Bob Ney Watch

Rep. Bob Ney Will Not Seek Reelection

2006-08-07T11:54:00.000-04:00

Washington Post, August 7, 2006:

Rep. Robert W. Ney, the six-term Republican congressman from central Ohio implicated in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, announced this morning that that he will not seek re-election.

"After much consideration and thought I have decided today to no longer seek re-election in Ohio's 18th Congressional District," Ney said in a statement posted on his campaign Website. "I am extremely proud of my 25 years serving the people of Ohio. We've accomplished many things to make this state better and I will always be grateful for the trust my constituents put in me.

"Ultimately," he said, "this decision came down to my family. I must think of them first, and I can no longer put them through this ordeal."

Ney has been identified as the accused but so far unindicted "Congressman A" in Abramoff's plea agreement. He has denied wrongdoing.

Ney has been under investigation by federal authorities in Florida and the District for actions that helped Abramoff and two partners buy a Fort Lauderdale-based casino cruise line. The deal that Ney promoted in the Congressional Record hinged on the Abramoff group's creation of a counterfeit $23 million wire transfer.

A Ney senior aide, who left Congress to join Jack Abramoff's lobbying team, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to corruptly influence Ney's official actions by showering him with gifts and trips.

Neil G. Volz, 35, a Ney confidant who spent seven years on the congressman's staff, joined Abramoff and three of his other former associates in agreeing to cooperate with the government and testify against Ney in the unfolding public corruption scandal on Capitol Hill.

Ney, one of half a dozen lawmakers under scrutiny because of ties to Abramoff, has been forced to give up his chairmanship of the House Administration Committee. He handily won the GOP primary in Ohio but Democrats were targeting him for defeat in November.

Senior aide to Rep. Ney subpoenaed

2006-06-30T10:58:00.000-04:00

Columbus Dispatch, June 30, 2006:

Three top aides to embattled Rep. Bob Ney are leaving his office, and a federal grand jury has subpoenaed another senior staff member in an investigation of the Heath Republican’s ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Matt Parker, who has served as district director for Ney’s office in Ohio as well as an adviser to the re-election campaign, was ordered to turn over documents to federal prosecutors and testify before a grand jury in Washington.

Parker’s subpoena was made public yesterday in an announcement on the House floor, as required when lawmakers or staff members receive subpoenas. Parker could not be reached for comment.

Also announced yesterday were the departures of Brian Walsh, a longtime Ney spokesman; Will Heaton, Ney’s chief of staff; and Chris Otillio, a senior legislative aide.

Heaton was with Ney on a lavish 2002 golf trip to Scotland arranged by Abramoff. That trip is part of what federal prosecutors are examining in an investigation of Ney’s ties to Abramoff.

The once-powerful lobbyist and three of his former associates, including former Ney chief of staff Neil Volz, have pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges and said that they bestowed gifts on Ney in return for legislative favors.

Source

Ney posed in photo with tribe he didn't remember

2006-06-27T10:46:00.000-04:00

Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 26, 2006:

Ohio Rep. Bob Ney, center, poses with Tigua Tribe Lt. Governor Carlos Hisa, right, and Raul Gutierrez, then a member of the tribes governing council in a hearing room after a meeting with Ney on Capitol Hill in August 2002.

Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Ney didn't recall meeting with members of the Tigua tribe of Texas when Senate investigators questioned him during a probe of rogue lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

But leaders of the El Paso tribe who lost $4.2 million to Abramoff remember small details of their get-together in Ney's Capitol Hill office and even took pictures with Ney.

The meeting with Ney occurred on August 14, 2002, a few days after the congressman and two of his aides returned from a golf trip in Scotland with Abramoff, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, a pair of lobbyists at Abramoff's firm, and former White House official David Safavian, who was convicted last week of lying to investigators about the trip.

"He was red like a lobster from that Scotland trip and had a terrible sunburn," recalled Tigua Lt. Governor Carlos Hisa, who said his tribe was asked to pay $50,000 for the trip. When it balked, two other tribal clients of Abramoff's paid $100,000 to cover their expenses.

In an interview on Monday, Hisa said he found it "strange" that Ney told Senate investigators that didn't remember meeting with the tribe and wasn't familiar with the Tigua.

Ney accepted $32,000 in political donations from the tribe and had agreed to put legislative language in bill to reopen a closed casino they owned. The measure never became law because it lacked Senate support.

E-mails disclosed last week by the Senate committee show that Abramoff and Ney knew in July 2002 that the Tigua's provision was dead in the Senate, but didn't tell the Tigua until that October.

"He seemed like a swell guy at the time, and never mentioned any problems with the legislative language," said Hisa. "He is a smart politician, I'll give him that much."

Election records show that Ney refunded $2,000 to the tribe in December 2004. Ney spokesman Brian Walsh said the congressman donated the rest of its contributions to the Ohio Republican Party and charities including a boy scout troop and women's shelter.

Walsh said that the tribe called itself the "Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo" when it contributed to Ney, and that could be why Ney told investigators he was unfamiliar with the "Tigua." He said Ney "made a good faith effort to be responsive" to the committee's inquires.

Hisa said his 1,300-member tribe got a confidential monetary settlement from Abramoff's old law firm, Greenberg Traurig, but is still out a significant amount of money. He said it hopes to recover more when Abramoff and other lobbyists who pleaded guilty in the case are ordered to pay restitution to victims.

"I don't want them to walk away with a slap on the hand," said Hisa.

His tribe has turned its casino, which once employed 1,000 people and made $60 million yearly, into a concert venue that employs 70 people and barely makes money. The revenue losses mean it has had to cut basic housing, health care and education programs for its members.

Hisa said he'd like to sit down with Ney someday to discuss what happened with Abramoff, but doesn't think he'll ever get the chance.

"Right now, with the scandal going on, I don't think that anyone in Washington wants to talk to me," Hisa said. "Once you mention Abramoff, people start walking away."

Source

"Gimme Five" - Investigation of Tribal Lobbying Matters

2006-06-23T09:38:00.000-04:00

Final Report Before the Committee on Indian Affairs, U.S. Congress, June 22, 2006:

Page 175

At the Committee’s November 17, 2004, hearing, [Tigua representative Marc] Schwartz testified, “As the election reform measure languished throughout the summer, Abramoff and Scanlon continued to report on substantial progress and a virtual guarantee of success. During that time, I requested a meeting between tribal representatives and Congressman Ney.” Abramoff set up the meeting for early August 2002.

According to Schwartz, Abramoff claimed that “Congressman Ney did not want his trip to Scotland brought up, as he would show his appreciation for the Tribe later.” On August 14, 2002, representatives of the Tigua and Alabama-Coushatta met with Congressman Ney in Washington, D.C. Both Schwartz and [Tigua Lt. Governor Carlos] Hisa recalled that the meeting lasted approximately one-and-a-half hours. In testimony before the Committee, Schwartz described Congressman Ney as “extremely animated about Mr. Abramoff and his ability as a representative lobbyist in the city.” According to Schwartz, Congressman Ney spoke about his district, the Tigua’s plight, the political ramifications for Republicans of the Tigua casino closing, and the federal legislative process, especially the process by which committee reports are done.

Schwartz also told the Committee that Congressman Ney gave them assurances that he was working to help the Tigua. Thereafter, Schwartz recalled Congressman Ney giving Lt. Governor Hisa and another tribal council member a tour of his hearing room. According to Lt. Governor Hisa, at that meeting (which was attended by not only Hisa but also Schwartz, Tribal Council Member Raul Gutierrez, Abramoff and Congressman Ney) Congressman Ney said that “everyone who needs to be involved, is on board.” Congressman Ney said that he and Senator Dodd were committed to getting the language in the bill and that he did not foresee any problem with the Tigua-related provision, Hisa recalled. Hisa also remembered that, about Abramoff, Congressman Ney said that he was a “good friend”; “you’re working with the right guy;” and “this is the man to work with for changes in Washington.”

According to Schwartz, Congressman Ney’s chief of staff gave Abramoff a huge bear hug. Schwartz recalled that Congressman Ney went out of his way to say he would take care of the Tigua’s problems and kept calling the Tigua “deserving.”

During his interview with Committee staff, Congressman Ney said he was not familiar with the Tigua. He could not recall ever meeting with any member of the Tigua. When asked about a possible two-hour meeting, Congressman Ney said he “wouldn’t even meet with the President for two hours.” After the interview, counsel to Congressman Ney, who was present during the interview, indicated that, according to an internal email describing Congressman Ney’s calendar for the relevant period, a meeting was scheduled in Congressman Ney’s office with the “Taqua,” from 11:00 - 11:30 a.m.

Source

Senators' Report On Abramoff Case Disputes Rep. Ney

2006-06-23T09:34:00.000-04:00

Washington Post, June 23, 2006:

In the fall of 2004, Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) told Senate investigators that he was unfamiliar with a Texas Indian tribe represented by lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Days later, evidence emerged that the congressman had held numerous discussions with Abramoff and the Indians about getting Congress to reopen their shuttered casino.

Ney's statements to staff members of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee were included in the panel's 357-page report on tribal lobbying, released yesterday after two years of hearings and investigation. Accompanied by more than 1,000 pages of e-mails and financial ledgers, the report catalogues the now mostly familiar story of how Abramoff and his lobbying team of former congressional aides bilked half a dozen tribes out of more than $80 million.

The report includes new details about some of Abramoff's activities, including his collaboration with former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed and conservative strategist Grover Norquist. The Senate report recommended that the Senate Finance Committee investigate the use of tax-exempt organizations "as extensions of for-profit lobbying operations."

Ney's comments to the panel could add to his problems with the Justice Department. Federal prosecutors have secured guilty pleas from Abramoff and three former associates implicating Ney in a string of official acts allegedly performed in exchange for favors such as a golf trip to Scotland and campaign contributions.

A spokesman for Ney said yesterday that in his interview with the Senate committee, the congressman did not initially recognize the name of the tribe.

Ney's Nov. 12, 2004, interview with committee staffers took place amid a flurry of front-page newspaper articles about how Abramoff and his associate Michael Scanlon had flimflammed the Tigua tribe. The two first worked secretly with anti-gambling forces to close the casino and then convinced the tribe that for $4.2 million, they could get Congress to come to its rescue.

In his interview with the committee staff, "Congressman Ney said he was not at all familiar with the Tigua" and could not recall meeting with members of the tribe, the report said.

Six days after the interview, Tigua representatives testified at a committee hearing that Abramoff had set up a lengthy meeting with Ney in his office in August 2002 as well as a conference call, and that the congressman had assured them he was working to insert language that would reopen their casino into an unrelated election reform bill. Team Abramoff and the tribe that year became Ney's biggest donors, contributing $47,500 to his campaign committees.

Ney said Abramoff had pushed for legislative language in the election reform bill. Ney asserted that Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) "wanted to insert a provision into the Election Reform Bill that would benefit a tribe in Connecticut," the report said. "Congressman Ney said there was never any mention of any tribe in El Paso, Texas and no reference to any Tigua Indian tribe."

