give it some thought.

"Red Lights on Capitol Hill?", Harper's Magazine, 04.27.2006: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/04/sb-red-lights-on-capitol-hill

"Missed Connection," Harper's, 05.09.2007:http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/05/hbc-90000031

Sourcewatch's page on Shirlington Limo and Transportation, Inc: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Shirlington_Limousine_and_Transportation,_Inc.

An open letter to Brent Wilkes, convicted briber of former GOP Rep. Randy Cunningham

Mr. Wilkes,

Now that you're out on appeal, it struck me that it was time to write this: I was told on several occasions by Deborah Jeane Palfrey (aka "The DC Madam") that you called her escort service, Pamela Martin & Associates. Ms. Palfrey informed me that you utilized Shirlington Limousine, owned by a shady individual named Christopher D. Baker to pick-up her escorts.

One of these escorts attempted to contact journalist Ken Silverstein to confirm this and other things, but Mr. Silverstein either lost his courage and fell on his sword, or he's telling the truth and his secretary lost the phone number. Had he bothered to isolate the day and time of the original call, he might have discovered who this former Pamela Martin escort was, but I assume like the rest of the media and our flabby journalistic class, he didn't want to know. Shame on him and you.

Ms. Palfrey probably wasn't able to establish your calls, although presumably they still exist, submerged, in her voluminous phone records that are still available online at this writing. I don't expect you to do the right thing--one would assume you wouldn't know what that is or what it entails, but a woman is dead, and you own a small piece of that.

Surely, it's a lost cause to ask or demand that you come forward to confirm these contentions of the deceased, but you should. It would behoove you and redeem you to help uncover a system of bribes-for-contracts in our nation. The short time you're going to serve--inside or outside, it doesn't matter in the end--is less important than the American people and the common good.

Journalist and editor of The Smoking Gun.com, Bill Bastone, grilled Ms. Palfrey in early October of 2006, accusing her of having connections to you and Randy Cunningham, the former-and-convicted GOP congressman whom you bribed--he was utterly convinced of it at that time and kept pushing the late Ms. Palfrey on this issue.

How would Bill Bastone have known this? It could have been leaked to him by federal prosecutors. I leave it to you and your counsel to weigh-out this information, because it could be an example of prosecutorial misconduct in your case and in the case of the deceased Ms. Palfrey. It's food for thought, and I'd consider its weight. You aren't the only one suffering under prosecutorial misconduct these days. The former governor of Alabama and Ms. Palfrey were recent victims.

regards, Matt Janovic, private researcher and writer

The Palfrey Verdict: A Message to the "Johns"

The Washington D.C. area--The guilty verdict has an unintended consequence for some of you, particularly Senator David Vitter, Harlan Ullman, and Randall Tobias: it's now confirmed in a court of law that you all solicited prostitutes.

For most of you, the statue of limitations has expired--though this is not the case with the likes of Mark Capansky (former intern for GOP Rep. Bob Goodlatte), and Ret. Colonel Ronald Roughead, former head of the Iraqi Media Network and employee of SAIC.

A little-known fact is that former World Bank president's lover, Shaha Ali Riza, was also employed by the IMN through SAIC. It's unknown if it was during the same period that Mr. Roughead ran the operation. One has to ask the question of why Mr. Capansky and Mr. Roughead called the number of Pamela Martin & Associates in late-2005.

Was there a connection between Chris D. Baker's Shirlington Limousine with Palfrey's escort service? The verdict has only left more unanswered questions, something the "Johns" are probably relieved about. You're not out of the woods yet. Sentencing comes on July 24th. The prosecution refuses to comment on the case until after that time.

Postscript: Don't think for a moment that the possibility of a deal with the government and the defendant has escaped me. The Washington Post was saying that the sentence could end up being a mere 3-4 years. Months before my legal work, the defendant conveyed to this writer that very early-on the government offered a deal of a couple years inside, but she would have to forfeit nearly all of her assets. If it did happen, it probably occurred some time after March 20th, after of our last correspondence. Perhaps a deal of this sort went through after all? July 24th it is: I'll be barbecuing, gardening, and the rest of TCB. Know what-ah'-mean, man?

Brent Wilkes, the Most Innocent Man on Eardth

San Diego, California/Washington D.C.--Brent Wilkes didn't do anything wrong. Ignore the October conviction for money laundering and bribery of a public official. According to him, his former ADCS never attempted to bribe congressmen with gifts, money, more gifts, a boat, a couple mortgage payments, throwing poker games for Randy Cunningham at poker (while letting him win, a bribe)...and women.

Well, at least that's what the convicted briber, government contractor, de facto lobbyist, and pimp has to say these days. Pimp? Yes, pimp. A pimp would wear a camo-tux, wouldn't they?

