Washington – A former top aide to Rep. Bob Ney, 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.
“They’re singing for their supper,” Ney lawyer Mark Tuohey said of Abramoff, Volz, Rudy and Scanlon. The lawyer said many of the allegations regarding Ney are incorrect.
Tuohey said Volz was under “extraordinary pressure” to assist the Justice Department probe.
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., and a week-long golfing retreat in Scotland.
Tuohey said the congressman and his staff paid their own expenses on the trips that were inside the United States.
Tuohey said Ney went to Scotland for “the official business portion” – a meeting with representatives of the Scottish Parliament and a separate meeting with U.S. military officials.
Volz, 35, worked for Ney from 1995 until early 2002, when he went to work for Abramoff.