Ney's statements to the committee have been contradicted by others as well, including his former longtime chief of staff, Neil G. Volz, in admissions he made this year as part of his guilty plea to corruptly seeking to influence Ney on the Tigua issue. "Congressman Ney said that, aside from Abramoff, no one -- including Volz -- approached him about the provision that Abramoff had brought to his attention," the report said.

Brian Walsh, a spokesman for Ney, said yesterday that the congressman's meeting with the committee "was a voluntary meeting -- it was not conducted under oath."

The committee report said that those witnesses who were not placed under oath were reminded of "the applicability of the false statements act" and of statutes dealing with obstruction of a congressional investigation.

Walsh said the committee report relied on e-mails written by "convicted felons," Volz among them. He said that Ney had not recognized the name of the tribe when questioned about it by committee staffers, and that the report notes that sometime after the interview, his attorney found a calendar reference indicating he had had a meeting with the "Taqua."

Abramoff asked the Tigua to pay for a golf trip to Scotland for Ney in the summer of 2002, but Ney told the committee he never asked that the tribe finance the trip. He said he thought the costs were covered by a private foundation. The report said: "Congressman Ney said the purpose of the trip was to raise money for underprivileged kids in Scotland and Washington, D.C. The itinerary consisted of golfing, meeting two parliamentarians, and watching the Marine Band."

Source

Ex-Bush official found guilty of lying about lobbyist Abramoff

2006-06-20T16:42:00.000-04:00

Columbus Dispatch, June 20, 2006:

The first trial stemming from the misdeeds of now disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff -- which included testimony accusing Rep. Bob Ney of wrongdoing -- has resulted in a guilty verdict for former Bush administration official David Safavian.

Safavian, a former chief of staff at the U.S. General Services Administration, was convicted this morning on four of five felony counts of lying and obstruction on the fifth day of jury deliberation.

Safavian's offenses include covering up help he gave to Abramoff involving government-owned property and a lavish August 2002 golfing trip to Scotland organized by Abramoff whose participants included Ney and two of the Heath Republican's aides. The weeklong jaunt featured travel by private jet, $100 rounds of drinks, expensive meals and hotels and $400 rounds of golf.

Also on the trip was Neil Volz, a former Ney chief of staff who went to work for Abramoff in early 2002 and who like Abramoff has pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges. Volz testified that Ney was a "champion" on Capitol Hill for Abramoff and his clients in much the same way Safavian aided Abramoff from the GSA, which is in charge of managing federal buildings and properties.

Amid the spiraling scandal, Safavian resigned from another Bush administration job last year as the federal government's chief procurement officer. Ney is under federal investigation for his ties to Abramoff, and has been cited in plea bargains reached by Volz, Abramoff and others.

Ney proclaims he is innocent and was duped in several instances by Abramoff.

What Safavian, who awaits sentencing, was convicted on does not involve the direct allegations Volz and others have made about their dealings with Ney.But the Safavian conviction, and the role Volz played in the trial, is not good news for Ney if the federal government pursues a case against the lawmaker, said a prominent criminal defense attorney in Washington.

Stanley Brand, a prominent criminal defense attorney, said shortly after the jury's decision that the verdict bolsters Volz's credibility "to the extent that Volz becomes a witness against Bob Ney."

Brand added that the verdict is yet another blow against Ney.

"How many strikes can he get before the (Justice) Department pulls the trigger? This isn't a directly related case except it involves the trip and now the trip has been testified to and a jury convicted Safavian for lying about it. It's another building block. They already have a foundation."

The jury found Safavian guilty of obstructing the work of the General Services Administration inspector general and of lying to a GSA ethics official. It also convicted him of lying to the inspector general's office and making a false statement to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. He was acquitted of a charge of obstructing the committee's investigation.

"The reality is that this case had absolutely nothing to do with Congressman Ney," said Brian Walsh, Ney's spokesman, in a statement after the verdict was released. "The congressman has said consistently from day one that he has never, at any point, engaged in any improper, unethical or illegal activity.

"He remains absolutely confident that the lies and deception of Jack Abramoff will continue to be revealed and that his name will be cleared fully at the end of the day."

During the Safavian trial, prosecutors asked Volz to name whom he admitted conspiring with to commit so-called honest services fraud, including the giving of gifts to Ney such as free meals and the Scotland trip in exchange for legislative favors for Abramoff and his clients.

Volz listed Ney, Abramoff and two other lobbyists who worked for Abramoff and who also have pleaded guilty to federal charges.

Volz is awaiting sentencing. He could get up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, but hopes by cooperating to get a much more lenient sentence, possibly to escape jail time by receiving probation.

Abramoff did not testify at the Safavian trial, but Abramoff too has named Ney in his plea bargain. Abramoff is expected to play a prominent role if prosecutors indict any members of Congress or lawmakers' staff.

But Ney spokesman Walsh said Volz and Abramoff lack credibility and are trying to lessen penalties they face.

"Like Jack Abramoff, Neil Volz is clearly under a great deal of pressure from prosecutors to justify his plea agreement and to limit the amount of time he has to spend in jail, but the problem with his characterization of the congressman is that it is at complete odds with the actual facts," said Walsh, at the time.

During the Safavian trial, prosecutors said that Safavian tried to help Abramoff obtain federal land known as White Oak in a Washington suburb for a school Abramoff had started. Safavian denied wrongdoing. His attorney tried to show that Volz didn't have personal knowledge that Safavian received improper gifts on the Scotland trip, noting that her client had reimbursed Abramoff $3,100 for the trip.

Prosecutors said Safavian also gave Abramoff inside information about a project to redevelop the Old Post Office in downtown Washington.

Safavian took the stand for two days in his own defense. He acknowledged some misjudgments and forwarding Abramoff some insider information, such as the position of other government officials on the GSA properties, but attributed these errors to his inexperience. Basically he maintained he simply gave generally available information to an old friend who was inquiring about government property that the GSA had not even decided what to do with yet.

Source

Ney lied about trip, says Republican's former aide

2006-05-31T20:16:00.000-04:00

Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 31, 2006:

Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Ney never met with Scottish members of parliament during a golf trip to Scotland, even though he subsequently signed travel disclosure forms that claimed such a meeting occurred, Ney's former chief of staff told a jury Tuesday.

Neil Volz went to work for lobbyist Jack Abramoff in February 2002 after leaving Ney's office and accompanied them both to Scotland in August 2002. His testimony took place in the trial of another golfer on the trip: former General Services Administration chief of staff David Safavian. Safavian is accused of falsely claiming that Abramoff had no business ties with the GSA when Savafian got permission to visit Scotland with the group.

Volz said much of the trip consisted of golfing, drinking and smoking cigars. The group, which included two Ney aides and former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed, stayed in hotels that cost as much as $500 nightly. Golf and caddy fees at the elite courses they visited came to $400 per person per game. A single round of drinks cost $100. On the private jet that ferried them to Scotland, they dined on sushi from Abramoff's restaurant.

Ney was originally scheduled to eat dinner with Scottish parliamentarians early in the trip, but the appointment fell through. Ney later scrambled to arrange a meeting in a London parliamentary building so he could claim the trip was for official business, Volz testified.

Afterward, Volz said he filled out a sample travel disclosure form for Ney that listed the trip's cost at $3,200, a low amount that Volz believed wouldn't cause media scrutiny. Volz suggested that Ney cite visits with the Scottish parliamentarians, attending the Edinburgh Military Tattoo with Queen Elizabeth II, and visiting British parliamentarians as the trip's official purpose. The forms that Ney filed with the House of Representatives used Volz' wording, minus the royal reference.

Source

Former Ney Aide Details How Abramoff Treated 'Champions'

2006-05-31T20:11:00.000-04:00

Washington Post, May 31, 2006:

In the first public testimony by a member of Jack Abramoff's inner circle, a former congressional aide told a federal jury yesterday how the disgraced lobbyist identified his "champions" in government and then showered them with favors to get inside information and help for his clients.

Neil G. Volz, who was chief of staff to Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) before joining Abramoff's lobbying firm, testified that among those he and his colleagues considered allies were Ney and former General Services Administration official David H. Safavian, the first person brought to trial in connection with the Abramoff scandal.

In the first public testimony by a member of Jack Abramoff's inner circle, a former congressional aide told a federal jury yesterday how the disgraced lobbyist identified his "champions" in government and then showered them with favors to get inside information and help for his clients.

Neil G. Volz, who was chief of staff to Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) before joining Abramoff's lobbying firm, testified that among those he and his colleagues considered allies were Ney and former General Services Administration official David H. Safavian, the first person brought to trial in connection with the Abramoff scandal.

Safavian's lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder, tried to chip away at Volz's credibility, eliciting admissions from him that he helped Ney and two staff members provide false information about the cost and the purpose of the Scotland trip to the clerk of the House. Volz admitted that he unsuccessfully floated the idea of embellishing Ney's contacts by suggesting he attended an event that included Queen Elizabeth II.

[...]

On advice from Safavian, Volz said, the lobbyists first tried to insert language in an election reform bill. "We had a champion in the Congress who had already agreed to attach another provision," Volz testified, identifying the lawmaker as "Congressman Ney." Ney had agreed to try to add language to the same bill that would have aided a Texas Indian tribe represented by Abramoff.

Source

How to Do Nothing, Washington-Style

2006-05-30T20:09:00.000-04:00

Washington Post, May 30, 2006:

The Gulfstream II had everything a congressman getting a free golf trip to Scotland could want. "State of the art entertainment center," boasted a description of the jet's elegant appointments. "Complete bar service. . . . Rich mahogany woodwork . " For the $91,465 charter, lobbyist Jack Abramoff got his money's worth -- or, as was his style, other people's money's worth: in this case, two Indian tribes and a Russian vodka distributor.

The charter details were part of the evidence introduced last week during the trial of David Safavian at the federal courthouse in Washington. A former General Services Administration official, Safavian is accused of lying to investigators about whether Abramoff had business before the agency when he invited Safavian along for the ride. Also on board, and shown to the jury in a photograph that captured him reading the newspaper in a plush captain's chair, was Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio).

Source

Ney got flight on plush, private jet

2006-05-27T20:06:00.000-04:00

Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 27, 2006:

The luxurious private jet that ferried Ohio GOP Rep. Bob Ney and several aides on a golf trip to Scotland with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff came equipped with mahogany woodwork, plush seats, computers and a bar stocked with two bottles of red wine and a case and a half of "lite" beer, according to records released at a trial on Friday.

Ney stayed in $500 per night hotel rooms while visiting London and golfing at the world's most renowned golf courses, according to evidence presented in the case of another golfer on the trip, former General Services Administration Chief of Staff David Safavian.

Safavian is charged with lying to ethics officers and federal investigators about Abramoff's business before his agency when he got permission to go on the trip.

Prosecutors said Ney returned to the United States on a $758 commercial flight that was charged to Abramoff's personal American Express card, which violates congressional rules that ban lobbyists from paying legislators' expenses.

[...]

Prosecutors say the August 2002 trip cost about $140,000 for nine people, and the charter bill for the private Gulfstream jet alone came to more than $91,000.

A snapshot admitted into evidence showed Ney reading a newspaper aboard the plane. The trip's itinerary didn't list any official business.

Others on the trip were Abramoff's 10-year-old son, former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed, and a pair of lobbyists who worked with Abramoff, Michael E. Williams and Neil Volz, a former aide to Ney.

