Ney sets up defense fund on Abramoff | The Hill

By Alexander Bolton

Sixth-term Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) is setting up a legal defense fund as Democrats are trying to turn up the heat on the Administration Committee chairman because of his past contact with indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to a source familiar with the activity.

Brian Walsh, Ney’s spokesman, declined to comment.

Ney, who recently hired the law firm of Vinson & Elkins to defend him against potential investigations by the Justice Department and the House ethics committee, has up to this point paid his legal bills out of his reelection fund.

Ney reported in a filing with Federal Election Commission last month that he paid Vinson & Elkins $136,000 at the beginning of August. Mark Tuohey, a partner at the firm, is representing Ney.

The bills are costly for a public official who reported less than $2,000 in assets on his public financial-disclosure report and who is one of the Democrats’ top targets in 2006. Ney had $422,000 in his campaign account at the end of September.

He became more involved in the investigation of Abramoff recently when he received a subpoena seeking records and testimony from a federal grand jury reviewing Abramoff’s lobbying activities. Ney informed the House of the subpoena Friday. He is the first lawmaker to be subpoenaed as part of the probe.

Democrats are seeking to capitalize on Ney’s association with Abramoff. Joseph Sulzer, the mayor of Chillicothe, Ohio, who is running to unseat Ney, discussed the subpoena yesterday at a press conference with reporters that was scheduled to address home-heating costs.

“The recent issue of the subpoena from the federal grand jury doesn’t bode well for Mr. Ney,” Sulzer said.

Sulzer’s campaign manager, Joe Abbey, said that Ney’s link with Abramoff is a theme that runs throughout the campaign.

“You can’t run and not acknowledge it in every aspect of the campaign as well as in the fundraising aspect,” Abbey said.

Ney commented favorably in the Congressional Record on Abramoff’s purchase of the SunCruz casino-boat purchase in 2000 and in sponsored legislation benefiting a Texas Indian tribe that Abramoff represented in 2002, according to media reports. He also accepted campaign contributions from Abramoff and free dinners at the lobbyist’s restaurant, according to reports.

Carl Forti, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said that unless the Justice probe aggressively targets him, Ney will face little challenge from Sulzer.

“Here’s the unanswered question: What happens between now and next year with Ney and all this?” Forti said. “If everything stays like it is now, Ney kills Sulzer.”

Top-notch representation would make it less likely that Ney’s legal situation takes such a turn for the worse, even though formally setting up a structure to defend himself might convey to voters that he is in legal trouble.

“It means that you’ve got legal problems, so in that sense it’s not a good thing,” Ken Gross, a lawyer with Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom, said of defense funds. But he added that they’re “so common that I’m not sure they are highly stigmatized.”

But Craig Holman, a lobbyist at Public Citizen, a self-described government-watchdog group, said that legal defense funds are a “fairly uncommon thing.” He said 10 other House lawmakers have set up legal defense funds. Those lawmakers include Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who was indicted in September in Texas on money laundering and conspiracy charges, and Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), whose office and home were recently raided by the FBI.

Sarah Feinberg, the spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said that because of the stream of news stories linking Ney to Abramoff and investigations of Abramoff Ney has become more identified in his home district with his legal problems than with the services he provides to constituents.

Feinberg said that the mere fact that Ney has garnered large legal bills should give his constituents cause for alarm.

“Spending tens of thousands in legal bills suggests something is going on, it suggests the district is unhappy with his performance,” she said.

That may be why Ney has not already set up a legal defense fund, despite having already received legal bills in excess of $100,000 and earlier indications that the Justice Department would scrutinize lawmakers’ dealings with Abramoff.

But Stan Brand, a former House counsel who is now one of Washington’s top criminal defense lawyers, said that sometimes it’s “easier and simpler and cleaner” to pay for legal expenses with campaign funds.

He said, for example, legal defense funds can’t take money from certain sources, such as registered lobbyists, and must have independent trustees.