In this article, The Hill tells the story of the man who was "instrumental ... in taking down" lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

It's worth reading.

Virginia's governor-elect, Bob McDonnell, has named his choice to run the state’s Natural Resources Department. The choice is a strange one, especially if McDonnell wants to reassure Virginians that high ethical standards are important to him.

The nominee is ex-Bush Interior Department official Doug Domenech. TPM Muckraker probes Domenech's reported links to Jack Abramoff's operation:

During the Bush administration, Domenech served at the Department of the Interior as a liaison to the White House. In 2005, Wayne Smith, the point man at Interior for Indian casino policy, told the Denver Post (via Nexis) that Domenech would take calls from Abramoff operative Italia Federici, who would inform him of what Abramoff wanted. Domenech would then convey the message to Smith.

Said Smith: "Doug would come down and say, 'Italia called and Jack wants this.' That's how it all happened internally."

It has been three years, 10 months and 22 days since Jack Abramoff walked into a federal court and pleaded guilty. So you thought the Abramoff scandal was over and done with? Well, not quite.

This week, an ex-Justice Department lawyer was sentenced for his role in the case. The AP reports:

The lawyer, Robert Coughlin, was sentenced in Federal District Court to a month in a halfway house, three years of probation and a $2,000 fine. He admitted providing assistance to Mr. Abramoff's lobbying team and its clients while accepting free meals and tickets from an Abramoff lobbying partner.

Next year, a motion picture starring Kevin Spacey will revive memories of the Abramoff scandal. Spacey portrays the man who was at the center of the corruption scandal. The movie's title will be "Casino Jack."

What is it about golf and political scandals? In today's New York Times, Nick Confessore writes that these two worlds seem to intersect a lot:

It was on a golf junket to Florida that [former N.Y. State Senate leader Joseph Bruno] first sold an Albany-area entrepreneur on the idea of paying him generous fees to help drum up investment, including earmarks that were arranged by the senator himself.

... In June, Salvatore F. DiMasi, a former speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, was indicted on charges that during rounds of golf, he plotted to rig state computer software contracts. This fall, an Indiana congressman, Steve Buyer, came under scrutiny when it was revealed that a charity he established to help teenagers pay for college had spent nothing on scholarships but $260,000 on lavish golf junkets.

And, of course, there was the infamous Jack Abramoff golf junket.

CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan was quoted in the N.Y. Times article:

"More politicians will succumb to a pricey golf outing than to a sexy woman in a negligee. You have a lot more privacy than in your office and in a restaurant, and it’s socially acceptable to leave your office for half the day to play golf."

The jury couldn't reach a verdict on any of the charges. Not one:

A federal judge declared a mistrial in the prosecution of former lobbyist Kevin Ring after jurors deadlocked on charges that he lavished meals and concert tickets on public officials in the hope of illegally influencing them.

After hearing four weeks of testimony, jurors deliberated for eight days, but could not reach a verdict on any of the eight charges of conspiracy, providing an illegal gratuity or honest services fraud. Federal prosecutors indicated they would seek another trial. Ring, 38, was a close associate of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, one of 16 people to have pleaded guilty to participating in a pay-to-play corruption scam that involved members of Congress, their staffers and officials in the executive branch.

In a note given to U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle on Thursday, the jury of seven women and five men said they were "irrevocably blocked."

As the jury continues deliberating in the Abramoff-related corruption trial of Kevin Ring (see below), there's the possibility of another trial for a former Hill Staffer/Bush administration official with ties to Abramoff:

Horace Cooper, who served as a staffer for former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, and as chief of staff for two executive branch agencies, indicated today that he will go to trial to fight charges that he accepted tickets and meals from imprisoned ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff in exchange for official actions that would benefit Abramoff's clients.

Cooper was indicted in August on five charges of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and bribery, fraudulent concealment, false statements and obstruction of an official proceeding. The alleged crimes took place between 1998 and 2005, when Cooper served on Armey's staff and then as chief of staff at Voice of America and the Labor Department's Employment Standards Administration.

"We're here to fight the felony charges. We vehemently dispute them," Cooper's attorney, Solomon Wisenberg, said. "We look forward to our day in court."

The jury in the public corruption trial of Kevin Ring has reportedly reached a verdict on only one count after seven days of deliberating:

Jurors are entering their seventh day of deliberations in the criminal trial of an ex-lobbyist caught up in the Jack Abramoff influence peddling scandal.

Jurors in the case of Kevin Ring reached a verdict on one criminal charge Tuesday and appeared deadlocked on seven others. Nonetheless, U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle directed the panel of seven women and five men to continue their deliberations

The outcome on the one count isn't publicly known. That charge involves a $5,000 payment to a credit union account controlled by the wife of former Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif.

An interesting development in the trial of Kevin Ring this week -- the government names 11 co-conspirators. One of them was former Congressman John Doolittle (From Roll Call, sub. req.):

Federal prosecutors named ex-Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) as a co-conspirator Thursday in the public corruption case against former House aide-turned-lobbyist Kevin Ring.