Earlier this month, Volz pleaded guilty to criminal charges and admitted acting as a go-between when Abramoff plied Ney with trips, free meals and gifts. Volz is scheduled to testify at Safavian's trial.

Source

Ethics probe to include Rep. Ney

2006-05-19T11:03:00.000-04:00

Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 18, 2006:

The House Ethics Committee on Wednesday agreed to launch its own probes of several lawmakers who are under federal investigation, including Ohio's Bob Ney.

Rogue lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Ney's former chief of staff, Neil Volz, have pleaded guilty to criminal charges that stemmed from plying Ney with meals, sports tickets and a trip to Scotland that they said were meant to influence Ney's official actions. Ney denies wrong doing and says he welcomes the ethics investigation.

[...]

One of those statements said the committee will investigate accusations that Ney accepted "gifts, travel benefits, campaign contributions . . . or other items of value" from Abramoff and his associates, and "the relationship if any" between those gifts and "Ney's status or actions as a member of Congress."

The ethics panel established a four-member investigative subcommittee to probe Ney's actions. Its members are: Texans Lamar Smith, a Republican, and Gene Green, a Democrat, along with Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn and California Democrat Xavier Becerra.

"The investigative subcommittee shall have jurisdiction to determine whether Rep. Ney violated the Code of Official Conduct or any law, rule, regulation or other standard of conduct applicable to his duties or the discharge of his responsibilities," the statement said.

Source

Funds link Martinez, Abramoff

2006-05-19T11:00:00.000-04:00

Miami Herald, May 18, 2006:

...Court papers filed last week by federal prosecutors in Washington said Abramoff enlisted U.S. Rep. Robert Ney, an Ohio Republican, in a January 2003 effort ''to influence the decisions and actions'' of then-HUD Secretary Martinez. At the time, Ney was the incoming chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees HUD.

The statement made no allegation that Martinez did anything improper. Ney has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged.

Still, Ney is among a number of lawmakers under scrutiny in the Abramoff scandal.

Ney's notoriety peaked in January with Abramoff's admission to crimes that included allegedly bribing Ney with gifts and cash. The outcry prompted Martinez to give the $2,500 he received from Ney's political action committee in 2004 to charity.

''The senator wants to make it crystal clear to his constituents that he is not interested in any campaign donations that have even a hint of impropriety in this matter,'' Martinez spokeswoman Kerry Feehery told The Miami Herald on Jan. 13.

Ney, Martinez and Abramoff were linked publicly again on May 9 when Ney's former chief of staff, Neil Volz, pleaded guilty to corruption conspiracy.

Like Abramoff, Volz also implicated Ney in corruption.

Volz, who quit Ney's staff in February 2002 to join Abramoff's lobbying team, said in a statement filed with the court that Ney met with Martinez in early 2003. Ney's purpose was ''to assist Abramoff's clients'' by telling Martinez that Ney's upcoming priorities would include ''housing for Native Americans,'' it read.

How the Ney-Martinez meeting was intended to help any of Abramoff's Indian clients was not made clear. But Senate records show that only one tribe -- the Saginaw Chippewas -- retained Abramoff to lobby HUD.

Source

Former Aide to Rep. Ney Pleads Guilty

2006-05-08T11:53:00.000-04:00

Washington Post, May 8, 2006:

A former congressional aide and business associate of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty Monday to charges in connection with the investigation of influence-peddling and public corruption.

Neil Volz, who served as chief of staff to Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, including wire fraud and violating House rules, charges stemming from his work on Capitol Hill and the lobbying practice he joined after leaving Ney's office.

He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The penalties could vary, U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said, depending how helpful Volz is in the government's ongoing investigation of influence-peddling involving lawmakers, their aides and members of the Bush administration.

"The purpose of the conspiracy was for defendant Volz and his co-conspirators to unjustly enrich themselves by corruptly receiving, while public officials, and providing, while lobbyists, a stream of things of value with the intent to influence and reward official acts and attempting to influence members of Congress in violation of the law," according to a criminal information filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Two former aides to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, the former House Majority Leader, already have pleaded guilty to their roles in the conspiracy that was centered on the work of Abramoff, once a powerful Republican lobbyist.

Ney has not been charged, but his lawyer has acknowledged that he is Representative 1, described in court papers as the recipient of gifts and travel from Abramoff.

Shortly after leaving Ney's office, Volz joined Abramoff's firm and did lobbying work less than a year after leaving government employment. Federal law requires congressional staff members to wait a year before they do private work involving the previous government employer.

Among the projects on which Volz worked was securing a lucrative contract for Foxcom Wireless, an Israeli communications company, to improve cell phone reception in House office buildings.

Also during that period, Volz pressed Ney to support projects by the firm's Indian tribe clients.

Source

Read the plea agreement.

Analysts say Ney's primary performance shows weakness

2006-05-04T19:45:00.000-04:00

From the Times-Reporter, May 4, 2006:

Rep. Bob Ney’s tepid victory over a relatively unknown opponent in Ohio’s Republican primary Tuesday highlights his vulnerability heading into the fall election, political analysts say.

Ney, R-Heath, who is under investigation in a federal probe of corruption and bribery in Congress, won 68 percent of the vote against James Brodbelt Harris, a political novice who got 32 percent of the vote.

“It’s not disastrous, but it certainly isn’t all that encouraging either,” said Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “There’s only one reason why they’re voting for somebody else when the opponent is little known – it’s because they’ve gotten turned off to Bob Ney.”

Although Harris, a financial analyst, conducted a spirited campaign over the Internet, he put little if any money into the race. Harris fell short of the $5,000 fundraising threshold required to file federal campaign finance reports.

Sabato said incumbents who get less than 70 percent in a primary are usually in trouble in the general election.

“Many of those Republicans who didn’t vote for him ... may well vote against him again in November,” he said.

Ney, who is seeking a seventh term, faces Democratic challenger Zack Space of Dover in the Nov. 7 election. Democrats have targeted the race as among their most promising opportunities to retake control of the House.

[...]

Several analysts agreed with Sabato that Ney’s margin of victory was weak.

“If you start seeing his (Ney’s) opponent getting 25, 30, 35 percent of the vote, that’s not a good sign,” said Herb Asher, a political science professor at Ohio State University. “If his opponent gets a decent share that might suggest some dissatisfaction among rank-and-file Republicans.”

Stuart Rothenberg, editor of The Rothenberg Political Report, said the results confirmed his view that Ney is one of the weakest incumbents in the nation.

Analysts pointed out that Ney did not do much better than Rep. Tom DeLay, the former Republican majority leader who dropped his bid for re-election in Texas. DeLay, who is under indictment on campaign finance charges in Texas, won 62 percent of the vote against three opponents in a March primary.

Elsewhere around the state, veteran Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Bethlehem Township, surprised observers by collecting just 58 percent of the vote against his primary challenger, Ashland County Commissioner Matt Miller.

Analysts said Regula is in less peril than Ney because he is not implicated in a scandal and faces a political novice in the general election.

In Ney’s GOP-leaning district, almost as many Democrats came out to vote as Republicans – raising another concern for Ney.

Turnout for the four-way Democratic primary totaled 46,682, a few thousand votes short of the 49,940 Republicans who voted.

“It suggests to me that Republican turnout in Ney’s district was depressed,” Rothenberg said. “That suggests that Republicans weren’t enthusiastic.”

Source

Prosecutors Opt for Wide Probe of Rep. Ney

2006-04-29T20:32:00.000-04:00

Washington Post, April 29, 2006:

Federal prosecutors signaled this week that they have decided to pursue a wide range of allegations about dealings between Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) and lobbyist Jack Abramoff, rather than bringing a narrowly focused bribery case against the congressman.

[...]

Court papers filed in recent months show that prosecutors have lined up at least four cooperating witnesses against the Ohio congressman: Abramoff, former congressional aides Michael Scanlon and Tony C. Rudy, and businessman Adam Kidan. All have pleaded guilty to various conspiracy, fraud or public corruption charges.

The court filings that accompanied the plea agreements of Abramoff, Scanlon and Rudy accused Ney of accepting "a stream of things of value" in exchange for official actions.

Prosecutors signaled their intentions with Ney by identifying him as "Representative #1" in pleadings filed with the court. In October, Ney was formally notified that he was under criminal investigation, and at the prosecutors' request he agreed to extend the five-year statute of limitations for six months while they investigated possible bribery charges.

Ney's actions involving the cruise line could still expose him to criminal liability if the government brings a conspiracy case against him, legal analysts said. In that instance, the statute of limitations is pegged to the date of the last alleged criminal act in a chain, not the first.

Ney's involvement with the cruise line took place in 2000, when Abramoff and partners Kidan and Ben Waldman were in difficult negotiations to buy SunCruz Casinos from Fort Lauderdale businessman Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis. Ney placed comments in the Congressional Record that year that first put pressure on Boulis to sell to the Abramoff group, and later praised the new owners as Boulis was complaining he had been cheated in the sale.

Boulis was killed in a gangland-style hit in early 2001. Three men with ties to Kidan and to the Gambino crime family face murder charges in the slaying.

Ney was also involved with Abramoff and his lobbying team on other issues under federal investigation. In 2002, Ney sponsored legislation at the team's request to reopen a casino for a Texas Indian tribe that Abramoff represented, and approved a 2002 license for an Abramoff client to wire the House of Representatives for mobile phone service.

At the same time, Ney accepted many favors from Abramoff, among them campaign contributions, dinners at the lobbyist's downtown restaurant, skybox fundraisers -- including one at his then-MCI Center box the month after Boulis's murder -- and a lavish golf junket to Scotland in August 2002.

Ney was directly implicated by three of the four who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and bribery charges: Abramoff, Scanlon and Rudy. Kidan's attorney said his client also would testify against Ney if asked.

The allegations against Ney have taken a toll on his political career and his prospects for reelection.

Read entire article

Source

Court filing in case of indicted Bush official suggests Ohio congressman provided false report to Congress

2006-04-21T20:09:00.000-04:00

Raw Story, April 21, 2006:

A pre-trial motion filed by federal prosecutors in the case of indicted former Bush Administration official David Safavian contends that his share of the costs in a trip to play golf in Scotland and England arranged by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff should have been nearly five times more than what he paid, RAW STORY has found.

Perhaps more significantly, however, it also provides the first formal evidence that powerful Ohio Republican Bob Ney – then chairman of the House Administration Committee – provided false figures for the cost of his own trip to Scotland. Ney has been under fire for his role in allegedly helping Abramoff aid his clients in violation of House ethics rules and possibly federal laws.

[...]

In addition to likely misreporting its true cost, Ney also listed the sponsor of the trip as the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative thinktank. It later emerged that the trip was paid for by Abramoff’s Capital Athletic Foundation. Members of Congress are prohibited from taking trips paid for by lobbyists.

Ney also appears to have lied about the purpose of the trip. "In April, 2002, I was approached by Mr. Abramoff, who I believed to be a respected member of the community, and asked to go on a trip to Scotland which Mr. Abramoff said would help support a charitable organization, that he founded, through meetings he organized with Scottish Parliament officials," Ney said in a statement last November.

