A Republican resolution calling for a formal investigation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn’t the only bad news Pelosi’s office received this week.
Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D., Mich.) has been subpoenaed before a federal grand jury in Detroit:
Kilpatrick, a Detroit Democrat and the mother of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, let House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office know about the summons on Wednesday, as required by House rules. Her spokeswoman, Tracy Walker, would not confirm the subpoena or comment on it when reached Wednesday night.
On Tuesday, Kilpatrick’s office manager in Detroit, Andrea Bragg, let the Speaker’s office know she had been subpoenaed as well before a grand jury. She and Kilpatrick sent the letters to the Speaker’s office on Monday, March 1, but they were not made part of the Congressional Record until this week.
The topic of the subpoenas is not known. Kwame Kilpatrick has been fighting in state court over restitution to be paid on a perjury plea. The Free Press also has reported that a contractor who pleaded guilty in a federal corruption probe has told investigators he handed over bribes to the former mayor in 2002.
Cheeks Kilpatrick – Michigan’s only member of the powerful Appropriations Committee – has not been publicly implicated in any of those probes but has been a loyal defender of her son.
Her office issued a statement last night – in response to the subpoena of Bragg – saying only that officials “do not have any comment beyond the official notification” in the Congressional Record.
Kwame Kilpatrick’s spokesman, Mike Paul, declined to comment this morning about the subpoena for the ex-mayor’s mother.
UPDATE: A reader sends along this video of Cheeks Kilpatrick at her, um, finest: