This Year, Ney's Blown $100 Grand of Campaign Money on Lawyers

By Justin Rood - April 20, 2006, 5:00 PM

How's this for a sign of serious trouble: For every campaign dollar Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) spent last quarter, 40 cents went to cover his "legal fees."

From January to March of this year, Ney spent $96,500 in legal fees to the law firm of Vinson & Elkins, FEC documents show. (V&E partner Mark Tuohey is Ney's attorney.) That's nearly 40 percent of his total campaign spending for the period -- $250,098.

Is the guy running for Congress, or running from jail? What do his supporters think?

Ney was notified last October that he was the target of a federal investigation for allegedly taking bribes from Jack Abramoff and his crew. Since then, he's spent over $230,000 in legal fees to Vinson & Elkins, according to his FEC filings.

In the last three months of 2005, Ney's campaign spending actually dropped by 50 percent -- apparently because his lawyers didn't send him a bill.

Neither Ney nor Tuohey immediately returned our calls on the matter.

At what point does a guy admit to his funders that they're not paying to keep him in the race, they're keeping him out of prison?

Ney "Doing Everything Possible to Clear His Name," Spokesman Says

By Justin Rood - April 20, 2006, 5:34 PM

Just got a call back from Brian Walsh, spokesman for Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), who gave a lengthy and impassioned defense of his boss' legal bills.

"Frankly, it's an unfortunate commentary on the justice system that someone has to spend a lot of money simply to clear their name and set the record straight in what is in this case completely false allegations," Walsh said.

"The bottom line is, the congressman is doing everything possible and moving as quickly as possible to put these allegations to rest and clear his name.

"Washington lawyers are obviously very expensive," he added.

I got a chance to chat with Mark Tuohey, Ney's lawyer, also. He politely declined to talk about the work that he's doing on Ney's behalf, or the number of lawyers involved. "That's generally something I don't comment on," he told me.

"Washington lawyers are obviously very expensive," he added.

Thus, Vinson & Elkins was born.    (1917)

In those days, the oil boom was already transforming Texas and the world, and Houston was home to much of the energy industry's activity. V&E "cut its teeth" on oil and gas matters, and today remains one of the world's leading energy law firms, with offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, New York, Washington, Beijing, Dubai, London, Moscow, Shanghai and Tokyo.

Court filing in case of indicted Bush official suggests Ohio congressman provided false report to Congress

04/21/2006 @ 12:45 pm
Filed by John Byrne and Ron Brynaert

A pre-trial motion filed by federal prosecutors in the case of indicted former Bush administration official David Safavian contends that his share of the costs in a trip to play golf in Scotland and England arranged by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff should have been nearly five times more than what he paid, RAW STORY has found.

Perhaps more significantly, however, it also provides the first formal evidence that powerful Ohio Republican Bob Ney – then-chairman of the House Administration Committee – provided false figures for the cost of his own trip to Scotland. Ney has been under fire for his role in allegedly helping Abramoff help his clients in violation of House ethics rules and possibly federal laws.

Ney was referenced as “Congressman #1” in a plea agreement Abramoff made in January, in which he admitted to bribing members of Congress and their staffs.

David Safavian, chief of staff of the United States General Services Administration (GSA) at the time, paid Abramoff $3,100 for a trip that prosecutors say "was in excess of $130,000." According to The Washington Post, tax records show that a non-profit owned by Abramoff, the Capital Athletic Foundation, doled out $150,225 for the trip.

A footnote contained in the government’s motion for pretrial determination of certain evidence – which includes hundreds of emails between Safavian and Abramoff, which prosecutors allege prove a business relationship between the two – notes that “Mr. Safavian’s pro rated cost [for the trip] would have been approximately $15,000.”

Safavian’s attorney Barbara Van Gelder provided RAW STORY a copy of Safavian’s response. In it, Van Gelder asserts that Safavian has never said he paid an equal share and was in the dark about the total cost of the trip. Moreover, she argues that the government should not be able to present “evidence of offenses not charged in the indictment.”

Ney, however, was obliged under Congressional rules to provide a “good faith” estimate of his share of the trip’s actual cost. He has also come under fire for other elements of the trip.

In addition to likely misreporting its true cost, Ney also listed the sponsor of the trip as the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative thinktank. It later emerged that the trip was paid for by Abramoff’s Capital Athletic Foundation. Members of Congress are prohibited from taking trips paid for by lobbyists.

Ney also appears to have lied about the purpose of the trip. "In April, 2002, I was approached by Mr. Abramoff, who I believed to be a respected member of the community, and asked to go on a trip to Scotland which Mr. Abramoff said would help support a charitable organization, that he founded, through meetings he organized with Scottish Parliament officials," Ney said in a statement last November.

In his financial disclosure report to Congress, Ney listed "speech to Scottish Parliamentarians" as a purpose of the trip. The Washington Post later revealed that there was no record of Ney’s speech and that the Scottish parliament was away on recess during the time of the junket.

On September 9, 2002, a month after returning from the trip, Ney filed a form with the Clerk of the House of the Representatives which indicated that his share of the trip was $3200. He reported $1,500 for travel, $1,200 for lodging and $500 for meal expenses.

According to the prosecutors’ estimate, Ney should have likely reported the trip at $15,000. Ney's office did not respond to a call placed for comment Friday.

Ney has said he was misled by Abramoff about who paid for the trip. "I, like these Indian tribes and other Members of Congress, was duped by Jack Abramoff," Ney said in 2004. "I am absolutely outraged by the dishonest and duplicitous words and actions of Jack Abramoff. As the testimony at [Congressional] Committee hearings has revealed, Jack Abramoff repeatedly lied to advance his own financial interests. I too was misled and I regret that I put faith in the representations that he made to me."

This, however, also seems to be false.

According to an email written by Abramoff released during investigation of the lobbyist’s activities, Ney had a “great time [was] very grateful” for the Scotland outing.

“BN had a great time and is very grateful but is not going to mention the trip to Scotland for obvious reasons,” Abramoff wrote. “He said he’ll show his thanks in other ways, which is what we want.”

“We can discuss on the phone,” Abramoff added.

An itinerary included in one of the emails Abramoff sent to Safavian gives some clues to what drove up the cost of what the prosecutors refer to as an “expensive trip.”

On Aug. 3, 2002, a private Gulfstream jet transported Abramoff, Safavian, Ney, and seven others including former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed and anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist from Baltimore on a 6-to-7 hour flight with one fuel stop to Edinburgh, Scotland. Golf and dinners were part of the “package.”

“I am in the process of finding a driver for you in London,” Abramoff wrote Safavian.

The government’s pre-trial motion alleges that Safavian “agreed and conspired” with Abramoff to provide him with sensitive and confidential information in order to assist Abramoff in his attempt to procure government properties for his own purposes. The criminal complaint, filed by the FBI last September, asserted that Safavian obstructed the federal investigation into Abramoff’s dealings and concealed his role in helping Abramoff examine federally controlled property for potential purchase.

Ney has also faced heat for entering comments into the Congressional record which attacked an Abramoff rival surrounding a riverboat gambling fleet the lobbyist later purchased.

Ney has not been charged with any crime, and no ethics complaint has been filed against him in the House. The Ohio Republican says he welcomes any Ethics Committee inquiry which he believes will clear his name.

Safavian’s lawyer says she believes her client will ultimately be cleared, citing numerous discrepancies in the government’s case. She notes that the prosecutors maintained in a filing that Abramoff was a lobbyist who did all his lobbying on Capitol Hill and had no business before the agency where Safavian worked.

"I think my client is innocent and that after a full and fair presentation of the relevant evidence he should be acquitted of all charges," Van Gelder said.

Ney Gambles with Prosecutors

By Paul Kiel - April 28, 2006, 12:27 PM

Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) rolled the dice with prosecutors and won!... sort of.

Bob Ney is off the hook for charges relating to the SunCruz portion of the Jack Abramoff investigation (again, with a huge caveat), as the statute of limitations relating to those charges last night, Roll Call reports. Prosecutors had a choice: either get an agreement from Ney to extend the statute, or indict him then and there. Well:

According to a source close to Ney, the Ohio Republican denied a new Justice request to provide another extension of the statute of limitations, gambling that Justice would not indict on the SunCruz allegations.

And they didn't. But prosecutors have already signalled in a big way that they'll be going after Ney for his shilling for Abramoff on the SunCruz deal - Ney's speeches in the Congressional Record on Abramoff's behalf were specifically mentioned in Abramoff's guilty plea. So rather than charging Ney directly for those actions, they're likely to hit him with a conspiracy charge, as they did Abramoff, Michael Scanlon, and Tony Rudy:

...federal prosecutors, in charging Abramoff, Mike Scanlon and Tony Rudy, have used the criminal conspiracy counts against them. In so doing, that has allowed prosecutors to charge the men with one long criminal act, encompassing a long series of actions designed to be hidden from law enforcement.
This has allowed the Justice Department to charge Abramoff and the two former DeLay aides with actions that took place long ago, well past the normal five-year statute of limitations. Under the conspiracy count, it is considered one criminal act that doesn't end until the conspiracy ends.