In his financial disclosure report to Congress, Ney listed "speech to Scottish Parliamentarians" as a purpose of the trip. Newsweek's Michael Isikoff later revealed that there was no record of Ney’s speech and that the Scottish parliament was away on recess during the time of the junket.

On September 9, 2002, a month after returning from the trip, Ney filed a form with the Clerk of the House of the Representatives which indicated that his share of the trip was $3200. He reported $1,500 for travel, $1,200 for lodging and $500 for meal expenses.

According to the prosecutors’ estimate, Ney likely should have reported the trip at $15,000. Ney's office did not respond to a call placed for comment Friday.

more

Source

House candidates report campaign cash

2006-04-21T20:08:00.000-04:00

Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 21, 2006:

GOP Rep. Bob Ney raised campaign cash at a Colorado ski lodge and spent most of it on legal bills.

[...]

More than two-thirds of the $142,418 that Licking County GOP Rep. Bob Ney raised for his re-election this year was paid to the lawyer defending him in a Justice Department corruption probe. Ney had more than $474,000 in the bank after paying his attorney $96,500.

Source

Ex-DeLay Aide Pleads Guilty in Lobby Case

2006-04-03T10:07:00.000-04:00

Washington Post, April 1, 2006:

Tony C. Rudy, a former deputy chief of staff to Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), pleaded guilty yesterday to charges that he conspired with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff to corrupt public officials and defraud his clients, as a burgeoning corruption probe took one step closer to members of Congress.

Rudy admitted taking favors including money, meals, trips and tickets to sporting events from Abramoff in exchange for official acts that included influencing legislation to help the lobbyist's clients.

Rudy's plea follows guilty pleas from DeLay's former press secretary, Michael Scanlon, and from Abramoff himself. But, for the first time, an actor in the scandal has admitted to committing illegal acts while working in the Republican leadership suites of the House.

[...]

Like Abramoff's plea, Rudy's statement to the court levels some of its toughest charges on a "Representative #1," identified elsewhere as Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio). Abramoff and Rudy lavished golf trips, tickets to sporting events and concerts, and food and drink on Ney. In turn, Ney "agreed to take favorable official action and render other assistance on behalf of the clients of Abramoff and Rudy," court papers say. Ney has denied wrongdoing.

Source

Abramoff free, despite sentence

2006-03-30T11:58:00.000-05:00

The Age, March 31, 2006:

FORSAKING his trademark fedora for a baseball cap, lobbyist extraordinaire Jack Abramoff walked out of a Florida courtroom, despite having just been sentenced to five years' jail for conspiracy and fraud.

Wearing a double-breasted suit and the cap, with his wife on his arm, the one-time King of K Street — Washington's lobbying centre — was allowed to stay free for the next few months because of his co-operation with an investigation into the buying of congressmen.

[...]

Abramoff faces up to 11 years in jail on a separate charge in Washington of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials. His sentence could be reduced — and served concurrently with the Miami sentence — for his continuing co-operation in the bribery probe.

Although no politicians have been charged, Republican Robert Ney of Ohio, the former chairman of the House Administration Committee, has been identified as the congressman referred to in court documents as receiving bribes from Abramoff. Mr Ney denies any wrongdoing.

Abramoff has also been closely identified with Tom DeLay, the former majority leader of the House of Representatives, who once described Abramoff as "one of my closest and dearest friends".

A former press secretary to Mr DeLay, Michael Scanlon, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe public officials, and is co-operating in the Abramoff case.

Hours after the sentencing, the Senate voted to ban themselves from accepting meals or gifts from lobbyists, increase exposure of contacts with lobbyists, and double the time before former politicians could become lobbyists.

But critics charged the measure as half-hearted. It did not ban them accepting privately funded travel, nor establish an independent office to investigate ethical breaches.

Source

Washington's Invisible Man

2006-03-08T16:30:00.000-05:00

An advance copy of this article appearing in the April 2006 issue of Vanity Fair can be read here.

Excerpts:

The other shoe seems poised to drop in Washington, implicating perhaps a handful of senators and congressmen, as well as their staffs, relatives, and other public officials. The most obvious target is Ney. In their heyday, he and Abramoff played golf together, traveled together, philosophized together. Ney was one of the few elected officials Abramoff invited to the BarMitzvah of one of his three sons. Now Ney says that Abramoff “duped” and “misled” him. But, according to the plea agreement, Ney threw a lucrative contract to an Abramoff client, intervened with agencies and offices to seek favors for other Abramoff interests, helped a relative of one of Abramoff’s Russian clients obtain an American visa, agreed to introduce legislation that would help reopen the Tigua casino, and, to assist Abramoff in buying the SunCruz line, read two statements into the Congressional Record, one in which he described Abramoff’s main partner in that deal, Adam Kidan—a man who’d
been disbarred, declared bankruptcy, and had Mob ties—as a man of the utmost
integrity.

For such services, Ney, according to the plea agreement, got “a stream of things of value” from Abramoff and those he represented: a “lavish” golf trip to St. Andrews, seats in Abramoff’s sports boxes, freebie dinners at Signatures (Ney was a "sushiholic," one eyewitness recalls), and at least $37,500 in donations to various political-action committees on his behalf. Rather than go for Ney immediately, prosecutors appear to be encircling him, possibly striking plea deals with frightened staffers, themselves desperate to stay out of jail.

Lobbyist's Credit Card Bill Outs DeLay Trip

2006-03-02T20:29:00.000-05:00

ABC News, March 2, 2006:

The paper trail seems so obvious it makes you wonder whether anyone ever worried about getting caught. When Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and his wife flew from Houston to a golf resort in Scotland in June 2000, the first-class airfare cost $14,001, a big-ticket item for a public servant. But someone else paid.

The American Express bills of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges in January, show he footed the bill for the tickets, in an apparent violation of House ethics rules.

"The source of the travel expenses may not be ... a registered lobbyist," according to the House rules. Abramoff was a registered lobbyist at the time.

DeLay's attorney told The Washington Post last year that DeLay was unaware of the "logistics" of bill payments and did not believe Abramoff paid for the tickets.

"This is a classic example of why the ethics rules have to be reformed," said Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21, a nonprofit watchdog group. "The Scotland trip was a trip to play golf, pure and simple, and private interests should not be allowed to finance those kinds of trips and gain influence with members in return."

Abramoff pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy, honest-services mail fraud and tax evasion. Officials said Abramoff had brought corruption to a new level at the Capitol.

"The corruption scheme with Mr. Abramoff was very extensive, and the investigation continues," said Alice Fisher, the head of the Department of Justice's criminal division.

One aspect of Abramoff's corruption scheme was the free trips he provided to politicians to the Super Bowl, a golf resort in Scotland and to the northern Mariana Islands in the South Pacific.

An ABC News hidden camera recorded Abramoff greeting and hugging DeLay as he arrived in the northern Marianas.

DeLay, the former House majority leader, was only one congressman out of dozens who accepted the lobbyist's trips and campaign contributions.

"There are many members of Congress who will not sleep well tonight," said Wertheimer at the time of the investigation. "This is a blockbuster of an investigation that will reach deep inside the power structure."

Federal authorities told ABC News that Abramoff began providing details of his dealings with DeLay and pinpointing a long list of senators and representatives more than a year ago.

At least nine have since returned Abramoff's campaign contributions, and all, including DeLay, have denied any wrongdoing.

Officials told ABC News that the first congressman to be indicted for bribery is expected to be Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio.

Source

Ney campaign gives out golf tees?!

2006-03-02T20:25:00.000-05:00

Buckeye State Blog, March 1, 2006:

Are Local Congressmen Spending Taxpayer Money On Themselves?

2006-02-23T15:28:00.000-05:00

WTOV.com, February 22, 2006:

Each Ohio member of the U.S. House of Representatives represents about the same number of constituents.

Each gets about the same amount of taxpayer money to run the office and pay the bills.

But, as we discovered, each has a much different idea about how to spend that money.

Article I, Section 7, of the Constitution says the U.S. House is in charge of raising taxpayer money.

NEWS9 found out they're pretty good at spending it, too - especially the over $1 million they're each given to run their own offices and pay their bills.

[...]

In Ohio, Rep. Bob Ney charges taxpayers $1,078 each month to lease a 2005 Lincoln. He also spent more than $1,000 in the last year on taxi fare, even though he works in a city with a top-notch mass transit system.

[...]

However, Ney did spend $11,400 for a service to obtain all of his constituents e-mail addresses.

This prompts critics to wonder if lawmakers could spend less for the sake of a nation deeply in debt. But, all local members of Congress we spoke to said that these expenses - including cab rides, food and beverages, and direct mail - are necessary to serve constituents.

Source

Ney faces unexpected challenge in GOP primary

2006-02-16T20:52:00.000-05:00

The Hill, February 16, 2006:

James Brodbelt Harris, a financial analyst from Zanesville, Ohio, stepped forward Thursday to challenge legally embattled Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) in the Republican primary.

"I think this is an unusual opportunity for someone like me to get into the race," said the 36-year-old political neophyte. "I believe any good Republican could hold this Republican gerrymandered district and the only way a Democrat could win this district is in the midst of a scandal."

Meanwhile, top Ohio Republicans worried about a scenario in which Ney could be indicted because of his connections to disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who admitted last month to bribing public officials. Ney is referred to as "Representative #1" in the Abramoff plea agreement.

Fearing that an unknown candidate could defeat an indicted incumbent and certainly lose to a well-funded Democratic in November, Ohio GOP Party Chairman Bob Bennett made a slew of phone calls to Ohio GOP lawmakers, the White House, and Ohio legislators to consider whether an established candidate, such as GOP State Sens. Jay Hottinger or John Carey, should enter the primary.

"There were numerous back up plans and back up plans to the back up plans," said an Ohio Republican. "Scrambling is an understatement."

Despite Ney's vulnerability, nobody else jumped into the race. The primary will be held on May 2.

Carey said he filed papers to run for reelection to the state senate and Hottinger, who has reached his two-term limit in the senate, told The Hill he would run for the Ohio state legislature.

"We've always maintained that the ball was in court of Congressman Ney," Hottinger said. "We are not going to file, we will not be filing. It's our hope that the congressman gets cleared."

And the GOP political establishment has lined up behind Ney.

"Bob Ney is our guy," said Ohio Republican Party spokesman John McClelland.

Ney told The Hill that he was confident he would win the primary and did not expect to be indicted, and seemed irritated by Bennett's phone calls.

"No matter what phone calls Bob Bennett made, no one considered running," Ney said. "Bob Bennett gets phone call dialing fever, but he did not call me."

Harris indicated he plans to make ethics an issue for Ney.

"If this bad news is in the papers for the next six to seven months, Republicans could lose 30 to 40 seats nationally."

Ney has said he will continue to seek reelection if he is indicted.

Four Democrats have lined up to seek Ney's seat.

Source

Disclosure

2006-02-16T11:39:00.000-05:00

Bob Ney's most recent FEC report.

