WASHINGTON — An internal congressional investigation has found that "major breakdowns" in legislative controls enabled former Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham to use his position on the House Intelligence Committee to steer classified government contracts to political cronies, according to a memo distributed this week to Democrats on the panel.
The memo accuses Republicans of backing out of an agreement to subpoena Cunningham, and calls for the public release of a 20-page unclassified report documenting the findings of the investigation.
The memo was written by Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), ranking Democrat on the committee, and circulated to Democrats on Tuesday.
Harman's description suggests that the seven-month probe by the House intelligence panel could significantly broaden the scope of the scandal surrounding Cunningham, the Rancho Santa Fe lawmaker who pleaded guilty last year to bribery and tax evasion and is serving an eight-year prison sentence.
The criminal investigation of Cunningham focused largely on the military contracts he influenced as a member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.
But the internal House probe has found a similar pattern of abuses in contracts involving U.S. intelligence agencies -- and includes language describing cases in which the disgraced congressman pressured committee aides to set aside secret funds for his associates, according to congressional sources familiar with the investigation.
The committee's report, which has not been released publicly, "provides important details about how the committee's processes were abused to accomplish Cunningham's illicit aims," Harman wrote in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
The panel's report also "highlights some major breakdowns in the ability of our committee to prevent the damage even after numerous 'red flags' were raised."
Harman did not elaborate on the nature of those "red flags," and a spokesman said she was not available to comment, citing an agreement between Republicans and Democrats on the committee to refrain from public discussion of the report before its release.
But senior congressional aides familiar with the report said the language referred in part to instances in which Cunningham's funding requests or instructions raised concerns among members of the Intelligence Committee staff.
