Abramoff inquiry looks into dealings by ex-Justice lawyer(Coughlin/Ring more details)

[maddezmom]

Abramoff inquiry looks into dealings by ex-Justice lawyer
Criminal division attorney had ties to colleague of lobbyist's
By Susan Schmidt
WASHINGTON POST

Article Launched: 04/28/2007 03:09:25 AM PDT


WASHINGTON -- A federal task force investigating the activities of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff has in recent weeks been looking into whether one of Abramoff's colleagues improperly traded favors with a Justice Department lawyer, sources familiar with the Abramoff investigation said Friday.

The lawyer, Robert Coughlin, resigned April 6 as deputy chief of staff in the Criminal Division, citing personal reasons, a department spokesman said.

~snip~

Coughlin and Ring were friends on Capitol Hill in the 1990s when both worked as staff members to then-Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., who became attorney general in 2001.

Coughlin had worked in the criminal division since 2005 but was recused from the Abramoff inquiry because of a longtime personal friendship with Kevin Ring, one of Abramoff's lobbying colleagues whose actions are under investigation, a law enforcement source said.

Investigators are looking into dealings between the two in 2001 and 2002, when Coughlin worked in the Justice Department's Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs, the sources said.

~snip~


more:http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_5773797?source=rss

Justice official resigns; tied to probe?
He's a longtime friend of a former Doolittle aide who's linked to Abramoff.
By Marisa Taylor and David Whitney -
Last Updated 1:47 am PDT Saturday, April 28, 2007

WASHINGTON -- A senior Justice Department official with ties to a former aide to Rep. John Doolittle has resigned after coming under scrutiny in the department's expanding investigation of disgraced superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to a Justice Department official with knowledge of the case.

Making the situation more awkward for the embattled department, the official, Robert E. Coughlin II, was deputy chief of staff for the criminal division, which is overseeing the department's probe of Abramoff.

He stepped down effective April 6 as investigators in Coughlin's own division ratcheted up their investigation of lobbyist Kevin Ring, Coughlin's longtime friend, a key associate of Abramoff and former legislative director to Doolittle, R-Roseville. Ring resigned his lobbying job on April 13, the same day FBI agents raided Doolittle's Virginia home seeking records from his wife's business in connection with the Abramoff matter.

Ring typically served as liaison with Doolittle for several Abramoff clients. In one e-mail, released in connection with a Senate investigation last year, Ring discussed the possibility of Doolittle's wife taking a job for an Abramoff charity in 2000. The position never materialized, and the Doolittles have said they have no recollection of the matter.

When contacted at his home in Washington, Coughlin said he resigned voluntarily because he was relocating to Texas. "I was not asked to resign," he said in an interview with McClatchy Newspapers. "It's important to me that it's made clear that I left voluntarily." He said he couldn't comment on the Abramoff investigation, nor on whether he has a job lined up in Texas. He referred all other questions to friend Michael Horowitz.

more:http://www.sacbee.com/341/story/162654.html