The Abramoff investigation and Abramoff's guilty plea led to the successful conviction of high government official David Safavian. In some ways, the Department of Justice was testing its evidence on a "small fish" before going after bigger fish. So who are the bigger fish now coming into the DoJ's sights?
According to TPMMuckraker, Rep. Bob Ney (R - OH) is next. Also there is Ed Buckham, Tom DeLay's previous staffer and later lobbyist. In a cross-over with the Randy "Duke" Cunningham (Felon, prisoner, previously R - CA 50), Buckham lobbied for Brent Wilkes, the man who bribed Cunningham. So that puts Wilkes into play.
Then there are other politicians such as Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) and Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA).
I'm sure that there will also be aditional names. The fun is only just beginning. The Republicans have had control of the House since 1994 and all three branches of government for six years now. It looks like it took awhile for the corruption to become so blatant that legal action had to be taken. Now that the legal actions are on-going, each investigation turns over new rocks that reveal more corruption.
Just a reminder. This investigation is being run by the Department of Justice Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division, not the Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.
Addemdum June 23, 2006
Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker reviewed the McCain report and found where it documents that Rep. Bob Ney lied to the Senate Investigators. Notice above that this is exactly one of the charges for which Safavian was just convicted.
Ney's defense? He says he wasn't under oath.
Looks like Rep. Ney is in real trouble. He is essentially ignoring it in public, just a Tom DeLay did.
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