Which of These Stories Will Get the Most Play? We’re Betting on the Third One
Three huge news stories greeted Floridians this morning.
First we found out what Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) was doing up in Washington all this time. We knew he wasn’t involved with efforts to benefit Florida but we weren’t sure how he was filling the time, other than chairing the Republican National Committee. Now, thanks to Scott Hiaasen at the Miami Herald, we know.
Sen. Mel Martinez’s office repeatedly intervened in a 2007 legal dispute between the Defense Department and a company owned by a top Republican fundraiser who is now at the center of a campaign-finance investigation…
In a series of phone calls and e-mails, a Martinez aide urged Pentagon contract officers to seek a “fair resolution” to $14 million in contract claims sought by the International Oil Trading Co., a fuel-supply company co-owned by Harry Sargeant III of Boca Raton.
[IOTC is one of the top fuel suppliers to American forces in Iraq, earning more than $1.4 billion, records show. Following a congressional inquiry last year, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., accused Sargeant’s company of “war profiteering” and asked the Pentagon to investigate IOTC’s contracts.]
At one point, Pentagon officials told the senator’s office it was “not appropriate” to discuss any settlements while the company’s lawsuit was pending in court, records show.
As Martinez’s staffer was lobbying the Pentagon, Sargeant and his wife donated $50,000 to the Republican National Committee — then headed by Martinez. At the time, Sargeant was the finance chairman of the Republican Party of Florida…
Sargeant’s company ultimately received $3.2 million from the Defense Department — settling claims the Pentagon had initially denied entirely.
Sargeant’s name might ring a bell.