Link up with Jack Abramoff on Bob Ney's Virtual Golf Junket

2006-02-15T20:23:00.000-05:00

Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 14, 2006:

Ever wonder what it was it was like to be a pampered VIP on one of rogue lobbyist Jack Abramoff's swanky junkets? An email that the federal government released on Feb. 10 listed a tentative travel itinerary for the August 2002 golf trip to Scotland that Abramoff took with GOP Rep. Bob Ney, former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed and others.

The July 23, 2002 email from Abramoff said the group was scheduled to leave Baltimore Washington International airport on Saturday, Aug 3, 2002, on a Gulfstream jet run by New World Aviation.

After arriving in Edinburgh in on Sunday, Aug. 4, they were slated to check into the Old Course Hotel and scheduled to tee-off at Kingsbarns links at 4 PM. The day was to conclude with dinner at the hotel's Road Hole Grill.

The group was scheduled to leave the hotel at 9 AM on Monday, Aug. 5 for an 11 AM tee-off at Carnoustie links. After dinner at an unspecified Edinburgh venue, possibly with the Conservative Party, Abramoff's crew was to attend a "Military Tattoo" performance at Edinburgh Castle.

Tuesday, August 6, was to be spent doing nothing but golf. After checking out of the Old Course Hotel, they scheduled a warm-up trip to a driving range, before a 10:20 tee-off at St. Andrews' Old Course golf course. Lunch was to be at the hotel's Clubhouse restaurant.

At 3:30 PM, the group was slated to tee-off at St. Andrews' Jubilee golf course, before driving to the Gleagles Hotel and Golf Resort by luxury coach where they checked in for the night.

Wednesday, August 7 was also devoted exclusively to golf, according to the group's schedule. At 10:20, they were to tee-off at the resort's Championship Course. At 4:20, they were supposed to tee off at the King's Course before eating dinner at the hotel.

On Thursday, August 8, the group was to check out of that hotel and return to St. Andrews to play a morning round at either Old Course or Crail, depending on availability. In the afternoon, the group planned to golf either at Old Course, or at Elie.

That night, the group was scheduled to fly to London and check into the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park Hotel. Dinner was to be from Yo, a sushi restaurant chain that offered delivery to the hotel.

In London, the trip became more serious. The schedule indicates the group was to meet on August 9 with Alexander Koulakovsky, a top executive at the Russian energy firm NaftaSib, who met with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on a prior congressional trip organized by Abramoff.

On August 10, a "to be confirmed" meeting was scheduled with Patrick Spiteri, whom foreign publications identify as an attorney from the Mediterranean island of Malta who specializes in tax havens. Reports in Malta Today describe Spiteri as having "far reaching ties into the world of money laundering and international stock fraud." The next day, the group was to leave London for Baltimore.

The trip's $166,634 cost was paid for by a sham charity of Abramoff's called the Capital Athletic Foundation. Abramoff declined comment on the trip through his attorney's spokeswoman.

Ney's spokesman, Brian Walsh, said Ney didn't get a copy of the scheduling email that Abramoff sent former General Services Administration official David Safavian, and can't comment on its contents. Safavian is fighting criminal charges for allegedly lying to the federal government about his contacts with Abramoff. The scheduling email was submitted as evidence in his case.

"As part of his own trip, the Congressman met with people associated with the Scottish Parliament, and attended a military tattoo to meet U.S. servicemen," Walsh said. "He did not meet with, and is not familiar with, the two individuals listed on the itinerary allegedly sent to Mr. Safavian."

Walsh said Ney is "more than willing to review this trip with the appropriate investigative bodies line by line and is confident that he acted in accordance with all House rules."

Source

Charities Offered Fertile Fields for Abramoff Schemes

2006-02-12T00:01:00.000-05:00

LA Times, February 11, 2006:

Abramoff used the $1 million as seed money forhis athletic foundation, which he had formed in 1999 and was his favorite "charity." It was established with the stated mission of funding sports programs in the Washington area. Tax records show that little money went for that purpose.

In early 2002, the bank account grew when another tribal client -- the Mississippi Choctaws -- made the first of two $500,000 payments to the athletic foundation. Tribal leaders testified that they had been led to believe it would be "passed through" to other organizations that would educate voters about American Indian gaming issues.

Around the time the first $500,000 was received in the foundation's bank account, $200,000 was transferred out of the account to Livsar, the holding company that Abramoff had set up to establish Signatures, a high-end restaurant he was opening the following month in Washington, the Los Angeles Times learned.

An e-mail exchange with his restaurant partner showed that Abramoff was anxiously awaiting the Choctaw money to get the restaurant opened. The Choctaw money arrived Jan. 3. His partner wrote that night that a banker "really saved us today" by transferring money from the athletic foundation to the restaurant account. The money was transferred back a few weeks later.

The restaurant became a centerpiece of Abramoff's lobbying operation, where he wined and dined congressmen as part of his bribery schemes.

The athletic foundation gave Abramoff access to millions for his pet causes, many of which dovetailed with his orthodox Jewish beliefs. The biggest beneficiary was Eshkol Academy, an Orthodox Jewish boys school he founded in Columbia, Md., which one of his sons attended. The foundation also sent $100,000 to an Israeli settler who ran a sniper training workshop for militant Jews.

Abramoff used the foundation to pay the $166,000 cost of a trip to play St. Andrew's golf course in Scotland, which included Rep. Robert Ney, R-Ohio, two top aides and others. Abramoff admitted in his plea agreement that the trip was part of a bribery scheme intended to offer "things of value" to Ney in exchange for a series of official acts. Ney, who has denied any wrongdoing, is under federal investigation.

Source and Additional Source

Abramoff Pressed GSA Contact on Getting Land

2006-02-11T20:33:00.000-05:00

Washington Post, February 11, 2006:

In their filing, prosecutors produced e-mails showing that Abramoff engaged in an aggressive campaign to secure for himself and clients the use of GSA-controlled property, including the Old Post Office in downtown Washington. Among his efforts, Abramoff considered trying to get a provision backing the land acquisition added to a bill being managed by House Administration Committee Chairman Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), who also went with Abramoff on the golf trip, which prosecutors have called "lavish."

[...]

The e-mails show how Abramoff and members of his team were strategizing among themselves and with Safavian about how to acquire or lease part of 600 acres of the Naval Surface Warfare Center-White Oak in Montgomery County. Abramoff wanted the property for a Jewish school he operated. He also wanted to gain use of the Old Post Office for a tribal client. A key strategy involved getting members of Congress, at Safavian's suggestion, to press the GSA on the issue.

At one point, Abramoff asked a member of his lobbying team, Neil G. Volz, if he could get a provision inserted into an election-reform bill to advance the acquisition of the land. The bill was sponsored by Ney, Volz's former boss.

Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed was also on the trip with Abramoff, Ney, and Ney's chief of staff, William Heaton. Ney, who reported to the House that the trip was paid for by a think tank, is under investigation for allegedly promising to add a provision to the same bill for an Indian tribe attempting to reopen a shuttered Texas casino.

"If we were to craft something oblique, any chance of slipping into the election reform bill?" Abramoff asked Volz. "I know we are loading that up, but I thought I'd ask." Volz replied by saying he wanted to call Safavian at home to discuss it.

Source

Ney trips to London drawing renewed scrutiny

2006-02-10T09:38:00.000-05:00

Thomson Dialog News Edge, February 10, 2006:

Rep. Bob Ney once described himself as a hardliner on Iran, enthusiastically supporting sanctions that isolated the country and its radical Islamic rulers.

Over the years, though, his stance changed; he came to favor more engagement with the country where he had once lived and taught English. In the winter of 2003, Ney flew to London and met with two men who, according to people familiar with the visit, were interested in selling aircraft parts to Iran's crash-prone national airline, something prohibited under U.S. sanctions without a special exemption.

One of the men, Nigel Winfield, was a U.S. citizen with a long criminal record, alleged mob ties and a $2.9 million federal tax lien pending against him. The other was Fouad al-Zayat, described by the British press as a "go-between" for Middle East defense contracts and one of the biggest casino gamblers in the country, whose nationality has been variously reported as Syrian or Portugese.

Some time after that meeting, Ney's staff says he returned to London, visited an exclusive casino frequented by al-Zayat and parlayed a $100 initial bet into $34,000 in winnings on just two hands of a card game, which gambling experts say would be extremely good luck.

While the win raised eyebrows when Ney reported it on his 2003 financial disclosure statement, his dealings with Winfield and al-Zayat have received even more intense scrutiny since the Heath Republican became embroiled in the bribery investigation surrounding lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his partner Michael Scanlon.

[...]

Ney's office has never disclosed the name of the game the congressman played at Les Ambassadeurs, though Walsh, his spokesman, described it in 2004 as similar to draw poker. I. Nelson Rose, a professor at Whittier Law School and a noted authority on casino gambling, said Ney may have been playing three-card poker.

Based on the London casino's payout formula, Ney could have been dealt a straight on the first hand and a straight flush on the second hand to amass the winnings he reported, Rose wrote in an email.

"For a casino to pay 6 to one on the first bet and 56 to one on the second as he reported, the odds have to be less than 340 to 1," Rose wrote.

Source

Handful of Races May Tip Control of Congress

2006-02-06T13:40:00.000-05:00

Washington Post, February 6, 2006:

Ohio Rep. Robert W. Ney (R) appears to be at the center of the pay-to-play schemes of Abramoff and has been informed by federal investigators that he may be indicted. Ney has pledged to run regardless but is trailing his two little-known Democratic opponents in internal GOP surveys.

Source

For a change, incumbents feel the heat

2006-02-05T13:36:00.000-05:00

Chicago Tribune, February 5, 2006:

The congressional corruption scandal has stirred waves of anxiety across the country for politicians whose names appear on the November ballot, but perhaps no place in America is the power of incumbency as wobbly as in Ohio.

Republicans are rattled by ethical lapses and criminal charges throughout the ranks of state government here, topped by Gov. Bob Taft's pleading no contest last summer to four counts of state ethics violations. Now they find themselves facing credible congressional opponents for the first time in years as Democrats eye a handful of seats they believe could be among the ripest targets in the battle for control of Congress.

[...]

The fallout from the ethics scandal has even dogged some incumbent members of Congress who are seeking other offices. Corruption has emerged as an issue in at least three gubernatorial races--in Wisconsin, Iowa and Nevada--where GOP members of Congress are on the ticket.

But here in Chillicothe, where seven churches sit along a five-block stretch of Main Street, corruption has become a local issue.

Ney, who was elected in 1994 to represent Ohio's 18th Congressional District, has been implicated in the federal fraud investigation of Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has agreed to testify against members of Congress as part of a plea bargain. Ohio Republican Party Chairman Robert Bennett has said if Ney is indicted, he should not run for re-election.

Ney, however, maintains his innocence and retorted that he would not allow some "party boss" to make a decision that belongs to Ney's constituents. So he came to a restaurant here last month and announced his drive for re-election.

"I don't know all the details, but he's in some hot water, and the truth will come out," said Randy Rinehart, 52, a local minister who is trying to keep an open mind. "A lot of people have a price on their souls--especially in politics."

Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.), the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, dismissed the suggestion that all GOP candidates could suffer from the lobbying scandal. But he conceded that whoever is swept up in the investigation faces a challenge.

"I think Bob Ney has a tough race," Reynolds said. "It may get to a point where all the skies are clear . . . but I don't know what the future might hold."

