American legislator gets jail term for corruption, when will the corrupt Lebanese legislators be brought to justice?
Tom Perry Los Angeles Times 3/4/2006 SAN DIEGO A federal judge sentenced disgraced former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham on Friday to eight years and four months in prison for taking bribes and evading taxes. It is considered the harshest penalty ever meted out to a former member of Congress in a corruption case. “What you did was aggravated in scope, duration and nature,” U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns told a haggard-looking Cunningham. “The word ‘avarice’ is an antiquated word. But I think it applies here.” Cunningham had admitted taking $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors and evading more than $1 million in taxes. On Friday, with his voice breaking, the former decorated naval pilot asked the federal judge for mercy and mentioned his record as a war hero. Burns said he would have sentenced the 64-year-old Republican to 10 years in prison, as requested by prosecutors, but concluded that a measure of leniency was appropriate because of Cunningham’s service in Vietnam. A
