Reply #14: the connections drawn between Ney and indicted lobbyist- [View All]

[Algorem]

Connections drawn between Ney and indicted lobbyist
10/19/2005, 7:47 p.m. ET
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — ...

• Ney started helping Abramoff clients in 2000, when the congressman entered comments on the Congressional Record against a man who was standing in the way of Abramoff's plans to purchase gambling boats in Florida. Four months later, the man was murdered and Ney has since said he was duped by Abramoff.

• Ney took a golf trip to Scotland in 2002 that Abramoff sponsored. House members are allowed to accept trips from outside groups but not from lobbyists. Ney said in March that Abramoff told him a GOP policy group paid for the trip. The group said it didn't pay for the trip, and tax records subsequently showed Abramoff's charity paid for it. Ney has denied any wrongdoing.

• In private e-mails released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Abramoff said he had convinced Ney to attach language to an election reform bill to help a Texas Indian tribe re-open a closed casino. That bill passed without the language and Ney has denied any wrongdoing, but records show the Texas tribe, the Tiguas, donated to Ney's re-election campaign after Abramoff's e-mail. In another e-mail, Abramoff told a Tigua representative that "our friend" had asked them to pay for the Scotland trip. The tribal representative, Marc Schwartz, later testified to the Senate that "our friend" referred to Ney.

• Ney's committee awarded a $3 million license to an Israeli telecommunications company to outfit the U.S. House with equipment for better indoor wireless telephone reception. LGC Wireless of San Jose, Calif., which was passed over for the license, alleges they lost an almost-certain deal when the Israeli company, then called Foxcom Wireless, hired top GOP lobbyists. Abramoff's firm was not listed as Foxcom's lobbyist until after the license was awarded, but LGC vice president John Spindler points to reports that Foxcom donated $50,000 to Abramoff's charity during the selection process as proof that Abramoff lobbied the deal. Ney spokesman Brian Walsh said Ney ran an open bidding process that went beyond what was required and that the chairman never met with Abramoff about Foxcom.

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