Ex-DeLay Aide Cooperating in Bribery Probe

Ex-DeLay Aide Cooperating in Bribery Probe By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer Tue Nov 22 [AG: I think this is very interesting and just the beginning of a bigger scandal in the House of Representatives. The spin put on it by Rep. Bob Ney's office that he was ‘one of the people defrauded' seems strange since he was the one who took the bribes - I think that is against the law - even for Congressmen! Doesn't one wonder just how many other of ‘the people's representatives' are guilty of the same crime. Seems to me that it should be very simple to go over the records of everyone in Congress to see who took ‘expense paid' or ‘free' trips paid for by lobbyists. That is of course, bribery, and about the worst thing a representative of the people can do! FYI: According to ‘Wikipedia,' In 1980, Michael Myers was expelled for accepting bribes and James Traficant was expelled in 2002 following his conviction for corruption. The House also has the power to censure its members; censure requires only a simple majority, but does not remove a member from office. These are the only two congressmen to be removed in the entire history of Congress (not counting the Civil War) for criminal acts. It must be that others I know of must have resigned. I'm sure this particular scandal involves only Republicans, but there probably are other lobbyists who work the Democrats in similar fashion. I should mention that the following piece was so badly chopped up by author Yost that I re-organized it into a coherent form for your reading pleasure. ...AG] WASHINGTON - (AP) A former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay who pleaded guilty in a federal bribery probe involving members of Congress has been cooperating with prosecutors since July. (DeLay, R-Texas, is among those facing scrutiny for his associations with Abramoff, including a trip to Scotland and use of Abramoff's skybox at a Washington sports arena. DeLay, who relinquished his post as House majority leader after a separate indictment in Texas, is due in court Tuesday in Austin for a hearing seeking dismissal of conspiracy and money laundering charges.) The disclosure about Michael Scanlon, who also is an ex-partner of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, comes in an investigation of $80 million that the two men collected between 2001 and 2004 from six Indian tribes with casinos. On Friday, Scanlon was charged with conspiracy. On Monday, the Justice Department's statement of facts which Scanlon signed went beyond the earlier charging document, revealing that by means of trips, tickets to sporting events and campaign contributions Scanlon and Abramoff "provided a stream of things of value to public officials in exchange for a series of official acts." [i.e.: BRIBERY] "Guilty, your honor," Scanlon told the judge when asked how he was pleading. Scanlon pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to bribe public officials. Under the plea before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle, Scanlon will pay restitution totaling more than $19 million to Indian tribes that he admitted had been defrauded. Scanlon could face up to five years in prison. "There have been a lot of conversations" between Scanlon and federal prosecutors over the past five months, Scanlon attorney Plato Cacheris said Monday night. "He had a lot to say." In the Scanlon plea, documents filed with the court say the items to one unidentified congressman or his staff included all-expense-paid trips to the Northern Marianas Islands in 2000, a trip to the Super Bowl in Tampa., Fla., in 2001 and a golf trip to Scotland in 2002. The statement of facts that Scanlon signed said that he and Abramoff — identified in the document as Lobbyist A — provided items to public officials in exchange for: agreements to support and pass legislation, agreements to place statements in the Congressional Record, agreements to contact personnel in the United States Executive Branch agencies and offices to influence decisions of those agencies and offices." A representative of the Inspector General's office in the Interior Department was seated at the table of prosecutors. The court documents said a senior staffer for "Representative No. 1" and others traveled to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in January 2000 to assist Abramoff and his company in maintaining lobbying clients; Representative No. 1 as the co-chairman of a conference committee of House and Senate members agreed to introduce legislation that would lift existing federal bans against commercial gaming for two Indian tribes in Texas that were Abramoff clients; and that Representative No. 1 met with a California tribe to discuss the congressman's agreement to assist in passing legislation regarding taxation of certain payments received by members of the California tribe. Based on information already placed on the public record by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, the congressman is Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio. http://tinyurl.com/dljfy In a statement, Ney's office said, "All that this plea agreement shows is that Mr. Scanlon had a deliberate, secret, and well-concealed scheme to defraud many people, and it appears, unfortunately, that Rep. Ney was one of the many people defrauded." Many of the things suggested to have occurred in the plea agreement "did not actually take place," Ney's office said. "Whenever Rep. Ney took official action, actions similar to those taken by elected representatives every day as part of the normal, appropriate government process, he did so based on his best understanding of what was right and not based on any improper influence." The court documents that Scanlon signed say he had a fee-splitting arrangement with Abramoff that was kept secret from the tribes because disclosure likely would have jeopardized the arrangement. Lobbyist A, the court papers said, encouraged his existing clients to hire Scanlon's firm for grass roots and public relations services, while discouraging the clients from seeking competitive pricing and proposals from vendors other than Scanlon's firm. The prices Scanlon's firm charged for its services "were significantly in excess" of the costs, the statement added. Outside the courthouse, Scanlon attorney Cacheris said his client regrets what happened to the tribes and "he is trying to do what he thinks is right" by cooperating with the government investigation.