Congressman's ex-aide pleads guilty

WASHINGTON — A former top aide to Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, pleaded guilty Monday in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, admitting that he conspired to corrupt Ney, his staff and other members of Congress with trips, free tickets, meals, jobs for relatives and fundraising events.

The criminal investigation of Abramoff's lobbying operation has now claimed Abramoff and three former congressional staffers: Neil Volz on Monday, as well as Tony Rudy and Michael Scanlon, who both worked for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

Abramoff and the three former congressional aides are now government witnesses whose prison terms may depend in part on how cooperative they are with federal prosecutors in the investigation involving lawmakers, their aides and members of the Bush administration.

"They're singing for their supper," Ney lawyer Mark Tuohey said. Tuohey said many of the allegations regarding Ney are incorrect and that "the government has been sold a bill of goods by Mr. Abramoff."

Volz said he engaged in a conspiracy, the intent of which was "to influence members of Congress in violation of the law."

In a nine-page document that focused on Ney's conduct, Volz enumerated 16 actions he said his former boss took on behalf of Abramoff clients. During the period, from January 2000 through April 2004, Volz said Abramoff and his lobbyists gave Ney and members of his staff trips to Lake George in New York state, New Orleans, the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., in 2003, and a weeklong golfing retreat in Scotland, with a second leg to London.

In addition, Volz wrote, Abramoff gave the congressman and his staff tickets to concerts and sporting events.

Volz, 35, worked for Ney from 1995 until early 2002, when he went to work for Abramoff.

The court papers did not detail the conduct of other congressmen, but they said Ney, acting with Volz and others, agreed to:

• Sponsor legislation to lift a ban against commercial gambling by the Tigua Indian tribe, an Abramoff client in Texas.

• Assist Abramoff in obtaining government property for Abramoff's private school in Maryland.

This is the second guilty plea in less than two months by a former House aide linked to Abramoff, who was a key Washington, D.C., lobbyist for the Seattle-based firm of Preston Gates & Ellis from 1994 to the end of 2000.

According to Volz's plea agreement, Volz traveled to the Northern Mariana Islands in January 2000, in part to help Abramoff in his lobbying work with the U.S. territory. The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas had hired Abramoff and Preston Gates to keep Congress from imposing a minimum-wage increase on the islands' garment factories.

Rudy, the former DeLay aide who earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy, helped arrange for other House aides to travel to the Marianas and helped get Congress to pay for construction projects there. According to court documents, Rudy did this, in part, to help Abramoff and Preston Gates.

Preston Gates officials have said they were unaware of any wrongdoing by Abramoff while he worked at the firm.

Times staff reporter Alicia Mundy contributed to this report.