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FBI Probed Gingrich for Bribery After Wife Met with Convicted Arms Dealer

HeadlineDec 16, 2011

Newt Gingrich is facing a new potential controversy with the disclosure the FBI considered targeting him in a bribery-related sting operation in the late 1990s. It emerged this week the FBI investigated Newt Gingrich after an arms dealer claimed Gingrich’s wife, Marianne Gingrich, had floated the idea of a $10 million bribe for his backing to lift the arms embargo on Iraq. The arms dealer, Sarkis Soghanalian, nicknamed “The Merchant of Death,” said Marianne Gingrich told him she could obtain legislative favors through her husband during a meeting in Paris in 1995. Marianne Gingrich has acknowledged meeting with Soghanalian but says she was seeking investment for her employer at the time. Soghanalian, who’s now deceased, was acting as a federal informant at the time to reduce an arms trafficking sentence. The case proceeded into a full investigation but was ultimately called off after agents determined there was no evidence Newt Gingrich was aware of the scheme.

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