Rep. Chaka Fattah sought a ?green vehicle? earmark for a for-profit school where his adult son, Chaka Fattah Jr. ? now under investigation by the Justice Department ? worked as director of business development.
The FBI searched the home and office of the younger Fattah, known as Chip, on Wednesday as part of an investigation of his company?s work for Delaware Valley High School, an alternative school that gets millions of dollars from the city of Philadelphia.
Continue ReadingThe raids were first reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, which revealed that Fattah Jr.?s company, 259 Strategies, has a $450,000 contract with the school. The city pays the school more than $4 million per year, the paper reported.
The earmark request brings the story to the doorstep of the Capitol ? and to the Pennsylvania congressman?s inner circle ? for a second time.
Fattah Sr., who oversees DOJ?s budget as the top Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee responsible for funding the agency, denied any involvement in his son?s case.
First elected to Congress in 1994, he said he did nothing wrong in receiving the $375,000 solicitation for federal funds from the school and then advocating that the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee earmark money for the project in a 2009 surface transportation bill that never got off the ground.
?I stand by my son. Nothing came of the request for funds, and my son had nothing to do with any request for funds,? the congressman said in a statement to POLITICO. ?I will await the results of the investigation before making further comment.?
When asked if the congressman would recuse himself from funding decisions for the Justice Department, Fattah?s chief of staff, Maisha Leek, said, ?Absent an allegation we will await the conclusion of the investigation.?
The raids are an outgrowth of the fraud conviction of Mikel Jones, a Philadelphia lawyer and former aide to Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), who has been a friend of the elder Fattah since they were children. In January 2011, Jones told two FBI agents that he had hired 259 Strategies and another company run by Fattah Jr. for consulting, according to the agents? report of the conversation.
Jones, who had extensive credit problems, told investigators that Fattah Jr. helped him obtain an American Express card by ?writing the CEO of the company and calling repeatedly until AMEX agreed to open the account.? Jones also told investigators that Fattah Jr. charged expenses to Jones?s wife?s American Express account without telling Jones.
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