A federal judge has pushed delayed a status hearing for a businessman who pleaded guilty to bribing then congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Mitchell Wade is still awaiting sentencing for his 2006 guilty plea in federal court to having plied Cunningham with more than $1 million in bribes in exchange for defense contracts worth tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.

It was unclear late Monday why U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina pushed back Wade's status hearing from Monday until mid-March of next year.

Wade's attorney, Howard Shapiro, did not immediately return a call for comment.

The postponement of the hearing comes about a month before two men also accused in the Cunningham bribery scandal will start trial in a San Diego federal courtroom.

Cunningham, who represented the much of North County, is serving an eight-year, four-month sentence for bribery and tax evasion for his guilty plea.

- Teri Figueroa