A Tim Murphy Update

Remember Congressman Tim Murphy? He made it on to 2PJ here and here.

Well, looks like the Feds are investigating him. Here's Andy Sheehan at KDKA from the 14th of December:

A federal investigation is underway after allegations surfaced against US Rep. Tim Murphy.

Sources tell KDKA federal agents have begun interviewing former Murphy staffers on whether they did political work for the congressman on government time.

Murphy denies the allegations.

And the P-G a few days later:

Authorities are investigating whether Rep. Tim Murphy's legislative staff members performed campaign work while on government time, which would violate federal law, according to a broadcast report.

Federal authorities have started interviewing Mr. Murphy's former staff members, according to KDKA-TV, which cited anonymous sources.

The story has again made it all the way to talkingpointsmemo.com (one of the major blogs around):

You may recall some of the dandy investigative reporting on Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) turned in by Pittsburgh's KDKA-TV during the midterm election campaign. At issue was whether Murphy was illegally using his congressional staff for campaign purposes. Now it looks like the feds are investigating. KDKA has the latest.

If it's at talkingpointsmemo, then lefties all over the country are reading about the investigation.

This ain't a local story anymore.

There's even a blurb about all this at the wikipedia. Please note that there are pdf files posted of some leaked documents - go take a look. One of the posted documents describes what can only be described as creepy oppostition research, though as far as I can tell this isn't part of the federal investigation. The "research" was on a number of constituents who've written critical letters to the P-G. Here's Melissa Meinzer at the City-Paper:

Opposition research is part of almost every political campaign. But the campaign staff of U.S. Congressman Tim Murphy (R-Upper St. Clair) may have spent part of the 2006 election season doing research on a less likely target: people who wrote letters to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"The following is the information I was able to retrieve on the individuals who wrote negative letters to the editor about you," reads the beginning of a three-page memo dated June 23, 2006. The memo, addressed to "TFM," was apparently written by Murphy campaign manager Justin Lokay.

The memo includes copies of two letters to the Post-Gazette from earlier that month. The first, by Brian Rampolla, criticizes Murphy's claims that a visit to Iraq had shown him the war was going well and getting better by the day. The second, by Christine Gallo, echoes Rampolla's statements.

But wait. According to Meizner, this isn't just stuff found via google:

In addition to Rampolla's and Gallo's addresses and phone numbers, the documents detail Rampolla's voting record and religion, his stances on gun control and abortion, and his place of business -- as well as his supposed support for Rick Santorum's Democratic opponent in the 2000 U.S. Senate race. Gallo's voting record and place of business are also noted in the document.

How did they get that information, why did they think they need it, and what on Earth gave them the idea that they could go get it? And remember, all this was done for a Member of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress.

Congressman Tim Murphy - under investigation by the Feds.