Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — What a lawmaker divulged to a Capitol Hill ethics probe about a golf trip with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff cannot be used against him in a criminal investigation, an appeals court has ruled in a case that could make it harder to prosecute misconduct in Congress.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington says the protection is required by separation of powers provisions of the Constitution. Legal observers say it will expand the longstanding immunity for the official acts of members of Congress.
The ruling comes in the case of former Florida GOP Rep. Tom Feeney and a golf trip he took to Scotland. The trip was paid for by Abramoff.