For reasons known only to government prosecutors (and perhaps the White House), they decided to isolate all evidence and testimony of Brent Wilkes's soliciting prostitutes-for-government contracts to the Hawaii jaunt of the former GOP Representative Randy Cunningham. Was this part of the reason for the firing of those bothersome U.S. Attorneys, namely like Carol Lam and David Iglesias?

Yet, we still see periodic stories on Shirlington Limousine and Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter's efforts to get an investigation going into Shirlington's contracts with the scandal-ridden Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. All of her efforts have stalled. Why is that? Why does a convicted felon with a 60-plus page rap sheet get first-dibs on contracts with DHS, and why then does Congress rate it as unimportant with no real action to discover what really happened? Because many of them already know what happened. The not to investigate would be because it's of great importance, so why not schedule hearings on steroids in the major leagues?

Surely, Brent R. Wilkes and his wordy attorney Mark Geragos can convince the court and federal probation officials that he's innocent after receiving a fair trial? No, I didn't think so either. But what do you do when your client is caught, cold, hard busted and politicians (yes, plural) are also part of the game? You rely on semantics, word-games, and the predictable technicality that won't go anywhere to buy a little time. San Diego Union-Tribune journalist Greg Moran noted:

Geragos took issue with those claims in a broad legal attack. In recent years the U.S. Supreme Court has said judges can't impose a sentence based on any factors that were not found to be true, beyond a reasonable doubt, by a jury. The court has ruled that would be a violation of the fair trial rights of defendants. In Wilkes' case, Geragos argued that the factors cited by probation officials as reason to increase the sentence were not found to be true by a jury. For example, he said there was no jury finding that Cunningham was an elected official. (Signs on San Diego.com, 02.09.2008)

Eventually comes the mandatory quibbling over the meaning of words--we understand where Geragos is trying to take this. Into overtime. Wilkes and his attorney have contended since the beginning that the Poway contractor never did anything differently from all the other lobbyists and contractors. On this, we can take Wilkes at his word.

And what of the "cigar parties" at the Watergate (the GOP appears to have a fetish for this building, trying to get things right the second time) and the Westin hotels? We know that there were "women present," that some congressmen went off to rooms with them, but most-of-all, we know who brought these women there: Christopher D. Baker, CEO of Shirlington Limousine. From the early-1990s until Cunningham, Wilkes, Mitchell Wade, Thomas Kontogiannis, and the other "co-conspirators" were nabbed by federal investigators, Baker's Shirlington Limousine was ferrying them there. It's like that they were ferried to other locations, as Wade has discussed that Cunningham was frequently calling Wilkes for companionship. Shirlington was also involved in some of these acts of soliciting.

What's so fantastical about these recent legal moves is the fact that Wilkes had been caught red-handed lying about his alleged "poverty" during his trial. For these claims, he was given federal defense funds for his legal costs, costs that federal prosecutors now want him to pay back in-full. Will Brent Wilkes start talking? For real? This 36-page filing by Geragos is worthless, just a response to the sentencing and the fact that Wilkes was caught lying about yet another thing.

Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes came under scrutiny after federal prosecutors cried foul last week, filing court documents claiming Wilkes has more money than he has let on in court. They asked U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns to force Wilkes to retain private counsel and pay back the costs of the public defense attorneys representing him."The use of public funds while the defendant continues to spend his ill-gotten gains must stop," prosecutors wrote in a motion filed in federal court last week. Prosecutors argue that Wilkes had access to more than $1 million in assets, which he used to pay bills, including mortgages and divorce attorneys. (North County Times, 02.05.2005)

As of this writing, Wilkes is still receiving federal defense funds. Somehow, we're supposed to ignore all that and trust him now. Never mind that he's had his time in the courts. If he really wanted to contest that his trial was unfair, why not point-out that he subpoenaed 13 members of Congress, which the prosecution successfully quashed?

To open that door is to take a bigger gamble than the poker games at the Watergate and the Westin. Interestingly, one of the money-laundering "co-conspirators" by the name of John Thomas Michael (nephew to co-defendant and possible CIA financial/banking-asset Thomas Kontogiannis) has changed his plea to "guilty" the very same day that the prosecutors attacked Wilkes over lying about hiding money from them. The stakes couldn't be higher. And there's more-to-come: Wilkes has upcoming charges in the trial of the former #3 man at the CIA, Kyle Dustin Foggo, his old childhood friend. The charge is bribery, but why isn't it for soliciting prostitution? Foggo is denying all connections to Shirlington Limo and the escorts. One can imagine why.

TPMuckraker on lying, thieving Brent R. Wilkes, February 5th, 2008: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/prosecutors_wilkes_faked_pover.php

John Michael Thomas's guilty plea, 02.05.2008:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20080205-9999-1m5michael.html

That wascally Bwent Wilkes and his vow of poverty
(Mitchell Wade looks like Azar's Big Boy):

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/02/06/news/sandiego/20_32_052_5_08.txt

Signs on San Diego today:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080209-9999-1m9wilkes.html