Feeney and the FBI Anniversary Week 7 Deadly Questions for "Representative #3"

QUESTION #3: How could you not wonder who was footing the bill for a "fact-finding trip" turned golf outing in Scotland?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 18, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - It keeps getting worse for Florida's most corrupt member of Congress, Tom Feeney (R-24th).

Outraised by his Democratic challenger and criticized for using taxpayer money on politically convenient mailings and phone calls, Feeney's office yesterday lashed out in desperation.

"Tom Feeney considers this an embarrassing episode as an elected official and an expensive lesson for him as a public servant," Feeney's spokesman said yesterday, attacking Democrats as "elitist" and out-of-touch "with hardworking Florida taxpayers." [Orlando Sentinel, 4/17/08]

"Tom Feeney's only embarrassed because he got caught red-handed," Florida Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski said. "The real out-of-touch elitist is the Congressman who gallivanted with the now-convicted super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff on an all-expense-paid golfing vacation in Europe instead of doing the job that the hardworking Florida taxpayers pay him to do."

Sorry, Feeney. We're only five days until the first anniversary of the public relationship between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the man it affectionately refers to as "Representative #3." The celebration will go on.

On April 23, 2007, news broke that the FBI was investigating Feeney for his connection with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. To celebrate the occasion, the Florida Democratic Party is asking Feeney "Seven Deadly Questions" that he has left unanswered.

Question #3: How could you not wonder who was footing the extravagant bill for a "fact-finding trip" turned golf vacation in Scotland?

In a 2005 Orlando Sentinel article, Feeney said he was misled about who paid for the Scotland visit. In January of 2007, he used stronger language and claimed he was "duped and lied to" about what he thought was a fact-finding trip with Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to corruption charges. [Document: Scotland trip for 8, including Feeney cost $160,000, Orlando Sentinel, 4/26/07]

"Any assertion that this office knew Abramoff paid for the Scotland trip is a g--d----- lie," Feeney's former Chief of Staff Jason Roe wrote in an email of interest to the FBI. [FBI asks Tom Feeney about trip with Abramoff, St. Petersburg Times, 4/23/07]

But in truth, documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee show that Abramoff's personal charity, Capital Athletic Foundation, paid $150,226.32 for a "Scotland fundraiser" in 2003. [Feeney trip tied to Abramoff 'slush fund', Orlando Sentinel, 4/27/07]

The charity is in reality a slush fund created to pay for extravagant golf junkets to Scotland that Abramoff took with then-House Minority Whip Tom DeLay in 2000, then-Rep. Bob Ney in 2002, and Rep. Tom Feeney in 2003. Feeney and DeLay had a close relationship in Congress prior to the latter's fall from grace.

"Who does Tom Feeney think he's fooling? Congress doesn't design golf courses so what kind of 'facts' would he find by teeing off in Scotland. It's plain as day that Tom Feeney knew his trip was being paid for by Jack Abramoff," Bubriski said. "To suggest otherwise is to ignore the documented evidence that Abramoff's office told Feeney how to report the eight-person, privately-chartered, all-expense-paid golfing vacation as a legitimate Congressional trip."

The Florida Democratic Party will release one deadly question a day through April 23, exactly one year after news broke that Tom Feeney was under investigation by the FBI.

Read more about the infamy of Tom Feeney at: http://www.feeneysfullofit.com.