Ney, Abramoff and golf, golf, golf!

[ProSense]

From the dccc website:



Documents here:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/abramoff-safavian-junket/?resultpage=4&

CORRUPTION

Ney's #1

Nearly one week after conservatives pushed their "sham" lobbying reform bill through the House, former House Administration Committee chairman Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) -- better known as "Representative #1" in the court pleadings filed in the Jack Abramoff case -- has been implicated in another guilty plea dealing with the Justice Department's investigation into the disgraced lobbyist. Neil Volz, who worked as a top aide to Ney from 1995 to 2002 before working closely with Abramoff as a lobbyist, pled guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court to a corruption conspiracy charge and to violating the one-year ban on lobbying former associates in Congress (i.e., the same ban the House bill failed to extend to two years). Volz admitted to accepting "a stream of things of value" from Abramoff and his clients in exchange for legislative favors. While Volz's plea was the fourth to implicate Ney, it was the first plea to go outside of Rep. Tom DeLay's (R-TX) inner circle. Federal prosecutors are focusing in on Ney, and last week said they will "pursue a wide range of allegations about dealings" between Ney and Abramoff, "rather than bring a narrowly focused bribery case against the congressman." Volz is "considered particularly critical" to the case against Ney "because he served as Ney’s closest political confidant for years on Capitol Hill and remained extraordinarily close to the lawmaker after he went to work as a lobbyist with Abramoff in 2002."

more...

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/newsletter2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=917053

[gratuitous]

1. Truly amazing

As corrupt as Abramoff was, according to Bob Ney, Abramoff didn't bribe anyone! Nobody did anything for Abramoff. Nobody got any money directly from Abramoff. Abramoff pleaded guilty to . . . bribing and corrupting air, I guess. Ney denies Abramoff ever got anything of value, ever was in touch with anyone, or ever arranged any meetings or anything. Abramoff, according to Ney, was apparently the Lobbyist in the Bubble, unable to touch or be touched.

Ney is either a fool of enormous proportions, or he thinks everyone else is.

[cmd]

2. "He went because of the official business portion.”

http://www.timesreporter.com/index.php?ID=53853&r=1


WASHINGTON – For the first time, attorneys for Rep. Bob Ney, R-Heath, on Monday defended the Ohio congressman against corruption allegations after a former top aide to the congressman signaled he is prepared to testify against his former boss.
(snip)
“They’re making it up, they’re just flat making it up,” said Mark Tuohey, Ney’s lead defense attorney, hours after former Ney aide and lobbyist Neil Volz became the fifth person to plead guilty in the federal probe. “Some of these allegations here are just made up out of whole cloth.”
(snip)
But the six-term lawmaker told Fox that Abramoff, public relations specialist Michael Scanlon and lobbyist Tony Rudy, who also have pleaded guilty in the scheme, are “attempting to stay out of prison. They said a lot of things as I understand it about a lot of people.”
(snip)
“I’m sure that there were occasions where Mr. Abramoff or members of his staff bought a drink for Congressman Ney and other members of our government,” Tuohey said. “It was very infrequent, but however it happened, that is not a violation of the law.”
(snip)
“He was not particularly interested in going on the trip,” Tuohey said of Ney. “He’s not really a golfer at all. He went because of the official business portion.”