Lost in all the recent GOP scandals was the subpoena OH Congressman Boy Ney by the DOJ for his many connections to Abramoff. He may be the first of many Jack-Connected-Congressmen to be indicted. DeLay, Rohrabacher, Doolittle, Blunt and the others must be sweating.
Ney's subpoena was posted in an overlooked Diary by jorndoff early this morning. This major scandal news and now there are some new details.
This morning the Washington Post went deep on the Ney subpoena.
Ney has received campaign contributions from Abramoff and has accepted favors, including dinners at the lobbyist's downtown restaurant, a fundraiser at the lobbyist's MCI Center box, and a golfing trip to Scotland in August 2002...
More on the jump...
WP Abramoff scholars, James V. Grimaldi and Susan Schmidt tie Bob and Jack together in at least four Abramoff scandals:
1. SunCruz
In 2000, Ney placed comments in the Congressional Record favorable to Abramoff's purchase of a Florida gambling company, SunCruz Casinos. Ney has said he was not fully informed by the lobbyist. Abramoff and business partner Adam Kidan were indicted in August on fraud charges related to the purchase.
Federal prosecutors in Florida are investigating Ney's role in the SunCruz deal, according to people familiar with the probe who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The grand jury that subpoenaed Ney is based in the District.
2. Foxcom
Ney also approved a 2002 license for an Israeli telecommunications company [Foxcom] to install cell-phone antennas for the House. The company later paid Abramoff $280,000 for lobbying, according to lobbying disclosure forms. Records obtained by The Post show the firm also donated $50,000 to a charity that Abramoff sometimes used to secretly pay for lobbying activities. Walsh said that although Ney had the authority to make the antenna decision on his own he asked a group of wireless companies to select the contractor. Walsh said Ney's actions were not based on any connection to Abramoff.
3. the Tigua Tribal Casino
As chairman of the powerful House Administration Committee, Ney promised to add language to a bill to reopen a casino for a Texas Indian tribe that Abramoff represented. After Ney agreed to prepare the legislation, Abramoff directed tribal officials to make three contributions totaling $32,000 to Ney's campaign and political action committees. A Ney spokesman recently said that money has been donated to Ohio charities.
4. The Scotland Golf Trip
Abramoff stated in an e-mail to tribal officials that "our friend" -- later identified in Senate testimony as Ney -- sought the Scotland trip after he agreed to help Abramoff's Texas Indian clients. Abramoff then arranged for the charity, the Capital Athletic Foundation, to pay for the trip. Ney said in a statement a year ago that Abramoff told him that going on the trip would help support a charitable organization through meetings the lobbyist organized through Scottish Parliament officials. [snip]
Ney's official report to Congress listed a purpose of the trip as "speech to Scottish Parliamentarians." However, there is no record of Ney's speech in the Scottish Parliament's register of official visits. In addition, at the time of Ney's trip, the Scottish Parliament was out for its August recess, spokeswoman Sally Coyne said.
This WP also has a handy Graphic that lays out the Ney-Abrmoff scandal details.
And now the WP offers a daily update on Abramoff scandal news and links to past stories.
More Abramoff Scandal details can be found by reviewing the many Diaries filed under the "Jack Abramoff' tag.
It is way past time for a Special Prosecutor for all things Abramoff. I think he is now connected to over 30 individual GOP scandals. More are coming.