The Untold Story of John Murtha and Abscam

by Ron Kolb

Back in 2006, after reading about John Murtha's involvement in the FBI Abscam investigation during the 1980's, I independently decided to search for the surveillance videotape that the government had made of the Congressman. After a lengthy and determined six-week search, I was able to locate a copy, which was subsequently made public through the American Spectator magazine and Fox News. Most observers thought that the tape's release was a major reason for Murtha's lopsided defeat in his attempt to become House Majority Leader.

I also uncovered information which gives a fuller portrait of Murtha's involvement in the case, and which also shows a long pattern of making false and misleading statements concerning Abscam. Mr. Murtha told the Uniontown Herald-Standard in 2006, for example, that it was "ludicrous" to say he was named as an unindicted co-conspirator. Several news reports from both 1980 and 2006 reported that in fact he was, and an AP article specifically stated that he was named a co-conspirator by the grand jury.

The Philadelphia Inquirer also reported that Murtha had "testified secretly" to the grand jury prior to the indictment of Congressmen Frank Thompson of Trenton and John Murphy of New York City, both of whom Murtha would later testify against. Just one week after his testimony in November of 1980 (and only days before Thompson and Murphy were convicted) the government announced that they would not pursue Murtha. This was part of an agreement that had been struck earlier.

In 1995, chief Abscam prosecutor Thomas Puccio wrote in his autobiography that Murtha's lawyer had quickly approached him after Abscam had first become public in February of 1980. Puccio eventually decided not to indict Murtha, but instead to use his testimony against Thompson and Murphy at their upcoming trial.

Puccio had first tried to "turn" Howard Criden, a Philadelphia attorney who acted as a middleman for several officials--and who was also on the tape with Murtha filmed at the now infamous townhouse in Washington. Three weeks later, on February 2, 1980, and just moments before FBI agent Anthony Amoroso revealed his true identity to Criden at a hotel near Kennedy airport in New York, the Washington Post would report that Criden directly implicated four congressmen, and that Murtha was now "ready to go."

When Criden received the bad news that he had been dealing with the Feds, he then admitted to them that Thompson had told him that Murtha was finally ready to go only one day earlier. A deal with Criden, however, would quickly collapse, and Murtha soon stepped into the breech. Criden was indicted four times and would eventually serve three years in prison. 19 other Abscam figures would also serve time, in what ended up being the largest scandal in the history of Congress.

Chief prosecutor Puccio noted in the afterword of his autobiography that the seven lawmakers who went to prison (including Thompson and Murphy) would eventually all but disappear from view. Puccio then added that, "John Murtha, who was given immunity and testified against his colleagues, remained in Congress and is still there today." Murtha was the only elected official in Abscam who was granted immunity.

Besides what Puccio described as "Murtha's escape", there is also the issue of what happened between Murtha and the House Ethics Committee the following year. In early 2006, Murtha told PBS's John McLaughlin that when the committee members voted on him in 1981 that there were only "two votes against out of seventeen counts."

In an interview with Chris Matthews of MSNBC on the eve of his disastrous loss to Steny Hoyer for Majority Leader in November 2006, Murtha said that "the Ethics Committee cleared me completely on a unanimous, ah, unanimous vote." However, the Washington Post reported in 1981 that any possible punishment of Murtha had died in committee after a 6-6 vote, and several other articles added that the committee's counsel had quickly resigned in protest.

In that same interview with Matthews, Murtha said that he was only interested in "investment" in his district when he had met with representatives of the fictitious "sheikhs" because "I had 24 percent unemployment." Murtha had made the same statement to Wolf Blitzer of CNN and George Stephanopoulos of ABC over the prior two months. However, when Frank Thompson first approached Murtha back in the fall of 1979, the unemployment rate in Murtha's Johnstown at the time was in single digits. It wouldn't reach 24 percent until February of 1983--over three years later.

At their first meeting, Murtha would later testify that Thompson had told him that the "sheikhs" needed help with immigrating to America. At their second meeting, Thompson told him that the sheikhs would pay "walkin' around money...cash" that would be shared by Murtha, Thompson and Murphy. The first day Congress went back into session on January 7, 1980, Murtha went to Thompson's office where he met Howard Criden. Thompson told Murtha to go the townhouse with Criden to meet with two representatives of the sheikhs, pick up the money, and then it would be split among them. Criden and Murtha arrived shortly before noon.

The videotape of the meeting is absolutely devastating. Murtha appears in 50 of the tape's 54 minutes. After Agent Amoroso first offered him cash, he famously said that he wasn't interested in money "at this point", but wanted to deal with Amoroso and Mel Weinberg (who was an FBI informant) for a while before accepting any payoff. When Abscam became public, Murtha denied being offered any cash. After the full tape was released in 2006, he was forced to admit that money had been offered.

Between 12:05 and 12:20 p.m. on the tape, Murtha three times uses "investment in the district" as a cover for eventually receiving cash. He worries that "the son-of-a-bitch could all fall apart", and that having a tie to the district is "the secret to the whole thing." He also states that things could get so "sticky" that the only thing that can justify it is "that goddamn investment in my district."

Between 12:22 and 12:27, Murtha twice states (out of Criden's presence) that he wants a separate deal from Thompson, Murphy (and Criden). He tells Weinberg that "whatever you guys work out with them (Thompson and Murphy), that's your deal."

At 12:32, with middleman Criden now back in the room, Criden tells Amoroso that it's okay to turn the cash over to him. Murtha immediately pounces saying, "Let me make very clear, the other two guys, (Thompson and Murphy) ah, do expect to be taken care of--Howard, you're gonna have to deal with Howard. Me, you've got my deal." Two minutes later, as Murtha prepares to leave the room, he discusses getting back in touch with Amoroso, and again states that he will need a "link to the district."

It was revealed during the trial that after the fateful meeting (but before Abscam became public) Murtha had touched base with a friend who was an immigration officer, and thought that he had an arrangement that he could offer the sheikhs.

After Murtha received his immunity deal from the prosecutors, his testimony became crucial for the trial. Even though the Thompson and Murphy tapes are both highly incriminating, Criden was the person who carried the cash out of the room in both instances. Murtha in effect, put the cash in his fellow congressmen's hands. Both men eventually served two years in prison.

As for Murtha, his unethical behavior changed little over the years. Whether he was pushing pay increases for the House through Congress, or doling out high-priced earmarks for his campaign contributors, Murtha continued on. Three months after he passed away in February 2010, it was reported by the AP and other media sources that John Murtha was still under investigation by the FBI right up until the time of his death.

o----------o