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Rep. Ney Pleads Guilty Today; Abramoff Scandal Is Far From Over

WASHINGTON, DC – “After months of loudly proclaiming his innocence, Rep. Ney (R-OH) has finally been forced to take responsibility for his actions,” said Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director. In March 2005, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) prepared an ethics complaint against Rep. Ney regarding his relationship with Abramoff, but no member of the House was willing to file it. Outsiders are barred from filing such complaints with the House ethics committee.

Today’s plea agreement highlights how ineffectual the ethics committees really are. So far this Congress, two House members have pleaded guilty to crimes involving abuse of their office. How many members need to go to jail before the ethics committees take their roles seriously?

Today’s announcement that Rep. Bob Ney is pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of lying on his financial disclosure forms shows that the Jack Abramoff scandal is far from over. One member of Congress likely made nervous by today’s events is Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT), who has engaged in conduct similar to Rep Ney’s. Like Rep. Ney, Sen. Burns frequented Signatures restaurant at Abramoff’s expense and like Rep. Ney, he offered repeated legislative assistance to Abramoff’s clients. In addition, some of the Senator’s top staffers flew to the 2001 Super Bowl on a private jet at Abramoff’s expense.

Another member likely on edge today may be Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), already under federal investigation for misstatements on his financial disclosure forms. If the Department of Justice can charge one member of Congress for lying on his forms, they can certainly charge another.

Sloan stated “Rep. Ney’s conviction should be a wake-up call for Congress, which should immediately reinvigorate the ethics process and begin aggressively policing the conduct of its members.”