Hurt by scandal, Ney leaves committee post

WASHINGTON — Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, announced Sunday he would temporarily relinquish his chairmanship of the House Administration Committee, which oversees lobbying, as the corruption investigation into former lobbyist Jack Abramoff moves deeper into the workings of Congress.

Ney has repeatedly said he has done nothing wrong. But in a plea agreement this month, Abramoff said he and his business partner, Michael Scanlon, had showered the six-term Ohio lawmaker with lavish trips, campaign funds and gifts in exchange for a number of favors for Abramoff clients. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., facing growing concern that the Republican leadership has been slow to respond to the bribery and corruption scandal, began pressuring Ney about his chairmanship in recent weeks.

"I have done absolutely nothing wrong and I am convinced that I will be vindicated completely at the end of this difficult process," Ney said in a statement. "Unfortunately, it has become clear to me in recent days that the false allegations made against me have become a distraction to the important work of the House Republican Conference and the important work that remains ahead for the House Administration Committee."

Ney has long been a well-liked member of the Republican conference, and his chairmanship was a plum assignment. In control of the committee that governs operations of the House, he distributed cellular phones and communications devices, watched over the House gym, and managed organizations from the Library of Congress to the Smithsonian Institution. The position gave him latitude to hand out favors and win personal allegiances.

But his committee also has jurisdiction over federal elections and lobbying rules. In response to the Abramoff scandal, Hastert has said he will push for broad changes in lobbying and election fundraising rules, changes that would have to be considered by Ney's committee. Ney's deep association with Abramoff was becoming intolerable as GOP leaders neared unveiling their proposal, some of which will emerge as soon as Tuesday.

"The speaker is moving behind the scenes for the greater good of the conference and handling it in the most dignified way possible," a GOP leadership source close to the talks said Friday night.

Ney left open the possibility that he could resign from Congress rather than face re-election in November under an ethical cloud. Ney said he intends "to continue working as hard as possible on behalf of my district and my constituents," but he did not say he would be a candidate this fall.

Sources close to the Justice Department's Abramoff probe have told The Washington Post that Ney and a former chief of staff, Neil Volz, have been informed that they are targets of the investigation.

Volz, who left Ney's office in 2002 to work for Abramoff, was repeatedly cited in court papers where Abramoff confessed to bribing members of Congress, bilking his Indian tribal clients out of millions of dollars and evading taxation. One congressional aide, identified elsewhere as Volz, was cited in the documents as lobbying Congress before legally allowed to do so, and arranging lobbying fees to be diverted to finance a lavish golfing trip for Ney to Scotland.