Duke Cunningham, Vietnam flying ace and congressman convicted of bribery, dies at 83 | Republicans

Randy Cunningham, who threw a House of Representatives in his career, died as a shame, while the US navy was convicted of accepting a bribe of $ 2.4 million during the Vietnam War. He was 83 years old.

Cunningham died in a small rock in A Arkansas on Wednesday, according to former representative Duncan L Hunter, who spent time with him a week before his death.

Hunter, who served with Cunningham at the congress, said, ı He represented the best of American heroes who went out to meet our enemies on the doors, ”he said.

Cunningham was one of the most decorated pilots in the Vietnam War, and the first navy hunter was a hunter in the battle for hitting five enemy planes. During the war, a navy cross, two silver stars, 15 air medals and a purple heart took a purple heart for his actions.

“He was fully ignored by his own personal security, and continued his attack with a ball fire to save the wing man,” the second silver star quotes.

In 2005, he continued to serve at the Congress before it was found guilty of receiving illegal gifts from defense contractors in exchange for state contracts and other favors, which were thought to be the largest bribery scandal in the history of the congress.

The Republican Congress member of San Diego has accepted a luxurious house, a yacht, a roll-royce, generous meals and $ 40,000 in Persian carpets and 40,000 dollars of furniture, and from companies in exchange for directing profitable contracts. In March 2006, he was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison.

The corruption case was one of the few people who led to the establishment of the Congress Ethics Office in 2008.

Orum I know great joy and great sorrow in my life. And now I know great embarrassment, Cun Cunningham said in his resignation statement. “I can’t get back what I do. But I can atone.”

As time passed, he made less contradictions, he said he regretted the objection of criminal appeal to news organizations and others and complained that he had evacuated the savings of internal income service.

When Cunningham was in prison in a telephone conversation with KGTV, “Many of these things are bribes.

In December 2012, Cunningham was released from a federal prison in Arizona to serve the rest of his sentence in a federal half house in New Orleans. Louisiana Democrat William Jefferson was the longest imprisonment for taking bribes for a congress member until 13 years in 2009.

The penalty also required to pay $ 1.8 million for back taxes and lost another $ 1.85 million for the bribe it received, as well as Rancho Santa Fe’nın extremely special San Diego suburbs from a home sales. $ 1,500 per month and after release was ordered to pay $ 1,000 per month.

Cunningham was born in Los Angeles on 8 December 1941, but according to court documents, Missouri, where his family had a five and time -time store, grew up in Shelbina. He graduated from the University of Missouri and a few years later joined the navy in 1967.

He retired as a navy commander in 1987 and became a national recognized as a media commentator on military matters. When he started to work in 1990, he replaced Jim Bate, a member of the Democratic Congress in a left -handed area on charges of sexual harassment.

When Cunningham was in Congress, he took care of military affairs and supported socially conservative positions. He drew attention to his explosions – during a floor discussion in 1995, he attacked his rivals with those who would put Homos in the army ”.

Hunter recalled his debate with a colleague on the fate of Cunningham’s fighter plane, “He brought military operational expertise to the discussions in the Congress,” he said. “It was a strong conservative, thoughtfully thought and brought a real light of light to the US Congress.”

At the end of the first period, the former congress member received one of the excuses given by Donald Trump in 2021.

According to Hunter, he has been released from prison, enjoyed retirement in the rural area and served as the president of the American War Aces Association.

His wife Sharon Cunningham survived by adult son and two daughters and other family members. His family could not be reached immediately for a comment.