Abramoff Probe Spreads to White House, 4 Lawmakers [Archive]

DLR'sCock

11-26-2005, 07:26 PM

Abramoff Probe Spreads to White House, 4 Lawmakers
Reuters

Friday 25 November 2005

New York - The US Justice Department's probe of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff is broader than previously thought, examining his dealings with four lawmakers, former and current congressional aides and two former Bush administration officials, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Prosecutors in the department's public integrity and fraud divisions are looking into Abramoff's dealings with four Republicans - former House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio, Rep. John Doolittle of California and Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana, the paper said, citing several people close to the investigation.

Abramoff is under investigation over his lobbying efforts for Indian tribes with casinos. He has also pleaded not guilty to federal charges in Florida that he defrauded lenders in a casino cruise line deal.

The prosecutors are also investigating at least 17 current and former congressional aides, about half of whom later took lobbying jobs with Abramoff, as well as an official from the Interior Department and another from the government's procurement office, the Journal said.

Justice Department spokesman Paul Bresson declined to comment on the investigation.

The newspaper said investigators were looking into whether Abramoff and his partners made illegal payoffs to the lawmakers and aides in the form of campaign contributions, sports tickets, meals, travel and job offers, in exchange for helping their clients.

DeLay and Ney have already retained criminal defense lawyers.

Spokespeople for the two lawmakers told the Journal that they have both hired lawyers and have not been contacted by the Justice Department.

Michael Scanlon, a former aide to DeLay and partner to powerful Republican lobbyist Abramoff, pleaded guilty to conspiracy on Monday under a deal in which he is cooperating with prosecutors probing the alleged influence-buying.

Scanlon left DeLay's office and become a partner to Abramoff, who has been indicted for fraud in a separate case in Florida. The plea agreement has been seen as a major advance in prosecutors' efforts to investigate the lobbyist.

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Nickdfresh

01-06-2006, 10:03 AM

Update-

Is noose tightening for Ney in Abramoff investigation?
2006-01-05
By Jonathan Hunt
Athens NEWS Writer

Tuesday's guilty pleas by former Washington, D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff on charges of conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion have a local link. The public official in potentially the hottest water as a result is U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, R-Heath, whose multi-county 18th House District includes Glouster, Nelsonville and other parts of northwest Athens County.

Ney is referred to as "Representative No. 1" in Abramoff's indictment, part of which outlines a pattern of alleged bribery between the lobbyist's businesses and the congressman.

Abramoff's plea bargain will lop years off the prison term he had faced, and federal prosecutors presumably got, in return, detailed testimony about his dealings with Ney and possibly other members of Congress, including former House majority leader Tom DeLay. According to the indictment, Abramoff and his former partner Michael Scanlon - who pled guilty to related charges in November - "...sought and received Representative No. 1's (elsewhere identified as Ney) agreement to perform a series of official acts..." benefiting the lobbyists or their clients. These acts, it says, included voting on legislation, adding statements to the Congressional Record and helping to secure a contract to install wireless communication in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In return, the indictment says, the lobbyists "...provided a stream of things of value to Representative No. 1 and members of his staff, including but not limited to a lavish trip to Scotland to play golf on world-famous courses, tickets to sporting events and other entertainment, regular meals at defendant Abramoff's upscale restaurant, and campaign contributions..."

Ney has said Abramoff duped him, and a Tuesday press release from the congressman's D.C. office said the Congressman "...has never done anything illegal or improper...

"At the time I dealt with Jack Abramoff, I obviously did not know, and had no way of knowing, the self-serving and fraudulent nature of Abramoff's activities," said Ney in the statement.

Ney has claimed he went to Scotland to speak before the Scottish parliament, but officials there say it wasn't even in session during the August 2002 junket.