If the prosecutors eventually do try to indict Ney on the other, non-SunCruz issues, they may try for a conspiracy charge - at which point, if they could prove it was criminal, they could also bring in the SunCruz issues.

Prosecutors Opt for Wide Probe of Rep. Ney

By Susan Schmidt and Chris Cillizza
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, April 29, 2006; Page A04

Federal prosecutors signaled this week that they have decided to pursue a wide range of allegations about dealings between Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) and lobbyist Jack Abramoff, rather than bringing a narrowly focused bribery case against the congressman.

Ney faces a primary challenge in his eastern Ohio district Tuesday, as his ties to Abramoff have become national news. It is the first time since his 1994 election to Congress that Ney has had to compete for his party's nomination.

Ney has been under investigation by federal authorities in Florida and the District for actions that helped Abramoff and two partners buy a Fort Lauderdale-based casino cruise line. The deal that Ney promoted in the Congressional Record hinged on the Abramoff group's creation of a counterfeit $23 million wire transfer.

The Miami U.S. Attorney's office has vied with the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section over who would have primary jurisdiction in the Ney investigation. Last month, the Justice Department decided that any case would be brought in the District. Under the statute of limitations, Thursday was the deadline for bringing bribery charges against Ney focused solely on his actions related to the Florida casino boat transaction.

Ney's lawyer, Mark Tuohey, said he has been in talks with Justice Department officials and expects to know within a month or two whether Ney will face criminal charges. He said the department asked for another extension of the statute of limitations in recent days, but this time Ney declined.

"We're going through the facts with the government. I don't think there's a crime here," Tuohey said. "Nothing's decided."

Court papers filed in recent months show that prosecutors have lined up at least four cooperating witnesses against the Ohio congressman: Abramoff, former congressional aides Michael Scanlon and Tony C. Rudy and businessman Adam Kidan. All have pleaded guilty to various conspiracy, fraud or public corruption charges.

The court filings that accompanied the plea agreements of Abramoff, Scanlon and Rudy accused Ney of accepting "a stream of things of value" in exchange for official actions.

Prosecutors signaled their intentions with Ney by identifying him as "Representative #1" in pleadings filed with the court. In October, Ney was formally notified that he was under criminal investigation, and at the prosecutors' request he agreed to extend the five-year statute of limitations for six months while they investigated possible bribery charges.

Ney's actions involving the cruise line could still expose him to criminal liability if the government brings a conspiracy case against him, legal analysts said. In that instance, the statute of limitations is pegged to the date of the last alleged criminal act in a chain, not the first.

Ney's involvement with the cruise line took place in 2000, when Abramoff and partners Kidan and Ben Waldman were in difficult negotiations to buy the SunCruz Casinos from Fort Lauderdale businessman Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis. Ney placed comments in the Congressional Record that year that first put pressure on Boulis to sell to the Abramoff group, and later praised the new owners as Boulis was complaining he had been cheated in the sale.

Boulis was murdered in a gangland-style hit in early 2001. Three men with ties to Kidan and to the Gambino crime family face murder charges in the slaying.

Ney was involved with Abramoff and his lobbying team on other issues under federal investigation. In 2002, Ney sponsored legislation at the team's request to reopen a casino for a Texas Indian tribe that Abramoff represented, and approved a 2002 license for an Abramoff client to wire the House of Representatives for mobile phone service.

At the same time, Ney accepted many favors from Abramoff, among them campaign contributions, dinners at the lobbyist's downtown restaurant, skybox fundraisers including one at his then-MCI Center box the month after Boulis's murder, and a lavish golf junket to Scotland in August 2002.

Ney was directly implicated by three of the four who have recently pleaded guilty to conspiracy and bribery charges: Abramoff, Scanlon and Rudy. Kidan's attorney said his client also would testify against Ney if asked.

The allegations against Ney have taken a toll on his political career and his prospects for reelection.

Ney will face off against financial analyst James Harris in next week's Republican primary in Ohio's 18th District. Despite his travails, Ney has won the uniform backing of district Republican officials and is favored to win.

The November general election may be more difficult, as internal Republican polling conducted earlier this year showed Ney trailing both Chillicothe Mayor Joe Sulzer and lawyer Zack Space -- the two Democrats given the best chance of winning their party's nod on Tuesday.

Democrats acknowledge privately that the only way they can win in this Republican-leaning district, which President Bush carried with 57 percent in 2004, is for the election to be a referendum on Ney. He has vowed to remain in the race even if he is indicted.