[Mb-civic] Ex-DeLay Aide Pleads Guilty in Lobby Case - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Ex-DeLay Aide Pleads Guilty in Lobby Case
Rudy Took Abramoff Favors, Will Aid Probe of Lawmakers

By Jonathan Weisman and Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, April 1, 2006; A01

Tony C. Rudy, a former deputy chief of staff to Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), 
pleaded guilty yesterday to charges that he conspired with disgraced 
lobbyist Jack Abramoff to corrupt public officials and defraud his 
clients, as a burgeoning corruption probe took one step closer to 
members of Congress.

Rudy admitted taking favors including money, meals, trips and tickets to 
sporting events from Abramoff in exchange for official acts that 
included influencing legislation to help the lobbyist's clients.

Rudy's plea follows guilty pleas from DeLay's former press secretary, 
Michael Scanlon, and from Abramoff himself. But, for the first time, an 
actor in the scandal has admitted to committing illegal acts while 
working in the Republican leadership suites of the House.

Rudy, 39, agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department investigation, 
which sources have said is scrutinizing the actions of half a dozen 
members of Congress, as well as of Capitol Hill staffers, other 
officials and Abramoff's business associates. The court papers for the 
first time formally refer to DeLay as one of those involved in the 
activities under scrutiny, listing him as "Representative #2." But 
though the papers show that Rudy traded on DeLay's name, they do not 
indicate that Rudy has evidence to implicate his former boss.

Richard Cullen, DeLay's attorney, said his client "was unaware of any of 
the acts to which Mr. Rudy has pled guilty."

Like Abramoff's plea, Rudy's statement to the court levels some of its 
toughest charges on a "Representative #1," identified elsewhere as Rep. 
Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio). Abramoff and Rudy lavished golf trips, tickets 
to sporting events and concerts, and food and drink on Ney. In turn, Ney 
"agreed to take favorable official action and render other assistance on 
behalf of the clients of Abramoff and Rudy," court papers say. Ney has 
denied wrongdoing.

The Abramoff scandal has already led to dramatic upheavals in 
Washington, helping to force DeLay to relinquish his post as House 
majority leader, costing Ney his committee chairmanship and undermining 
voters' faith in their representatives. Republican leaders have vowed to 
make broad changes to the rules that govern lobbying and ethics on 
Capitol Hill.

Rudy's plea makes it clear that the federal investigation has far to go. 
The confession "does not include all of the facts known to me concerning 
criminal activity in which I or others engaged," he stated.

Prosecutors are expected to call Rudy as a witness in the upcoming trial 
of David H. Safavian, a former Abramoff associate who was chief of staff 
of the General Services Administration and has been indicted on charges 
of lying to federal investigators. Rudy could also be a witness against 
Ney. The congressman agreed last fall to waive the five-year statute of 
limitations on possible charges in Florida. The waiver will expire in 
late April.

Rudy's conspiracy charge carries a maximum five years in prison and a 
$250,000 fine, but in exchange for his cooperation, prosecutors agreed 
to seek a sentence of 24 to 30 months and $100,000 in restitution. They 
also agreed not to pursue charges against his wife, Lisa, who set up a 
consulting company that received payments originating from Abramoff's 
clients.

As Rudy stood before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle yesterday 
morning, his attorney, Laura Ariane Miller, held his left arm. He 
clenched his hands while answering Huvelle's questions for about 25 
minutes. After pleading guilty, Rudy shook hands with prosecutors and 
rushed out of the courthouse into a waiting limousine, with Miller at 
his side. Both declined to answer questions.

The Justice Department later issued a statement from Assistant Attorney 
General Alice S. Fisher. "The American public loses when officials and 
lobbyists conspire to buy and sell influence in such a corrupt and 
brazen manner," Fisher said. "By his admission in open court today, Mr. 
Rudy paints a picture of Washington which the American public and law 
enforcement will simply not tolerate."

Rudy's statement admits to a far-reaching criminal enterprise operating 
out of DeLay's office, an enterprise that helped sway legislation, 
influence public policy and enrich its main players.

