Political Skullduggery

This report is chock full of salacious details about a dodgy relationship between lobbyists and one particular Republican congressman:

A Washington lobbyist who formerly served as chief of staff to Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) pleaded guilty yesterday to a federal conspiracy charge in a continuing corruption probe surrounding disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Neil G. Volz, 35, who worked for Ney from 1995 to 2002 before joining Abramoff's lobbying firm, pleaded guilty to a single count, admitting that he conspired with Abramoff and others to commit fraud and to violate a federal ban on lobbying within one year of his congressional employment. The alleged fraud involved accepting and offering various inducements in exchange for "official action," prosecutors said...

Volz faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, but he could receive a much lower penalty depending on his cooperation in the continuing corruption investigation, Justice Department officials said...

The plea agreement draws the investigation closer to Ney. The six-term congressman, who easily won his Republican primary last week, denies any wrongdoing and has not been charged. However, he has been identified as the "Representative #1" who has been accused in court documents of accepting various "things of value" in return for official acts as far back as 2000.

Today's plea agreement also refers repeatedly to "Representative #1," who it says accepted trips, restaurant meals and other gifts or perks in exchange for "favorable official action" and other assistance for clients of Abramoff and Volz...

Ney has denied knowledge of Abramoff's wrongdoing and has denounced the once-powerful Republican lobbyist. But after Abramoff admitted that he had bribed Ney, House Republican leaders in January nudged him from his post as chairman of the powerful House Administration Committee.

At the urging of Volz and the other lobbyists, Ney ... approved a 2002 license for an Israeli telecommunications company to install cell-phone antennas for the House. The company later paid Abramoff $280,000 for lobbying, according to lobbying disclosure forms.

The Post has also reported that the wireless firm donated $50,000 to the Capital Athletic Foundation, a charity that Abramoff sometimes used to secretly pay for lobbying activities. In the summer of 2002, Abramoff had CAF pay for a golfing trip to Scotland for Ney, David H. Safavian, then chief of staff at the General Services Administration, and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed...

Ney's official report to Congress listed a purpose of his trip as a "speech to Scottish Parliamentarians." However, there is no record of Ney's speech in the Scottish Parliament's register of official visits. In addition, at the time of Ney's trip, the Scottish Parliament was out for its August recess, spokeswoman Sally Coyne said.

Ney also reported to House officials that the trip to Scotland was paid for by the National Center for Public Policy Research, but the charity said it had nothing to do with the trip. Records released by Senate investigators revealed that Abramoff's charity bankrolled the trip, and an Abramoff associate has admitted that he lied to one of Abramoff's clients to arrange a donation to pay for it...

Ohio party leaders have been quietly pressing Ney to drop out of the race for reelection to the House. So far, Ney has refused, saying he plans to continue representing Ohio's largely rural 18th District . He won 68 percent of the vote in the May 2 GOP primary against a poorly funded challenger.

Given the wonders of modern electronic voting technology, Rep. Ney should have no problem getting re-elected in the Fall.