By Alex Knott, CQ Politics

February 17, 2009

The nation’s most generous lobbying firm has shut down its political action committee following the disclosure this week of a raid on its Virginia offices.

The PMA Group’s closure comes in the wake of newspaper reports that the FBI raided the Virginia offices of the prominent defense industry lobbying firm back in November as part of an investigation involving campaign contributions.

Between 1999 and 2008, PMA’s PAC made more political contributions to candidates — $1,449,000 — than any other lobbying-based committee. The PAC often doubled or even tripled the donations of the lobbying world’s largest political committees during each election cycle.

PMA, which stands for Paul Magliocchetti and Associates, is a high-powered lobbying shop built around a who’s who of the defense and appropriations process. Magliocchetti, for instance, worked for Rep. John P. Murtha , D-Pa., for a decade as a senior staff member on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. Many of the largest recipients of PMA’s money over the years were senior lawmakers in charge of appropriations decisions.