Chillicothe Mayor Joe Sulzer, recruited by Emanuel to run against Ney, said ethics would play "a huge role" in the race.

"The very reason why both political parties are sponsoring ethical reforms in the United States Congress is because of Bob Ney," Sulzer said. "The average voter here is already weary of the political scandals because of what they have seen in Columbus and now they are seeing it from their own congressman."

John Wright, a professor of political science at Ohio State University, said Democrats appeared to have recruited more candidates than in most years.

"The problem Republicans are experiencing right now is a perception of arrogance and corruption, which was the undoing of the Democrats in 1994," Wright said. "Whether or not this has reached the same proportions I don't know, but I would be worried if I were a Republican."

Source

As scandal mounted, Ney's corporate, political donors kept giving

2006-02-01T13:28:00.000-05:00

Akron Beacon Journal, January 31, 2006:

As scrutiny of Rep. Bob Ney's role in the developing Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal intensified, the Ohio Republican's campaign fundraising improved, according to records filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.

Ney's campaign raised $276,499 in the final three months of 2005, just before lobbyist Abramoff pleaded guilty to several counts of corruption and said he bribed Ney for political favors.

Ney's quarterly fundraising totals more than double the $119,220 he raised in the final three months of 2003, the last time he was a year away from Election Day. He is seeking a seventh term representing an expansive, mostly rural district in southeast Ohio.

This time, Ney relied more heavily on support from corporate political committees and those of his congressional colleagues. More than two-fifths of his quarterly total at the end of 2003 came from individual donors, whereas individuals accounted for only one-third of his fourth-quarter total in 2005.

The Back America's Conservatives PAC, run by Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., gave or transferred from others payments of more than $12,000 to Ney's campaign during the quarter.

Fellow Ohio GOP Rep. Michael Oxley's Leadership PAC 2006 gave Ney $5,000 in November, as did California Rep. John Doolittle's Superior California PAC. Ohio Rep. David Hobson's campaign gave Ney $1,000 on Oct. 27.

Ney also received more help from labor groups than he typically does this early in an election cycle. He got a total of $12,000 from groups that represent workers, such as the Ironworkers PAC, Laborers Political League and the National Association of Home Builders, which doubled its contribution from the last quarter of 2003 to $5,000.

"Labor is coming in big for me, and I'm very proud and pleased with that," Ney said.

Only 21 percent of individual Ney contributors who listed their name with the FEC put Ohio addresses. Less than 4 percent of the political groups that gave Ney money during the quarter listed Ohio addresses.

Source

Republicans Try to Distract from Abramoff Pay-To-Play Schemes

2006-02-01T10:01:00.000-05:00

US Newswire, January 31, 2006:

REP. BOB NEY (R-OH): Representative Bob Ney was a protégé of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, which moved him into Abramoff's orbit. Evenutally, former Ney chief of staff Neil Volz went to go work for Abramoff. Although he has since denounced Abramoff, in a 2002 meeting with one of Abramoff's tribal clients, Ney was effusive about Abramoff and his lobbying skills. A meeting participant described him as "animated about Mr. Abramoff's skill and repute as a leader in the lobbying circles." (Washington Post, 10/18/05)

INDIAN TRIBES

PAY: Jack Abramoff's Capitol Athletic Foundation paid for the chartered jet that flew at least six people - including Abramoff and Ney - to St. Andrews, Scotland and London in August 2002. According to House rules, members of Congress are not allowed to receive trips that are paid for by lobbyists. In addition, a consultant to a Texas tribe represented by Abramoff testified that the lobbyist had told him he needed $100,000 to pay for Ney and his contingent's golf trip to Scotland. (Washington Post, 9/28/04; Los Angeles Times, 3/9/05) In addition, Ney's federal PAC received $5,000 in donations from the Tigua tribe of El Paso and his non-federal account received $25,000 in soft-money contributions. (Political Moneyline, http://www.tray.com)

PLAY: Ney attempted to help re-open the casino of the Tigua Indian tribe, a huge Abramoff client, by attempting to slip a provision into the unrelated Help America Vote Act. Abramoff stated that Ney was deeply involved, recalling a long conference call between Ney and Tigua tribal leaders, saying, "He (Ney) was on the phone for an hour and a half!" (Washington Post, 12/26/04; Washington Post, 11/18/04; New York Times, 5/1/05)

SUNCRUZ CASINOS

PAY: FEC records show that Abramoff and three men associated with Suncruz each donated $1,000 to Ney on March 15, 2001, a date that Ney used Abramoff's skybox. (Washington Post, 12/26/04; http://www.fec.gov)

PLAY: Ney criticized Gus Boulis, the owner of Suncruz a Florida based casino cruise ship fleet, in statements placed in the Congressional Record on March 30, 2000. Under pressure, Boulis sold the cruise line to a group that included Jack Abramoff, in a deal now under investigation for bank fraud. Ney praised the new owner Adam Kidan on October 26, 2000, on the floor of the House, after the sale went through. The next year, Boulis was murdered. (Washington Post, 12/26/04; Congressional Record, Thomas.loc.gov; Washington Post, 5/1/05)

Source

The Soon-to-be-Indicted Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio's Connection To Electoral Fraud

2006-02-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

Brad Blog, January 10, 2006:

There's been a great deal of speculation over the last several days, particularly in the light of Jack Abramoff's recent guilty pleas, concerning the connection of Congressman Bob Ney (R-OH) to Election Fraud in Ohio, vis a vis his stewardship and authoring of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) back in 2001 and 2002. The heavy-handed tactics he has taken since, in order to keep the flawed act from being changed in any way over the years, along with going to great lengths to keep the nation's eyes off of massive electile dysfunction in Ohio and elsewhere since 2004, may finally get the attention it all properly deserves.

Both Abramoff and his partner Michael Scanlon have directly informed prosecutors of Ney's alleged wrong-doing in regard to money and gifts given to Ney, in apparent exchange for support on various legislation and even personal business deals. Ney, who chairs the important U.S. House Administration Committee, has been fingered, and now subpoenaed, for accepting illegal trips, gratuities and other apparent quid pro quo deals with Abramoff's former firms, partners, friends and groups who had paid both him and Scanlon as lobbyists.

His direct connection to the HAVA Election Reform bill passed in the wake of the 2000 Florida Election Debacle, and his various extraordinary efforts to specifically block amendments to the bill and to smokescreen attempted investigations into his home state's conduct during the 2004 Election Debacle, has been less widely reported. Until now.

While Common Cause quietly reported in December of 2004 that Diebold -- the much-beleagured-of-late American Voting Machine company -- paid as much as $275,000 to Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig for lobbying work, The BRAD BLOG has now found additional details that begin to shed new light on Ney's personal connections to Diebold lobbyists.

Such personal connections include those with Ney's former chief of staff turned lobbyist, David DiStefano, who has been working on behalf of Diebold, Inc. and at least one other Voting Machine Company as a registered lobbyist in the House going back to at least 2001. One of DiStefano's online bios crows about his having "an insider’s edge to hard-to-reach political officials." That "insider's edge" has proven to have been a very worthwhile investment for the Voting Machine Companies who'd purchased access into Ney's political office.

Congressional lobbying records reveal that Diebold, Inc. has paid at least $180,000 to DiStefano and eventually his partner, Roy C. Coffee, to lobby for the "Help America Vote Act" and other "Election Reform Issues" in Congress since 2003. Another Electronic Voting Machine Company, AccuPoll, Inc., also paid DiStefano some $70,000 to lobby for HAVA on their behalf in 2002, although that relationship was apparently terminated once the legislation was passed by Congress.

In turn, Ney's former employee DiStefano and Coffee themselves have given nearly $20,000 to Bob Ney's campaigns dating back to 2002.

...continued.

Source

Sign placement puts GOP in negative light in Dover

2006-01-31T12:26:00.000-05:00

Columbus Dispatch, January 31, 2006:

For U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, the target of a bribery investigation, it was an unfortunate juxtaposition.

He made his re-election announcement Thursday at the Tuscarawas County Republican Party headquarters in Dover, which shares a building with Cash Land, a consumer loan business. Side-by-side on a pole outside the two buildings are two signs: "Republican Headquarters" and "Cash Land."

A federal investigation has linked Ney to Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to several federal charges and is cooperating with prosecutors. Abramoff said he provided Ney and members of his staff with a golf trip to Scotland, tickets to sporting events, meals and campaign contributions in return for Ney’s help with clients.

More than 100 supporters gathered at party headquarters for Ney’s campaign kickoff, and nary a one mentioned the signs outside. But across the street, protester Robert Danco, of New Philadelphia, took note. "That’s appropriate," he said.

Source

Protesters try to draw attention to scandal

2006-01-31T12:25:00.000-05:00

Chillicothe Gazette, January 28, 2006:

The scene outside Renick's Family Restaurant Friday was in sharp contrast to the gathering in the banquet hall.

While supporters of U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, R-Heath, cheered and spoke about his campaign for re-election inside, a group of residents protested outside.

Dressed in shirts that read, "Just say Ney to Bribes and Scottish Junkets," local representatives from a group known as Campaign for a Cleaner Congress handed out fliers while one member played the bagpipes.

"I think (the demonstration) is great," Ross County Republican Party Chairwoman Diane Carnes said to the audience inside the restaurant. "They'll draw attention to what we're doing here."

On the contrary, the demonstrators were trying to bring attention to "Mr. Ney's connection with Jack Abramoff and the scandals in Washington," said local spokesman and volunteer with the Campaign for a Cleaner Congress, Jack Burgess.

"Instead of running for another term, he should ask himself if he should remain in Congress," Burgess said.

Burgess said he wasn't trying to protest Ney's right to have a meeting and he also believes Ney deserves his day in court.

"He's just out of step with the values of the community," he said.

Friday's demonstration was a first for Ross County resident Jim McBrayer, but now that he has his T-shirt, he plans to participate more. Anytime Ney comes to town, McBrayer suspects volunteers with the group will demonstrate.

"I came out to protest because if Congressman Ney is that naive about his dealings with Abramoff ...then he's too naive to be a congressman of the United States," said McBrayer.

As a part of the call for a cleaner Congress, Burgess said he believes elected officials shouldn't be allowed to accept any free gifts, they should post details of meetings with lobbyists and the inspector general should be given more power to investigate "unethical abuses."

"The Campaign for a Cleaner Congress is calling for congress, starting with Ney and (Texas Rep. Tom) DeLay, to do some things that will help restore congress to a more respectable position," Burgess said.

"It's discouraging to think they're going to sweep this thing under the road," McBrayer said.

Chillicothe Police Detective James Lowe told protesters they could be outside, as long as they didn't block the sidewalk.

Only one complaint was received about the bagpipes, Lowe said, from Lake Fry, the owner of Renick's.

After about 30 minutes, the group left the scene.

"We were not trying to be disruptive," Burgess said. "We were just trying to remind the public."

Source

The Man Who Bought Washington

2006-01-30T16:09:00.000-05:00

Time, January 8, 2006:

From deep inside the Republican elite, Jack Abramoff brought new excesses to the lobbying game. Who is he, and how did he get away with it for so long?

