Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in Washington investigating the lobbying activities of Jack Abramoff, it was announced on the floor of the House of Representatives today.
The subpoena, delivered to Ney in recent days, seeks records and testimony from Ney's office. Subpoenas to Congress are publicly announced and then reported in the Congressional Record.
Ney has received campaign contributions from Abramoff and has accepted favors, including dinners at the lobbyist's downtown restaurant, fundraisers such as one at the lobbyist's MCI Center box, and a golfing trip to Scotland in August 2002, according to public records, e-mails, interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Post.
As chairman of the powerful House Administration Committee, Ney promised to add legislation to a bill before his committee to reopen a casino for a Texas Indian tribe that Abramoff represented. Two years earlier, Ney placed comments in the Congressional Record favorable to Abramoff's 2000 purchase of the casino boat company, SunCruz Casinos.
Ney also approved a 2002 license for an Israeli telecommunications company to install 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 some of his lobbying activities.
If statements made by Abramoff to tribal officials and in an e-mail are to be believed, Ney sought the Scotland trip after he agreed to help Abramoff's Texas Indian clients. Abramoff then arranged for his charity to pay for the trip, according to documents released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which is investigating the lobbyist.
Can we expect indictments on money laundering charges to be handed down on Ney?
Abramoff is like--radioactive plutonium. Any House Republican who has even had lunch or went to a football game with Abramoff is going to come away glowing neon green. This scandal just keeps growning and growing.
Stay tuned....
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