Jim Gibbons Republican candidate for governor and family took Caribbean cruise in May 2005

Rep. Jim Gibbons on Wednesday acknowledged he helped a Reno software company that ended up getting millions in classified federal contracts and whose owner is and was a major donor to Gibbons' campaigns.

Gibbons also admitted he went on a star-studded ship cruise with the company's owner, Warren Trepp, a personal friend from before Gibbons became a politician.

But in neither case did Gibbons do anything wrong, the Republican gubernatorial candidate's campaign manager said.

The contracts were awarded because the company, Reno-based eTreppid Technologies, deserved them, Robert Uithoven said. They were supported by others on Nevada's congressional delegation and others who took money from Trepp. And they had nothing to do with Trepp's personal and financial support of Gibbons, Uithoven said.

The only way Gibbons might have slipped up is by not seeking an exception to the House of Representatives' ethics rules so that he could go on the trip, which was a personal vacation, not a business matter, Uithoven said. As of Wednesday evening, Gibbons' congressional staff had sent a letter to the committee asking whether the exception should have been sought.

If it turns out Gibbons should have sought permission to go on the trip, he will take responsibility for breaking the rules, Uithoven said.

The cruise in question was a weeklong Caribbean trip hosted by Trepp in May 2005.

According to Uithoven, about 30 guests were on the 560-foot Seven Seas Navigator, which is owned by a cruise line and accommodates 490 people.

Gibbons, his wife, Dawn, and their son, Jimmy, then a high schooler, were among Trepp's guests, as was actor Patrick Swayze. Trepp is a former chief trader for 1980s junk-bond king Michael Milken, who went to prison on fraud charges.

Charges against Trepp were dismissed. He then moved to Lake Tahoe and invested in movies and plays -- including one Swayze produced and starred in -- before starting eTreppid.

The House rule on gifts says members of Congress who want to accept travel from personal friends must get advance written approval from the ethics committee if the trip is going to cost more than $250. That request is not made public.

The trip also must be reported on the member's annual personal finance report, unless the member seeks written approval from the ethics committee to waive the reporting requirement.

The cruise is not listed in Gibbons' finance report covering 2005. There is also no record on file with the House Ethics Committee that he sought either the advance approval or the reporting waiver.

"This looks like Gibbons got caught violating the gift rule and is trying to rationalize it," said Craig Holman, campaign finance lobbyist for CongressWatch, a citizen advocate group. "The trip that was described appears to have no officially related purpose at all. It was just a plain old vacation, in which case it was subject to the gift rules."

Dawn Gibbons wrote a check for what Trepp told her was the cost of the family's share of the cruise, $1,654, and put another $1,508 in trip expenses on her personal credit card, even though Trepp wanted them to come for free like the other guests, Uithoven said. In taking that step, the Gibbonses thought they were being as diligent as possible, he said.

Uithoven said Gibbons rarely takes vacations outside Nevada and didn't think the trip needed to be reported. However, the congressman will take full responsibility if a violation is found, he said.

Uithoven was interviewed at the Review-Journal on Wednesday. He said Gibbons was not available because he had a busy campaign schedule in Northern Nevada.

Trepp has given consistently to Gibbons' campaigns over the years, according to the Federal Election Commission. He has given to other Republicans, including Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., although he also gave to Porter's Democratic opponent in 2004, his only recorded federal contribution to a Democrat.

Entities controlled by Trepp have contributed almost $100,000 to Gibbons' gubernatorial campaign, according to Nevada financial disclosure records.

Trepp's software company, started in 1998, has also gotten tens of millions in federal contracts. Their extent is not known, however, because many are part of the so-called black budget, federal money used to fund classified programs for national defense and intelligence purposes.

Because of its classified nature, black-budget spending is described only vaguely in the larger federal budget it is a part of.

Gibbons, a former Air Force fighter pilot, sits on the House Homeland Security Committee and Intelligence Subcommittee.

One of the contracts received by eTreppid, however, was publicly announced in 2004 and was a no-bid contract for up to $30 million.

Uithoven said eTreppid first made facial-recognition software for Las Vegas casinos so they could pick certain people out of their surveillance videotapes. The company then sought to put similar software to work in the fight against terrorism after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Gibbons helped eTreppid officials meet the right people in Washington as they were gearing up the company's quest for federal money. But that was only because he thought his friend's invention was a good one, Uithoven said.

"Jim Gibbons knows what tools and technology we need to fight and win wars," Uithoven said. An added benefit of the contracts was bringing high-paying technology jobs to Northern Nevada, he said.