There were two qualities that Jack Abramoff looked for in a prospective lobbying client: naivete and a willingness to part with a lot of money. In early 2001 he found both in an obscure Indian tribe called the Louisiana Coushattas. Thanks to the humming casino the tribe had erected on farmland between New Orleans and Houston, a band that had subsisted in part on pine-needle basket weaving was doling out stipends of $40,000 a year to every one of its 800-plus men, women and children. But the Coushattas were also $30 million in debt and worried that renewal of their gambling compact would be blocked by hostile local authorities"and that their casino business would be eaten away by others looking to get a piece of the action. So tribal leaders were eager to hear from the handsome, dandily dressed visitor who had flown in from Washington with his partner on a private jet, shared some of their fried chicken in the council hall, then waited for them to turn off the tape recorder that they used for official business.

[...]

Only one lawmaker - "House Administration Committee chairman Bob Ney of Ohio, identified as "Representative #1" - "is mentioned in the Abramoff indictments as having provided "official acts and influence" in exchange for gifts, travel, meals and campaign contributions.

Source

Cleaning House - Banish the Abramoff Republicans

2006-01-30T13:34:00.000-05:00

Wall Street Journal Opinion Page, January 6, 2006:

This week's plea agreement by "super-lobbyist" Jack Abramoff has Republicans either rushing to return his campaign contributions in an act of cosmetic distancing, accuse Democrats of being equally corrupt, or embrace some new "lobbying reform" that would further insulate Members of Congress from political accountability.

Here's a better strategy: Banish the Abramoff crowd from polite Republican society, and start remembering why you were elected in the first place.

[...]

The most culpable is Ohio's Bob Ney, who has been cited in a "criminal information" for receiving trips and other favors in return for statements entered into the Congressional Record. Mr. Ney says that he too was duped, but there's no question he was willing to tap dance on cue for Mr. Scanlon, and that alone is sleaze-by-willing-association. If the House Ethics Committee serves any useful purpose, sanctioning Mr. Ney ought to be it.

Source

Jack Abramoff's $10,000 Question

2006-01-28T12:01:00.000-05:00

Time, January 23, 2006:

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff's Oct. 23, 2000, e-mail to his business partner Michael Scanlon was, as usual, not subtle. "Would 10K for NRCC from Suncruz for Ney help?" Scanlon shot back: "Yes, alot [sic]! But would have to give them a definate [sic] answer--and they need it this week ..."

That electronic exchange, a record of which was reviewed by TIME, is among the evidence that Republican Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio accepted favors from Abramoff and Scanlon as part of an alleged quid pro quo--a charge to which the business partners each recently confessed in larger plea deals. While the plea agreements spell out various gifts, campaign donations and junkets that Abramoff and Scanlon say they provided to Ney in return for "official acts," the e-mails present in one place the specific elements of a swap that Abramoff has told investigators was prearranged and explicitly reciprocal, according to a source close to the Justice Department probe. To wit: a $10,000 donation to the Republicans just days before Ney inserted into the Congressional Record a statement praising an Abramoff business partner. Ney's lawyer, Mark Tuohey, calls the accusations "totally false."

Abramoff has told the feds, according to the source, that Ney, the chairman of the powerful Committee on House Administration, and his staff repeatedly demanded help in raising cash for the National Republican Campaign Committee--the "NRCC" of Abramoff's e-mail. Under then House majority leader Tom DeLay, Ney and his fellow G.O.P. chairmen had to meet steep fund-raising quotas or risk losing their plum positions.

On Oct. 20, 2000, the e-mail records show, Scanlon sent Abramoff Scanlon's draft of a statement praising Adam Kidan, a co-owner of SunCruz Casinos, a Florida gambling-boat company that Abramoff and Kidan had bought the month before, after a public dispute with the previous owner. Abramoff and Kidan, who have since pleaded guilty in Florida to fraud in connection with their financing of the SunCruz purchase, hoped that Ney's positive statement would "let people know that SunCruz now was in honest hands," according to a source familiar with the case. In an Oct. 23 e-mail, Abramoff proposed throwing $10,000 at the NRCC in the form of a SunCruz check signed by Kidan. The money was sent within days, and Ney got credit within the G.O.P. for raising it. Ney then inserted praise for Kidan into the Oct. 26 Congressional Record.

Tuohey denies that Ney was under pressure to raise funds and says his client had no contact with Abramoff or Scanlon regarding SunCruz. "There was a check to NRCC by SunCruz, and Ney knew nothing about it," Tuohey says.

As the Abramoff scandal has unfolded, alarm has spread on Capitol Hill that Justice Department prosecutors are building corruption cases on legally reported campaign donations--a worry that revelations of the alleged Ney quid pro quo are sure to fuel. Although refusing to comment on the specifics of the Ney case, a U.S. government expert on criminal law made the following point: "Contributions are lawful only if made in support of a lawmaker's policies. They are clearly illegal as part of a prenegotiated deal involving a quid pro quo." For a host of nervous politicians familiar with the murky ways of Washington, that fine a distinction is probably small comfort.

Source

The Ney Scandal Grows

2006-01-27T15:26:00.000-05:00

The Nation, January 2, 2006:

Bob Ney won election to Congress in 1994, one of a bevy of Republican revolutionaries who promised to clean up Washington and reform the House of Representatives. The Ohio Congressman leapfrogged to power by raising cash for Tom DeLay's Retain Our Majority program. As chairman of the powerful House Administration Committee, which oversees everything from lawmaker mail to parking spaces, Ney became known as the Mayor of Capitol Hill. It's a fitting nickname for a man currently at the forefront of Washington's most toxic corruption contretemps--the money trail of über-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The brazen manner in which Ney allegedly pulled strings for lobbyists in return for financial favors is powerfully emblematic of the pay-to-play politics honed to perfection by DeLay Inc. Today, Ney and DeLay are the clearest examples of a "revolution" gone terribly awry.

The scandal dates back to early 2000, when Ney's chief of staff, Neil Volz, got a call from an old Hill buddy, Michael Scanlon. Scanlon had recently left DeLay's press office to work for the well-connected Abramoff, who was trying to buy a gambling boat company in Florida named SunCruz Casinos. Scanlon asked Volz for help. Ney, an old friend of Abramoff's from their days as College Republicans, obliged by inserting a statement in the Congressional Record that pressured SunCruz's then-ownership to sell the company. It was the first of many favors Ney would perform on Scanlon's and Abramoff's behalf.

The SunCruz deal served as a precursor to richer fortunes for the lobbying duo, namely the $82 million in fees they demanded between 2001 and 2004 to lobby on gaming rights for a half-dozen Indian tribes. Much of that money, we know now, vanished in a tangled web of phony Christian front groups, bogus self-enriching charitable organizations and pricey Congressional junkets. In mid-November Scanlon pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to bribe public officials and defraud Indian tribes. The plea alleges that Scanlon and Abramoff "engaged in a course of conduct through which one or both of them offered and provided a stream of things of value to public officials in exchange for a series of official acts." The provider of those ten "official acts" was a certain "Representative #1"--identified by lawyers as Ney--who received "travel, golf fees, frequent meals, entertainment, election support for candidates...and campaign contributions."

Ney is fighting the law on two fronts. He's already been subpoenaed and has reportedly received word of a possible indictment in the SunCruz case, which goes to trial January 9, with Abramoff and his mob-tied partner, Adam Kidan, facing federal conspiracy and wire-fraud charges. Kidan recently copped a deal and agreed to testify against Abramoff and Ney. And Ney could also face legal action in the massive Justice Department probe prompted by John McCain's high-profile Senate Indian Affairs Committee investigation of Abramoff. "Gratuity and bribery charges have two ends: donor and donee," says Stan Brand, a top Washington criminal defense attorney and former counsel to Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill. "I deduce from these facts that it's inevitable Ney will be charged."

The facts tell a damning story. Ney placed statements into the Congressional Record haranguing SunCruz--and then added another statement praising the company seven months later, in October 2000, after Abramoff had acquired SunCruz and days before he donated $10,000 on Ney's behalf to a GOP fundraising committee. Abramoff hosted a $1,000-a-head fundraiser for Ney in March 2001, and frequently comped Ney's meals at his Washington restaurant, Signatures. Ney inserted a provision into a bipartisan election-reform bill, granting another Abramoff client, the Tigua Indian Tribe of El Paso, Texas, gaming rights--the very rights Abramoff had fought against a year earlier as a lobbyist for the rival Louisiana Coushatta Tribe. "Just met with Ney!!!" Abramoff wrote in an e-mail to Scanlon in March 2002. "We're f'ing gold!!!! He's going to do Tigua." Six days later Abramoff instructed the Tiguas to donate $32,000 to three of Ney's political action committees.

By summer 2002 Ney had a loftier request. "Our friend," Abramoff wrote to the Tiguas, "asked if we could help (as in cover) a Scotland golf trip for him and some staff.... The trip will be quite expensive (we did this for another member--you know who), two years ago." That other member, of course, was DeLay. Ney's trip, which ran up a six-figure tab, included former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed, currently running for lieutenant governor in Georgia, and David Safavian, the White House procurement official indicted in October for obstructing the Abramoff investigation. Ney personally thanked the Tiguas upon his return, even though he'd known for months that their gaming provision would not make the final election reform legislation. His claim that Abramoff "duped" him into accepting money from the Tiguas appears almost laughably implausible as the evidence mounts.

The Scanlon plea likely marked the beginning of the end for Ney, but only the start of the Abramoff aftershocks in Washington. When instances of corruption swirled around the House leadership in the past few years, Congressional watchdogs warned that the scandals reached "beyond DeLay." Now, as three dozen Justice Department officials pursue Abramoff's cash flow, that phrase applies equally to Ney. "I think this could be the biggest corruption scandal in one hundred years," Brand says. "By 2006 you're going to see anywhere from one to six individual sitting members and half a dozen or more staff people indicted. It's beyond Ney. He's the first of many."

Source

Lobbyists bring unwanted attention to law firm

2006-01-26T13:50:00.000-05:00

Dallas Morning News, January 24, 2006:

Lobbyists are hired for their connections. But as Washington sorts through a growing lobbying scandal, the past connections of two lobbyists hired last fall by Locke Liddell & Sapp are bringing unwanted attention to the powerful Dallas law firm.

The two men, Roy Coffee and David DiStefano, have been connected to a foreign company's attempt to work around U.S. sanctions against Iran and sell airplane parts to that nation – an attempt that centered on U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican accused in lobbyist Jack Abramoff's recent plea agreement of accepting bribes.

[...]

FN Aviation hired Mr. Coffee and Mr. DiStefano as lobbyists to "monitor trade legislation," according to mandatory lobbying disclosure filings. Mr. Coffee was paid about $220,000 by FN in 2003, according to those filings. Mr. DiStefano was paid about $20,000.

Mr. Coffee said the two men arranged for FN officials to meet with Mr. Ney. In February 2003, Mr. Ney flew to London on a three-day trip paid for by the company. He reported on House disclosure forms that the trip was valued at $2,707 and concerned "trade and international business matters."

There, he met with Mr. Winfield and Mr. al-Zayat, who said they wanted to sell airplane parts to Iran but were prevented by U.S. sanctions against the country. They were seeking a special government permit that could allow them to get around the sanctions.

