A REPUBLICAN congressman pleaded guilty last night to taking $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for steering lucrative military contracts to business associates — the latest scandal to hit President Bush’s party.

Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a Californian Republican and decorated Vietnam War veteran, later tearfully resigned from the House of Representatives, where he has served since 1988.

“I can’t undo what I have done but I can atone,” Cunningham, 63, said, wiping away tears. He faces ten years in jail after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud and wire fraud, and tax evasion for underreporting his income in 2004.

Cunningham was chairman of the House Intelligence subcommittee on Terrorism and Human Intelligence and had substantial links to the defence industry. Suspicions that he used his position as an elected official illegally to influence Pentagon contracts surfaced last June. It emerged that he had sold his Californian house for $1,675,000 (£970,000), an artificially inflated price, to Mitchell Wade, owner of a defence contracting company, MZM Inc.

Mr Wade put the house back on the market and sold it after nearly a year for $975,000, a loss of $700,000. Cunningham used the profits from the sale to buy a $2.55 million mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

Around the same time, MZM, based in Washington, began getting large government contracts. Cunningham also stayed on a yacht owned by Mr Wade and docked in Washington. Mr Wade has not been charged with any crime.

Prosecutors said that Cunningham had admitted to receiving at least $2.4 million in bribes paid to him by several unnamed conspirators through a variety of methods, including cheques for more than $1 million, cash, rugs, antiques, furniture, yacht club fees and vacations. “He did the worst thing an elected official can do — he enriched himself through his position and violated the trust of those who put him there,” US Attorney Carol Lam said.

Cunningham agreed to forfeit to the Government his Rancho Santa Fe home, more than $1.8 million in cash, together with assorted antiques and rugs. Asked by US District Judge Larry Burns if he had accepted bribes from someone in exchange for his performance of official duties, he replied: “Yes, your honour.”

After the hearing, Cunningham was led away to be fingerprinted and released until a sentencing hearing on February 27. He had already announced in July that he would not seek re-election next year. Cunningham’s guilty pleas came amid a series of Republican scandals, most notably the indictment of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff of Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, over his role in the CIA leak affair. Tom DeLay had to step down as House leader on being indicted for money-laundering, and Bill Frist, the Senate leader, is being investigated over a stock sale. All deny wrongdoing.

VIETNAM HERO AND TOP GUN PILOT

• Randy “Duke” Cunningham was born on December 8, 1941, in Los Angeles and earned a masters in education from the University of Missouri in 1965
• He was a teacher and swimming coach before joining the US Navy at the age of 25 and becoming one of the most highly decorated pilots in the Vietnam War
• Cunningham went on to train fighter pilots at the “Top Gun” Navy Fighter Weapons School at Miramar Naval Air Station
• He served eight terms in the House of Representatives serving California’s 50th Congressional District and served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee among others
• Ironically, Cunningham was recognised by several law enforcement organisations for his tough-on-crime stance

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