It is a common practice for politicians to take contributions from people and companies that are paid to do work for the government, Uithoven said.

"A lot of people have contributed to Jim Gibbons that have a lot more business before the federal government or the state of Nevada, and some people who have contributed to him have none at all. They all believe in good government and they believe Jim Gibbons represents that."

The charge that Gibbons gave Trepp preferential treatment was first reported Wednesday in a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal.

The state Democratic Party on Wednesday called the eTreppid charges yet another scandal proving Gibbons is not fit to be governor.

"Jim Gibbons wants to be the CEO who's in charge of our children's education, our public safety and the state's budget," Democratic Party Chairman Tom Collins, a Clark County commissioner, said at a Wednesday morning news conference.

"Rather than take responsibility, Jim Gibbons is blaming all his problems on everyone else. Gibbons hired an illegal (immigrant) nanny. He's the one who's accused of assault. And he's the one featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal."

A former household worker for Jim and Dawn Gibbons recently came forward to claim that the family hired and employed her knowing she was in America illegally. Gibbons has made the illegal immigration issue a centerpiece of his television commercials. Gibbons says he did not know the worker was illegal until she had worked for him for some time.

Gibbons also is being investigated by police over allegations he attacked and threatened to rape a 32-year-old Las Vegas woman he had been drinking with on a Friday night. He says her claims are untrue and surveillance camera footage will prove it.

"If Congressman Gibbons is elected, what will his first 100 days (in office) look like?" Collins said. "Will he be too busy dealing with his personal issues and personal scandals instead of working on behalf of the people of Nevada?"

Collins said Gibbons taking contributions from a federal contractor wasn't necessarily a problem. He acknowledged that he has taken campaign money from companies that have contracts with Clark County and that that was an analogous situation.

Collins also said bringing good jobs to Reno was a worthy goal that Nevada's congressional delegation should pursue. But he said the fact that the cruise apparently should have been disclosed and wasn't meant Gibbons violated ethics rules and should be punished.

"This is something we have to take very seriously," he said.

Gibbons' Democratic opponent, Dina Titus, said in an interview that the Wall Street Journal revelations represented "just another scandal that makes Nevada look bad."

"This epitomizes what people don't like about politics, giving special favors to special people," she said. "It's a prime example of pay to play."

Titus said voters are tired of the Gibbons scandals.

"It's cumulative," Titus said. "I think it will have an effect."

At least two other Nevada lawmakers, one a Trepp donation recipient, also sought to help eTreppid get contracts.

Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, requested funding to support the technology being developed by the firm in 2004 when the Senate was considering its defense spending bill for 2005, spokesman Jon Summers said.

"While he did include it in his request list, it was very low on the list and not high enough to get money," Summers said in an e-mail in response to questions. "Senator Reid did not get funding for this project."

But with support from the House, the final version of the spending bill written in conference committee contained a $3 million appropriation that benefited the company.

Republican Rep. Porter also wrote a letter, in March 2004, that included a request that eTreppid get a contract, according to the letter, which was provided by his congressional office.

Porter is not heavily involved in defense issues but thought it was a good idea "to create jobs for Nevada and help win the war on terror," his chief of staff, Mike Hesse, said Wednesday.

Accusations that Gibbons sold his influence to Trepp are part of a legal battle between Trepp and a former employee, Dennis Montgomery, according to the Wall Street Journal, but that could not be confirmed.

Federal court records in Reno show Montgomery filed two lawsuits this year in which he charged Trepp with software copyright violations.

Trepp filed a countersuit against Montgomery.

In his lawsuits, Montgomery said he was the actual developer of the software sought by the federal government.

Montgomery said he had been hired by Trepp in 1997 and was an executive with the company until he was fired in 2004. He seeks damages of more than $75,000.

One of the federal lawsuits was dismissed on Jan. 31 after parties decided it dealt with state issues. The lawsuit subsequently was filed in district court in Reno.

A district court employee said records in that case have been sealed. He would not answer when or why material filed in the case was sealed.

But documents filed in the federal cases, which remain open to public access, make no mention of Gibbons.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Montgomery filed an affidavit in one of the federal court cases in which he alleges Gibbons took bribes from Trepp.

Uithoven said Montgomery, who he characterized as a disgruntled employee accused of stealing from the company, claimed Trepp gave Gibbons about $400,000 in cash and casino chips, but he said there was no substantiation of that allegation.

Stephens Washington Bureau writer Tina Reed and Review-Journal writer Carri Geer Thevenot contributed to this report.