Justin Rood at TPM Muckraker passes along this AP report:
WASHINGTON — An ex-employee at a defense contractor pleaded guilty Friday to making illegal donations to the campaign of Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., marking the latest chapter in a congressional bribery probe.
Richard Berglund, who formerly supervised the Martinsville, Va., office of MZM Inc., faces up to a year in prison for engaging in a scheme with company owner Mitchell Wade to reimburse MZM employees for campaign donations. The scheme violates the Federal Election Campaign Act.
In February, Wade pleaded guilty to bribing former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, in exchange for help in getting $150 million in Defense Department contracts.
Wade and defense contractor Brent Wilkes were at the center of the Cunningham bribery case and the two business executives also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to curry favor with other lawmakers, including Goode and Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Fla.
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