FBI asks Florida’s Feeney about Abramoff

BY LESLEY CLARK
Miami Herald

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 

Rep. Tom Feeney, a former Florida House speaker, said he's cooperating with the FBI, which has asked for details about a golf trip to Scotland he took with Jack Abramoff, the former lobbyist at the center of a far-reaching public corruption scandal.

A former congressional aide who also was on the trip pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to a corruption charge. The FBI wouldn't say Tuesday whether Feeney is under investigation.

But Feeney's office said the Department of Justice had contacted the Oviedo Republican to request more information regarding Abramoff and the 2003 trip. The statement said that Feeney was ``pleased to voluntarily cooperate.''

Two Florida newspapers also reported Tuesday that the FBI has asked them for information about Feeney and Abramoff.

The St. Petersburg Times said investigators asked for an e-mail sent to the newspaper by Feeney's office that discussed the trip. The Orlando Sentinel said one of its reporters was contacted by an FBI agent who was ''seeking information about ties that Feeney and a former member of his staff'' had with Abramoff. Both newspapers said the requests had been turned over to their attorneys.

At issue is a 2003 golf trip Feeney took to Scotland, along with Abramoff and Mark Zachares, the former congressional aide who pleaded guilty to accepting gifts from Abramoff in exchange for taking action to benefit the lobbyist.

Zachares was the 11th person to be caught in the probe. Court papers show he and Feeney and the others traveled to Scotland ''to play golf on world-famous courses'' -- a $160,000 trip financed mostly by Abramoff and his clients.

Feeney had listed the trip on his official travel-disclosure form as having been paid for by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, but said he alerted the House Ethics Committee after reading a March 2005 report in The Los Angeles Times that suggested Abramoff may have paid for the trip.

PAID BACK IN JANUARY

In January, Feeney wrote a $5,643 check to the U.S. Treasury for the cost of the golf trip after the House Ethics Committee found the trip violated House rules.

''Rep. Feeney considers this an embarrassing episode in his 17-year career as an elected official and an expensive lesson for him as a public servant,'' Feeney's office said in the statement, adding he ``anticipates voluntarily cooperating with the Justice Department in any further investigation of this trip and looks forward to promptly resolving this matter.''

In November 2006, Abramoff began a six-year sentence in federal prison for lying to lenders in a Florida casino deal involving the purchase of SunCruz gambling ships.

He also is awaiting sentencing in a Capitol Hill public corruption case in which he pleaded guilty to corrupting government officials and their staff members.

Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, agreed to plead guilty in September 2006 to charges that he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in trips, cash and campaign donations from Abramoff in exchange for political favors.

Abramoff, in his plea deal with prosecutors, detailed Ney's role in helping him and his clients in exchange for favors that included a 2002 golf trip to Scotland and meals in the Republican lobbyist's Washington restaurant.

`NEVER LOBBIED US'

Feeney's then-chief of staff Jason Roe said in January that, unlike other congressmen implicated in the Abramoff scandal, Feeney had few dealings with the lobbyist.

''There's no such accusation as it relates to Tom,'' Roe said in January. ``Jack Abramoff never stepped in the office. He never lobbied us on anything.''

Feeney said in September that he would give to charity $1,000 that had been contributed to his campaign from Ney's political action committee.