Former Aide to Rep. Ney Pleads Guilty

Neil Volz leaves Federal Court in Washington Monday, May 8, 2006. Volz, a former congressional aide and business associate of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff has agreed to plead guilty to charges in connection with the investigation of influence-peddling and public corruption. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Folks, it is time for another exciting episode of The Jack Abramoff Show! This is off Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - A former top aide to Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, pleaded guilty Monday in the Jack Abramoff influence peddling scandal, admitting he conspired to corrupt Ney, his staff and other members of Congress with trips, free tickets, meals, jobs for relatives and fundraising events.

The criminal investigation of Abramoff's lobbying operation has now claimed Abramoff and three former congressional staffers: Neil Volz on Monday, as well as Tony Rudy and Michael Scanlon, who both worked for former House Majority Leader
Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

All four are now government witnesses whose prison terms may depend in part on how cooperative they are with federal prosecutors in the investigation involving lawmakers, their aides and members of the Bush administration.

Three former congressional staffers have pleaded guilty on corruption charges--Rudy and Scanlon who worked in Tom DeLay's office, and now Rep. Bob Ney's top aid, Neil Volz, has been ensnared in the Abramoff probe. And Volz admitted he conspired to corrupt Bob Ney--you have to wonder what did Volz give to Ney and his staff, for Ney's support in legislation benefiting Abramoff and his clients?

The details are interesting:

In a nine-page document that focused on Ney's conduct, Volz enumerated 16 actions he said his old boss took on behalf of Abramoff clients. During the period, from January 2000 through April 2004, Volz said Abramoff and his lobbyists gave Ney and members of his staff trips to Lake George in New York state, New Orleans, the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., in 2003, and a weeklong golfing retreat to the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland, with a second leg to London.

In addition, Volz wrote, Abramoff gave the congressman and his staff numerous tickets to concerts and sporting events in the Washington, D.C., area; regular meals and drinks at restaurants including Abramoff's restaurant Signatures, and unreported use of Abramoff's box suites at the MCI Center Arena in Washington and Camden Yards Stadium in Baltimore for political fundraisers for Ney and for candidates and political organizations he supported.

And look at what Ney did for Abramoff:

The court papers did not detail the conduct of other congressmen, but it said that Ney, acting with Volz and others, agreed to:

_Sponsor legislation to lift a ban against commercial gambling by the Tigua Indian tribe, an Abramoff client in Texas.

_Sign a letter opposing creation of a commission to study Indian gambling.

_Assist Abramoff in obtaining government property for Abramoff's private school in Maryland.

The court papers also say that after asking Volz what Abramoff wanted the congressman to say, Ney assured the Tiguas in Texas that Abramoff was effectively representing them and that Ney would continue to press for legislation on their behalf.

In a 2003 meeting to assist Abramoff clients, Ney told Housing Secretary Mel Martinez that one of Ney's priorities would be housing for American Indians.

Among the projects on which Volz worked was securing a contract for Foxcom Wireless, an Israeli communications company, to improve cell phone reception in House office buildings.

In a conference phone call with reporters, Ney's lawyers acknowledged that the congressman met with Abramoff about a wireless contract for the House buildings. The lawyers added that Ney, then chairman of the House Administration Committee, also met with Haley Barbour, now the governor of Mississippi, who was lobbying for a competing firm at the time. Ney has said he would have been within his rights to award the contract on his own, but instead held an open competition and awarded it based on merit to the firm represented by Abramoff, Foxcom Wireless.

Sounds like corruption to me.