UPDATE: The Hill has more details:
The FBI searched the Virginia home of Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) last Friday in its investigation into the ties of the congressman and his wife, Julie, to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to law enforcement and other Congressional and K Street sources. […]
Doolittle has been under fire for paying his wife’s company, Sierra Dominion, a 15 percent commission on all contributions that the company raised for Doolittle’s campaign committee and leadership PAC. Her only other clients were Abramoff’s former firm, Greenberg Traurig; Abramoff’s former restaurant Signatures; and the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, which Ed Buckham, a former chief of staff to ex-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), created.
The Justice Department previously subpoenaed Julie Doolittle’s files.
Doolittle also received contributions from indicted defense contractor Brent Wilkes and his associates, and investigators are probing whether those contributions are linked to any official action Doolittle took to help Wilkes’s company obtain millions of dollars in government earmarks.
UPDATE II: Lobbyist Kevin Ring, a former aide to Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), resigned from his law firm last Friday, the same day as the raid on Dolittle’s home. As Politico reported, Ring “often served as an intermediary between Abramoff’s clients and Doolittle’s office, according to news reports, and has remained close to Doolittle and his wife, Julie, who did consulting work for Abramoff.” It’s suspected that Ring may have reached a plea agreement with prosecutors
Update III: According to The Hill, the FBI searched the home last Friday -- the same day that Ring resigned.
1 comment:
Dr. Doolittle and his wife are caught. I wonder if they got evidence in out before the raid? I hope the DOJ get Jerry Lewis as he thinks he's safe.
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