Weldon, a 10-term Republican from the Philadelphia suburbs, long has denied any wrongdoing, and his top aide said Saturday no one had notified him of an investigation.
''I think if there was an investigation, somebody would have contacted us,'' said Russ Caso, Weldon's chief of staff.
Caso said Weldon and his staff were ''100 percent caught off guard'' when they learned of the investigation, first reported late Friday by McClatchy Newspapers. This account cited two individuals with specific knowledge of the existence of the investigation; they declined to be identified because of the confidentiality of criminal investigations.
...
Those two people familiar with the investigation confirmed that federal agents were examining Weldon's work between 2002 and 2004 to help two Russian companies and two Serbian brothers connected to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. They had hired Solutions North America Inc., a company operated by Karen Weldon and Charles Sexton, a Republican ally of the congressman.
If one has to "long ... den[y] any wrongdoing," then an investigation would seem to be the next thing on the agenda. "Off guard"? Being a Congressperson from the GOP does not mean that one is bulletproof. They just think they are. As Lord Acton said in 1887, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." The GOP apparently wants to prove Lord Acton correct. Wait. Nixon already did. This is just the new guys.
Weldon has a Democratic challenger. The NY Times Friday: Navy Vet Sestak Coming Closer to Sinking Weldon in Pa. 7 with an update on the front based on the new development from the leaked investigation.
And so it goes.