As chairman of the House Administration Committee, Ney controls the purse strings for many internal congressional projects and activities. Tuesday, his office denied any improper influence in the wireless services contract, which was awarded in 2002 to upstart Israeli telecommunications company MobileAccess Networks. Former Ney chief of staff and Ohio State University graduate Neil Volz, according to the indictment, worked with the Ohio congressman on Abramoff's behalf to negotiate the MobileAccess Networks deal within a year of leaving Ney's office - a violation of federal law.

The Congressional Record charges involve Ney adding statements in 2000 that helped grease the skids for Abramoff and an associate to purchase a Florida gambling boat fleet called SunCruz Casinos. The owner of that company, Gus Boulis, was killed execution-style in an apparent mafia hit in 2001, though Abramoff has not been implicated in his death. The lobbyist faces separate charges in Florida related to the SunCruz scandal.

The legislation mentioned in Tuesday's indictment largely concerns efforts by American Indian tribal groups to leverage favorable votes for lucrative casinos in four states, none of which are Ohio. Ney told The Athens NEWS last month he believes it was proper for him to be involved in Indian affairs, regardless of how many Native Americans live in his district.

Abramoff was a vaunted member of Washington's influential K Street lobbying corridor, which became another Republican success story after the party seized control of Congress following the 1994 elections. Several other prominent national lobbyists - including anti-tax warrior Grover Norquist and former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed - are believed to be part of the continuing investigation, the New York Times reported Tuesday, and Reed accompanied Ney and others on the Scottish golfing trip.

Ohio Republican Gov. Bob Taft was convicted in August of accepting illegal gifts that included golf outings, though his name hasn't been mentioned in connection with Abramoff.

While Ney is the lawmaker most strongly implicated in the Abramoff indictment, money or perks from Abramoff's lobbying flowed to hundreds of Ney's Capitol Hill colleagues. Nearly two-thirds of the money went to Republicans, but the ranking Democrat on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, reportedly received $67,000 in campaign donations from Abramoff's American Indian clients. Ney told The Athens NEWS in December his campaign had returned $34,000 in Indian tribe donations, and Dorgan has agreed to do the same.

Here ya' go bozos, two-thirds of the money flowed to the Reds...

Abramoff contributed mightily to President Bush's 2004 campaign, earning the title of "pioneer," and did not contribute to Democratic challenger John Kerry.

Carl Forti, communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, echoed reports that Ney's ethics woes haven't really resonated with Ohio voters so far.

"Democrats will still be challenged to make ethics a national issue," said Forti. "The only people Bob Ney has to answer to are the people of his district."

Ney continues to work on issues affecting the 18th Congressional District despite the recent travails and has complained about news reports that don't reflect this, but he may also have to answer to federal prosecutors soon. If he's indicted, Republicans will likely ask him not to seek re-election.

Two Democrats - Dover Law Director Zack Space and Chillicothe Mayor Joe Sulzer - have already announced their candidacies. Both are seizing the chance to make hay out of Ney's troubles and make some headway in the 18th District, which was redistricted favorably for conservatives after the 2000 census.

Sulzer's campaign called the Abramoff plea "another shameful day for Ohioans" in a statement Wednesday. "That Bob Ney spent more time working for corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff than he did working for the people who sent him to D.C. is a disgrace of our democratic system," Sulzer said in the release.

In a Wednesday interview, Space said the "cloud" of Ney's legal problems prevents the incumbent from focusing on the district's real issues - the loss of manufacturing jobs, failures in the health-care delivery system and education funding.

"A congressman's obligation is to enrich his constituents," said Space. "If these allegations are true, it's an outrage."

Whether Space or Sulzer faces Ney or another Republican in the general election depends on the timing of a possible indictment against Ney in relation to the filing deadline for the next round of elections, Space said.

Although some of Ney's alleged legal transgressions are also violations of House ethics rules, the House Ethics Committee has not censured him or initiated a complaint process. In December, Ney said he offered to meet with the committee last year, but was refused. A call to the office of House Ethics Committee chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., was not returned.

Linky (http://www.athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=23012)