FBI probing ex-Rep. Sweeney

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: The Hill

Federal agents raided the offices of an Albany, N.Y., lobbying firm as part of an investigation focused on the relationship between former Rep. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.) and influential lobbyist William Powers and federal grants steered to Powers’s clients.

The probe appears to debunk the theory among some legal analysts that the Justice Department is less likely to focus on members of Congress who leave office.

The criminal investigation is looking into a series of federal grants Sweeney steered to Powers’s clients while his ex-wife, Gayle, worked for the lobbying firm, according to the Albany Times Union, which first reported the Friday raid.

In that way, it parallels the Justice investigation of retiring Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), whose wife Julie allegedly worked on behalf of Jack Abramoff. Sweeney took an Abramoff-organized trip to the Northern Mariana Islands in 2001, but it is unclear if the investigation is an expansion of the Abramoff probe or completely separate.

Read more: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/fbi-probing-ex-rep.-sweeney-2008-06-11.html

[Binka]

1. Probing John Sweeney

The porn version of Being John Malkovich. Sweeney is a loathsome scuzmug.

[Nite Owl]

2. He is my former rep

he's been out of the news for months now. Last time he got picked up for driving drunk on the Northway with a 25yr old on his lap. And his ex-wife, Gayle--she's the one he slapped around and the state troopers had to come and break things up. That was during the '06 campaign. It goes on and on...

[ElsewheresDaughter]

4. it couldn't happen to a more deserving scumbag!...he is my former Rep too

[leveymg]

3. Another GOP member of the House Appropriations Comm. goes down

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_Sweeney

Sweeney is among seven members of the House Appropriations Committee who have a political action committee which is either headed by a registered lobbyist or a former registered lobbyist with "business" before the Committee, "according to the Center for Public Integrity and campaign records." <14>

Jack Abramoff Link
In 2002, Sweeney received $1,000 from the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana and $1,000 from the Tigua Indian Reservation, both of which were clients of Jack Abramoff. <15> The Associated Press reported January 5, 2006, that Sweeney donated the $2,000 which he had received to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

John Sweeney's financial records are now being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice. <16>

Sweeney first received funding in April 2001 from Greenberg Traurig <17>, which is now one of the top 13 contributors to the 2005-2006 Sweeney Campaign. <18>

Marianas Island Trip
In 2001, Sweeney travelled to the Northern Marianas Island to give a speech to its Chamber of Commerce. His trip was paid for by the Chamber of Congress, a client of Abramoff at the time, and he was accompanied by Tony Rudy, a former Tom DeLay aide tnen working for Abramoff. Federal law stipulates that members of Congress must disclose all trips funded by private sources, but Sweeney failed to do this. He claimed that he believed the trip to have been funded by the government of the islands. <19>