Records: Abramoff Paid for GOP Aide's Trip

[brooklynite]

WASHINGTON - A former top aide to California Republican Rep. John Doolittle traveled to Puerto Rico on a trip paid for by Jack Abramoff's lobbying firm, records show.

House rules prohibit lawmakers and staff from taking trips paid for by registered lobbyists or lobbying firms.

David G. Lopez was Doolittle's chief of staff in July 2001 when he spent a week in Puerto Rico on what he described on a travel disclosure form as a "fact finding" trip.

The form lists the sponsor that paid for the trip as Greenberg Traurig, the lobbying firm where Abramoff worked before pleading guilty to felony charges last month in a wide-ranging political corruption investigation.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060209/ap_on_go_co/abramoff_doolittle