Former senior aide to Rep. Doolittle faces 10 counts in Abramoff scandal

Kevin Ring, a former senior aide to Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), who is retiring, has been indicted on charges relating to the wide-ranging corruption scandal involving convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The 10-count indictment was unsealed Monday after Ring was arrested at his Maryland home. Ring, 37, who left Doolittle’s office and went on to work for Abramoff, is accused of conspiring with the now-jailed GOP lobbyist to corrupt congressional and executive-branch officials.

{mosads}Ring, Doolittle’s former legislative director, invoked the Fifth Amendment in Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) Indian Affairs Committee investigation in 2005. He resigned from his lobbying firm, Barnes & Thornburg, the same day the FBI raided Doolittle’s home in April 2007.

Abramoff was sentenced last week to serve four years more in prison for his central role in the scandal — a far lighter sentence than the 11-year maximum he could have faced. Abramoff, who is cooperating with prosecutors, already had served two years for his role in a fraudulent Florida casino cruise line deal.

Ring’s indictment could be the first of several. The sentencing of a central figure in a case can signify that prosecutors have concluded most of their work and are ready to press forward on other figures in the case.

House Republican leaders pressured Doolittle to leave his seat after his Northern Virginia home was raided last year. He remains under investigation in the Abramoff probe, as does former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

Ring, who with Abramoff represented the Mississippi Choctaw and Hopi tribes and their gambling interests, is accused of showering lawmakers and public officials with gifts and favors as rewards for taking actions benefiting his lobbying clients.

The largesse, according to the indictment, included all-expenses-paid domestic and international travel, fundraising assistance, meals, drinks, golf, tickets to professional sporting events, concerts and other events, and employment opportunities to spouses of congressional members and staff.

Ring’s attorney, Richard Hibey, issued a two-page statement reacting to the indictment and arrest.

In it, he said Ring intends to “fully contest the charges” and criticized the Department of Justice for arresting Ring in front of his wife and children after he had volunteered to surrender himself to authorities.

“Based on his decision to proceed to trial rather than plead guilty, Mr. Ring, his family, and his attorneys expected his indictment,” Hibey said in the statement. “After two years of voluntary cooperation, for the government to have hauled Mr. Ring away is a completely unnecessary step, which seems to have little purpose beyond embarrassing Mr. Ring, traumatizing his family, and garnering publicity for the government. It is a harbinger of the overreaching that will characterize the government’s prosecution of him.”

The statement also argued that Ring had been cooperating with prosecutors — meeting with prosecutors, FBI agents and Department of Justice (DoJ) and IRS officials more than 20 times and for an estimated 100 hours, until last year, when a “new cadre of DoJ lawyers took over the case.”

“While Mr. Ring had been cooperating with officials for over two years, he simply could not plead guilty to crimes he did not commit,” Hibey wrote. “From that point he was deemed uncooperative.

The indictment charges Ring with paying an illegal gratuity to a public official, engaging in a scheme to deprive U.S. citizens of their rights to honest services of public officials and two counts of obstructing justice by trying to thwart a grand jury and congressional investigation.

According to the indictment, Ring and his co-conspirators engaged in this conduct with the former chief of staff for a “Representative 4,” identified in media reports as former Rep. Ernie Istook (R-Okla.). Istook left Congress in 2006 to run an unsuccessful campaign for governor and now works as a fellow at the Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Foundation did not respond to a call seeking comment.

Istook’s ex-chief of staff, John Albaugh, has been accused of requesting and taking freebies to concerts and sporting events from Ring.

In addition, the indictment says Ring misled investigators at his former law firm by lying about a $135,000 kickback he allegedly received, as well as information about how Abramoff won a job for the wife of “Representative 5.” The Washington Post has reported extensively on Abramoff’s payments to Julie Doolittle.

Before leaving Congress, Istook chaired the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury and Independent Agencies, and Albaugh is accused of urging Istook to earmark funds for Abramoff clients in exchange for use of FedEx Field suites for a fundraising event and for tickets to concerts and shows including Tim McGraw and the children’s band the Wiggles.

Abramoff told the lobbyists working under him that Istook had “basically asked what we want in the transportation bill” and to “make sure we load up our entire Christmas list,” according to Albaugh’s criminal filing.

The Justice Department said a grand jury returned Ring’s indictment on Friday. Ring was scheduled to appear in court Monday afternoon.