The indictment of one of Jack Abramoff’s lobbying associates on Monday offered a new picture of the direct contacts between Abramoff’s lobbying team and Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), including a hint that Doolittle spoke to former Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) about a project on Abramoff’s behalf.
The indictment also details again a series of favors that Abramoff’s team allegedly provided to former Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.), whose chief of staff has already pleaded guilty in the probe.
Doolittle’s attorney, David Barger, said in a statement: “Not once in this document does the Department of Justice allege any sort of illegal agreement between Congressman Doolittle, on the one hand, and Kevin Ring or Jack Abramoff, on the other. To the extent the Indictment can be read to imply such an agreement, the Congressman continues to steadfastly maintain there was none and that he is innocent.”
Istook could not be reached for comment.
The Justice Department on Monday unsealed a 10-count indictment against Kevin Ring — a former senior staffer to Doolittle and later a member of Abramoff’s lobbying team — alleging that Ring provided gifts to “several public officials” to reward them for taking actions beneficial to Ring’s clients.
The Justice Department alleges that Ring and others identified public officials who could be helpful to their clients, and then “groomed those public officials by providing things of value with the intent of making those public officials more receptive to requests on behalf of their clients in the future.”
The indictment spells out rafts of gifts, including tickets to sporting events and free meals, that Ring provided to Congressional staff, Members of Congress and Justice Department officials in exchange for their assistance on matters benefitting clients of Abramoff’s lobbying team.
Ring, 37, was arrested Monday. His attorney, Richard Hibey, said that he was indicted because he “simply could not plead guilty to crimes he did not commit” and promised to “fully contest these charges.”
The indictment alleges that “Representative 5” — who could only be Doolittle given the other details of the indictment — engaged in lengthy and detailed negotiations with Ring and Abramoff over the lobbyists’ promise to find a job for Doolittle’s wife. Abramoff ultimately hired Julia Doolittle in 2002, paying her a total of about $96,000 to do little work for him.
Hibey issued a statement Monday afternoon arguing that Ring had made every effort to cooperate with the Justice Department investigation of Abramoff. Ring voluntarily sat for about 100 hours of interviews with federal agents, Hibey said, but “in 2007, when a new cadre of DOJ lawyers took over the case, the government insisted that Mr. Ring plead guilty to various fraud and corruption-related offenses and to implicate others as the price of leniency.” When Ring refused, he was tabbed “uncooperative,” Hibey said.
The indictment suggests that Doolittle was taking a series of actions at the behest of Abramoff and Ring, including helping “team Abramoff” secure a $16.3 million Justice Department grant for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians to build a jail.
At the same time, Ring sent e-mails to Abramoff indicating Doolittle’s interest in finding a job for his wife. According to the indictment, in March 2002, while the tribal money was pending, “defendant Ring emailed Abramoff, writing that he had met with [Doolittle] who had asked about the work that Abramoff was to get for [Doolittle’s] wife.”
Rep. Bill Cassidy has his blood drawn by Alesha Barbour during a free hepatitis screening in the Rayburn House Office Building hosted by the Congressional Viral Hepatitis Caucus to recognize "National Viral Hepatitis Testing Day."
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