The court documents say that Rudy "routinely performed official acts for 
or at the behest of Abramoff." Rudy admitted that, while on DeLay's 
staff in the summer of 2000, he helped scuttle an anti-gambling bill 
opposed by an Abramoff client, eLottery Inc. As The Washington Post 
reported in October, Abramoff then arranged for eLottery to pay a 
foundation to hire Lisa Rudy's consulting firm. In all, the court papers 
say, Abramoff and his clients funneled about $86,000 to the firm while 
Rudy worked for DeLay.

At Rudy's request, Abramoff supplied a box suite, plus seven additional 
tickets, for a bachelor party at an August 2000 Redskins game; provided 
tickets to the hockey playoffs; and got Rudy to the Daytona 500 NASCAR 
race. In March 2000, Abramoff paid for two $800 tickets to the U.S. Open 
in Pebble Beach, Calif., and then flew Rudy across the country on an 
all-expenses-paid junket aboard a private jet.

The jet belonged to SunCruz Casinos, a Florida gambling-boat fleet that 
Abramoff and his partners were arranging to buy. The Post has reported 
that Abramoff took Rudy to the U.S. Open and then used him as a personal 
reference on his application for a $60 million loan for the SunCruz 
purchase. This week, Abramoff and partner Adam Kidan were sentenced to 
five years and 10 months in prison for fraud in connection with the deal.

Court papers say Rudy obtained in 2000 a letter from DeLay to a Clinton 
administration official opposing a postal rate increase that would 
affect an Abramoff client. The next summer, after leaving DeLay's staff 
to join Abramoff, Rudy worked with the congressman's staff on automobile 
emissions legislation. That violated laws prohibiting former staff 
members from lobbying colleagues within a year of departing Congress.

Rudy and Abramoff solicited thousands of dollars from clients for 
Abramoff's nonprofit Capital Athletic Fund, claiming falsely that DeLay 
had requested the donations, according to court papers.

The documents also implicate a "Lobbyist B," which lawyers familiar with 
the case say is Edwin A. Buckham, DeLay's former chief of staff, who has 
been perhaps the congressman's closest aide and spiritual adviser. That 
lobbyist helped Abramoff channel $50,000 in illicit payments to Lisa 
Rudy's Liberty Consulting from June 2000 to February 2001 and won Rudy's 
support for his lobbying clients. Miller, who is also Buckham's 
attorney, did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesman for Ney, Brian J. Walsh, said the congressman "remains 
absolutely confident that when the full facts of Abramoff's schemes are 
revealed, fiction will continue to be separated from fact and it will be 
made clear that he did absolutely nothing wrong."

Cullen, DeLay's attorney, said that "it's a very hard thing for Mr. 
DeLay to read and to hear about" the actions undertaken in his office. 
But Cullen said the court documents go a long way toward proving DeLay's 
contention that he has done nothing wrong and is not a target of the 
Justice Department investigation. A letter opposing a postal rate 
increase was "certainly not inconsistent" with DeLay's political 
beliefs, Cullen said, and no other charge refers directly to DeLay's 
actions.

Stanley M. Brand, a former House counsel with experience in corruption 
probes, said prosecutors may be trying to surround DeLay by gaining the 
cooperation of aides higher and higher up his operation. "This is not a 
good day for Tom DeLay," Brand said.

Politically, Rudy's guilty plea did not appear to have the same 
electrifying effect as Abramoff's in January, when congressional 
Republicans vowed to rush forward with a dramatic changes in lobbying 
laws. Those efforts have slowed to a crawl, and some of the most 
far-reaching proposals -- such as an independent ethics investigative 
panel -- have been abandoned.

Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman who has been advising GOP 
leaders to pursue dramatic changes, said that drive is not likely to be 
rekindled until a lawmaker is indicted or is forced to resign.

"House Republicans should be looking at this as an opportunity to recast 
themselves as the reform party they once were, but that's not what's 
been happening," Weber said. "I fear this will just be taken in stride."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/31/AR2006033100638.html?referrer=email
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