Local College Will Receive Cunningham's Papers

SAN DIEGO -- California State University-San Marcos will get former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham's congressional papers as part of a deal finalized after the Vietnam war hero was imprisoned in a bribery scandal, it was reported on Saturday.

The papers, however, won't be made public for seven years: The former Rancho Santa Fe Republican stipulated that the papers cannot be made public until 2013, university officials told The Union-Tribune.

While Cunningham also decided which documents would be included, it was unclear what law enforcement authorities would release in connection with the bribery scandal.

"We have no way of knowing yet either what we will receive or what will be excluded," Carol Bonomo, director of legislative affairs at California State University-San Marcos, told the newspaper. "Some may never be received."

Cunningham, 63, served 15 years in Congress and sat on the Appropriations and Intelligence committees. About 150 boxes of documents from his California district office have already arrived at Cal State, and another 150 boxes will be shipped from his Washington, D.C., office beginning next month.

Bonomo predicted it would take more than a year to put the archive together. The university will decide "what to keep, what to get rid of," she said. "We almost fainted when we heard it was 300 boxes."

In March, Cunningham was given eight years and four months in prison for accepting at least $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors.