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Associated PressWASHINGTON – An appeals court has ruled, in a case arising from the Abramoff scandal, that statements federal lawmakers make during congressional ethics investigations cannot be used against them in criminal probes.
The case involves former Florida Republican Rep. Tom Feeney and a golf trip he took to Scotland, paid for by now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
The House Ethics Committee said in 2007 that the trip violated House rules and Feeney agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $5,643, the purported cost of the trip.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington revealed in an opinion unsealed Thursday that the Justice Department subsequently began an investigation into statements Feeney made to the committee. The opinion, which did not name Feeney but described elements of his case, concluded that statements to the ethics committee are excluded from criminal investigations by the Constitution.
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