Paul Magliocchetti, a former lobbyist and key figure in the Center for Public Integrity’s The Murtha Method investigation, pled guilty on Friday to federal campaign finance violations.

A master pay-to-play defense lobbyist in the center of a controversial web of Capitol Hill relationships highlighted by the Center for Public lntegrity was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury.

The House ethics committee ended its investigation of the last two defense appropriators remaining in its crosshairs, according to a report released today. It found no causal link between campaign contributions and earmarking activities of any of the seven members reviewed over the last year. The two members cleared today were Republican Todd Tiarht of Kansas and Indiana Democrat Pete Visclosky.

The House ethics committee has announced it is extending a review of two Congressmen that were among the subjects of "The Murtha Method," an investigation published last September by the Center for Public Integrity.

Seven members of a powerful subcommittee that was the subject of a recent Center investigation are now being scrutinized by the House ethics committee, according to The Washington Post. The paper also reports that they are among more than 30 lawmakers being scrutinized for ethics violations, according to a leaked confidential document.

A review of the 2010 defense appropriations process reveals that most members of a key House of Representatives panel continue to engage in controversial relationships involving ex-staffers-turned-lobbyists, contractors, campaign cash, and earmarks — the sorts of relationships that have led to investigations swirling around several panel members, including its chairman, Pennsylvania Democrat John P. Murtha.

Rep. Roy Blunt’s Congressional Web site notes that “while Washington politicians claim they can spend your money better than you can, the federal government continues to fritter away billions of your dollars each year in the form of waste, abuse, mismanagement, and in some cases: outright fraud.” Sounds good. And yet in 2007, Blunt, a Missouri Republican, was the lone member of the Congressional leadership to participate in a controversial method of providing earmarks to those represented by former-staffers-turned lobbyists.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is “trying to break that tight bond between” the “iron triangle of Congress and industry and the bureaucracy in” the Pentagon — which the Center highlighted in its story “The Murtha Method” — according to a Defense Department press secretary. The spokesman was reacting to a question about the Center’s investigation at yesterday’s press briefing.