Source

Embattled Rep. Ney to Seek Re-Election

2006-01-25T11:50:00.000-05:00

Washington Post, January 25, 2006:

Undaunted by speculation within his own party that he may have to quit Congress because of a corruption probe, Rep. Bob Ney announced Wednesday he's running for re-election.

"2006 promises to be a vigorous campaign and I am ready for the fight," said Ney, R-Ohio. He planned to hold his first formal campaign event Thursday.

Ney's popularity has hardly dimmed in his expansive rural district, even after he was identified in disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's guilty plea as the central figure in Abramoff's scheme to bribe members of Congress.

[...]

Earlier this month, Ney temporarily stepped down as chairman of the House Administration Committee. He acknowledged that his ties to Abramoff were a distraction from his duties, particularly as Republicans push an ethics reform agenda - part of which must be implemented by the Administration Committee.

But Ney spokesman Brian Walsh said no such distraction has affected Ney's work for his district, where he's known for hands-on constituent service and independence from GOP trade and labor policies.

Two Republican members of Congress have moved early to dissociate themselves from Ney. Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida gave away $2,500 he had received from Ney and Rep. Charles Boustany of Louisiana shed $10,000 Ney gave him. Ney's political action committee gave money to both lawmakers shortly before the 2004 elections.

Source

Akron's Sykes runs for auditor

2006-01-25T11:47:00.000-05:00

Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 25, 2006:

Sykes, a state representative and former member of Akron City Council, pledged to be "an independent voice to ensure accountability and make sure taxpayers get their money's worth."

She then left supporters howling and onlookers gasping by uttering what may prove to be the campaign's most memorable quip.

"We knew that Bob Ney was a crook when he left Ohio . . . but we sent our problem to Congress. . . . We knew Paul Jones was a crook when he left Columbus" to become mayor of Ravenna, Sykes told a news conference.

"They can sue me if they like. I'm 50 years old. I'm going through menopause, and I can handle it."

Republican Ney and Democrat Jones have been investigated but never convicted of criminal charges. Both were central figures in a 1995 Statehouse speaking-fee scandal, and Ney is now a target in a federal investigation of Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Source

Ney hosts 'dozens' of lobbyists in spite of Abramoff attention

2006-01-24T13:29:00.000-05:00

Raw Story, January 23, 2006:

In spite of recent negative attention brough on by his involvement in the Abramoff lobby scandal, Bob Ney (R-Ohio), hosted "dozens of financial services lobbyists" at a recent fundraiser in Vail, Colorado, Roll Call reports.

It was Ney’s third year in a row attending The Lodge at Vail event, which, as in past years, was hosted by House Financial Services Chairman Mike Oxley (R-Ohio). (The chairman, and Reps. Ney, Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.), Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), and Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), all held separate fundraisers while they were there.) ...

One lobbyist who attended the event said Ney kept a lower profile that he did last year, but given the controversy, was a more conspicuous presence, especially given that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee coincidentally was holding a fundraiser in the same place.

He noted that the DCCC was holding "ethics briefings" in a nearby room, where Ney could well have had to walk past. "That was the picture in my mind," the lobbyist said.

Lobbying: The Web Widens

2006-01-23T15:45:00.000-05:00

From Newsweek, January 23, 2006:

Ohio Rep. Robert Ney personally lobbied the then Secretary of State Colin Powell to relax U.S. sanctions on Iran. Who asked him to? A convicted airplane broker who had just taken the congressman and a top aide on an expense-paid trip to London, NEWSWEEK has learned. Ney's lawyer confirmed to NEWSWEEK that federal prosecutors have subpoenaed records on Ney's February 2003 trip paid for by Nigel Winfield, a thrice-convicted felon who ran a company in Cyprus called FN Aviation. Winfield was seeking to sell U.S.-made airplane spare parts to the Iranian government—a deal that would have needed special permits because of U.S. sanctions against Tehran.

Source

Congressman Linked to Abramoff Is No Stranger to Lobbyists

2006-01-22T15:15:00.000-05:00

LA Times, January 22, 2006:

Congressman Bob Ney was a long way from the cracked brick streets and ragged neighborhoods of his Rust Belt hometown when he teed off on the fabled golf course at St. Andrews, Scotland, in the summer of 2002.

But there was nothing unusual about his cozy ties with the Washington lobbyist who helped arrange his tee time. The Ohio Republican has a history of close relations with lobbyists and special interests that predate golf partner Jack Abramoff.

In his quarter-century as a state legislator and U.S. representative, Ney, 51, has demonstrated a talent for turning such political connections into opportunities for gifts, travel and other forms of personal gain, records and interviews show.

So far, Ney is the only member of Congress directly linked to allegations that Abramoff traded such gifts as the golf outing for legislative favors. He is identified simply as "Representative #1" in a Jan. 3 plea agreement between Abramoff and federal prosecutors.

Years before Ney came to Washington, however, he began accepting honorariums, in the form of personal checks, and travel from lobbyists and business interests when he served in the Ohio Legislature in the 1980s and '90s.

Source

The Muddying of the Greens

2006-01-22T14:33:00.000-05:00

New York Times, January 22, 2006:

OF all the lessons to emerge from the Jack Abramoff scandal, the most culturally consequential may be just three words long. And it is already being taught as part of an ethics training session for special agents at the F.B.I.

"I'm going to go over a lot of things today, and I can take all of your questions, but let me give you the all-encompassing rule," a lawyer teaching the course began at a recent session in Miami, according to one of the participants.

"Golf," he said, pausing for effect, "is bad."

Golf is bad. The ominous warning can almost be heard echoing across the greens of the political establishment, where the game is not only a cherished pastime but has increasingly become a critical cog in the wheels of campaign financing and lobbying. Lavish political fund-raisers are built around golf tournaments. Fact-finding Congressional trips are tailored to cross paths with golf resorts. Candidates and their supporters spend tens of thousands of dollars on golfing costs each campaign cycle - more and more each year, it turns out - as part of the cost of doing political business.

But now, as the Abramoff ordeal in Washington unfolds, golf is acquiring the whiff of scandal, its exclusive fairways and cozy clubhouses redolent of an improper commerce between money and influence.

Source

Spotlight on Lobbying Swings to Little-Known Congressman

2006-01-17T12:00:00.000-05:00

New York Times, January 17, 2006:

Until recently, Representative Bob Ney was little more than an obscure, sometimes eccentric, lawmaker from Ohio.

He had made his biggest public splash in 2003, when he ordered the House cafeteria to start calling French fries "freedom fries" because France had opposed the war in Iraq. Fluent in Farsi - an interest that grew out of having an exchange student live with his family - Mr. Ney lived for a time in Iran as a teacher, and later taught in Saudi Arabia.

In Congress, where the language of money and power is spoken, he is known as the Mayor of Capitol Hill, a nickname derived from his position as chairman of the House Administration Committee, which controls aspects of daily Congressional life like the allotment of parking spots.

Now, Mr. Ney has a new title: Representative No. 1, in court documents filed in connection with the Jack Abramoff case. And the modest glory he has achieved as a lawmaker appears to be rapidly eroding.

Source

Rep. Bob Ney temporarily quits House post

2006-01-15T22:41:00.000-05:00

CNN, January 15, 2006:

Rep. Bob Ney gave up his chairmanship of the House Administration Committee on Sunday amid an influence-peddling probe that has roiled the Republican Party, but he predicted the investigation would clear his name.

Ney, a six-term Ohio Republican, was under heavy pressure from House Speaker Dennis Hastert to give up his chairmanship after Ney was implicated in the scandal surrounding lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges January 3.

GOP sources said Friday that Hastert, an Illinois Republican, was moving to push the embattled Ney from his post.

Source

Ad campaign targets Ney's lobbyist ties

2006-01-11T12:24:00.000-05:00

Newark Advocate, January 11, 2006:

The lobbying scandal in Washington officially hit Licking County this week, if it hadn't already.

A new advertising campaign features television, radio and billboard advertising critical of U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, a Republican from Heath, accused of accepting travel, meals and golf outings in exchange for official favors.

Ney's constituents in Ohio's 18th Congressional District may not have paid much attention to the scandal thus far, but a billboard on Interstate 70 and radio ads scheduled to begin today on WHTH-AM and WNKO-FM may be hard to overlook.
The billboard off the I-70 eastbound lanes, at exit 126, one mile west of Ohio 37, shows Ney's picture with the words: "Rep. Bob Ney: Under investigation for taking bribes." Ney moved to Heath last year from St. Clairsville.

Source

Fellow Republican: Ney likely to be indicted

2006-01-07T00:17:00.000-05:00

Bucyrus Telegraph Forum, January 7, 2006:

Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, is likely to be indicted in an ongoing public corruption scandal, according to a fellow Republican congressman, Jim McCrery of Louisiana.

Ney has been linked by prosecutors to Jack Abramoff, a former lobbyist who pleaded guilty to charges this week that include mail fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials. He also is linked to Abramoff's associate, Michael Scanlon, who pleaded guilty in November to conspiring to bribe a member of Congress and other public officials.

"He'll probably be indicted," McCrery speculated Friday.

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House ethics guru may have ignored lessons

2006-01-05T10:13:00.000-05:00

Houston Chronicle, January 5, 2006:

Before they take their seats in the House of Representatives, newly elected lawmakers come to Washington for a weeklong orientation that includes a briefing on congressional ethics.

Presiding over their instruction is the chairman of the House Administration Committee, who since 2001 has been Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio.

Now, Ney could have ethical difficulties of his own.

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Nightline Investigation: Did a powerful congressman receive favors in alleged corruption scheme?

2005-12-13T18:01:00.000-05:00

ABC News, December 13, 2005:

Bob Ney is hardly a household name, but in Congress, the Ohio Republican is well-known as "the mayor of Capitol Hill."

As chairman of the Committee on House Administration, Ney controls such key perks as congressional contracts, office space, parking places and even the cafeteria menus. He's the one who replaced "french fries" with "freedom fries" after the French opposed invading Iraq. Such authority sounds mundane, but, in fact, he wields plenty of power.

"A good part of Bob Ney's power comes from the reality that members of Congress are constantly going to him and asking for little things," said Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "From the ability to have a room to run a reception to making sure that your administrative assistant gets to park reasonably close to the elevator — those little things accumulate, so you do not want the chair of the house administration committee to be unhappy with you."

But now, court documents suggest Ney may have received favors in an alleged "corruption scheme" involving Washington's most notorious lobbyists: Jack Abramoff and his former partner, Mike Scanlon. They allegedly schemed to cheat their clients, enrich themselves and shower members of Congress with political contributions.

Last month, Scanlon struck a plea bargain that left him smiling: a reduced prison sentence in return for his cooperation.

Now that Scanlon is cooperating with federal authorities, some speculate he could cause problems for Ney.

"I think that Congressman Ney had better get right with his God," said Texas political consultant Marc Schwartz. Schwartz, who had extensive dealings with Abramoff and Scanlon, is cooperating in the federal investigation. In his first television interview, Schwartz tells "Nightline's" Chris Bury that Scanlon's testimony could be damaging for Ney.

...continued.

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