The government included Doolittle, who has not been charged with wrongdoing, on a list of 11 co-conspirators filed Thursday. Prosecutors indicated they intend to submit statements from those individuals during Ring’s trial, currently under way in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Ring, a former aide to Doolittle and then-Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.), is charged with violating federal laws, including bribery and conspiracy to commit fraud for providing gifts to public officials in exchange for official acts. He has denied wrongdoing.

Doolittle was twice (2006 and 2008) named CREW as one of the most corrupt members of Congress. Here's why from the 2008 version of our report, CREW's Most Corrupt:

Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-CA) is an ninth-term member of Congress representing California’s 4th congressional district. Rep. Doolittle’s ethics issues stem from his wife’s relationship to his campaign and political action committees, as well as campaign contributions and personal financial benefits he accepted from those who sought his legislative assistance. Rep. Doolittle is currently the subject of a Department of Justice investigation and was included in CREW’s 2006 report on congressional corruption.

Julie Doolittle

Rep. Doolittle’s wife Julie is the owner and president of Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, a fundraising company retained by Rep. Doolittle’s campaign committee and his Superior California Leadership PAC. In her role as fundraiser, Ms. Doolittle receives 15% of every contribution raised. Ms. Doolittle has received at least $215,000 from Rep. Doolittle’s campaign committees since 2001, and took in nearly $224,000 during the 2006 campaign alone. Notably, the Association of Fundraising Professionals sent a letter to Rep. Doolittle stating that its long-standing ethics code, “explicitly prohibits percentage-based compensation” and urged the campaign to cease this practice with Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions.

Ms. Doolittle’s payments by her husband’s campaign appear to violate federal campaign finance laws and House rules, which prohibit converting campaign funds to personal use. By using his position as a member of Congress to financially benefit his wife, Rep. Doolittle may be depriving his constituents of his honest services, using his position for personal gain, and engaging in conduct that does not reflect creditably on the House.

After severe criticism, Rep. Doolittle announced that his wife would no longer serve as a paid fundraiser for his 2008 reelection campaign. Still maintaining that the percentage based fee his wife earned was fair, Rep. Doolittle has said his wife will continue to raise money for his Superior California Leadership PAC, but will be paid a flat salary rather than a commission. Rep. Doolittle still owes his wife’s company $76,471.20 for fundraising services rendered during the 2006 election cycle.

Ties to Jack Abramoff

In 1999, Rep. Doolittle also assisted Jack Abramoff in securing a lucrative lobbying contract with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), helped Mr. Abramoff stave off legislation protecting workers in the CNMI and wrote letters on behalf of some of Mr. Abramoff’s tribal casinos. In return, Rep. Doolittle, an alleged gambling foe, received $130,000 from gambling tribes with ties to Mr. Abramoff. If Rep. Doolittle received contributions from Mr. Abramoff in return for legislative assistance, he may have violated prohibitions against bribery, honest services fraud and House rules.

In April 2007, FBI agents searched the Doolittles’ Virginia home. Investigators sought the business records of Sierra Dominion Financial Services as part of an ongoing investigation into ties between Jack Abramoff and the Doolittles. At least three former and two current Doolittle aides have been contacted by the Justice Department as part of the investigation.

Brent Wilkes

Federal investigators are probing whether contributions made to Rep. Doolittle by now indicted defense contractor Brent Wilkes and his associates are linked to any official actions Rep. Doolittle took to help Mr. Wilkes’ company obtain millions of dollars in earmarks.

Peter Stone from the National Journal has been providing excellent coverage of the trial of Abramoff colleague, Kevin Ring, at the Under the Influence Blog. (Link to full coverage here.) Yesterday, the former Chief of Staff to Oklahoma Congressman Ernest Istook, John Albaugh, testifed. Albaugh has already pleaded guilty to Abramoff-related charges:

"I went to work thinking, 'I'm going to do something I think is wrong today,'" John Albaugh, former chief of staff to former Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., said of the period between 2003 and 2004 when he received tickets and meals from Ring while helping Ring secure earmarks to fund projects for clients. Albaugh said he continued despite knowing the wrongfulness of his actions because he wanted to help Istook be "successful." Ring was a major political donor to Istook, and he helped plan fundraisers for the congressman.

After the investigations into Abramoff started, "I began to be concerned I may have broken the law," Albaugh said in his testimony. "I had terrors in the night.... I suffered. I knew I had broken the law."

The FBI searched Albaugh's house in April 2008, which Albaugh said did not surprise him.
"When my wife came to me and said, 'The FBI is here,' I knew what they were there for," he said.

After agreeing to cooperate with the government in their investigation, Albaugh regained a "peace in my soul I didn't have for a number of years," he said.

Albaugh pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services fraud last year. He named Ring as his co-conspirator in his testimony.

The Abramoff scandal is back in the news. It's not even close to being over. A former staffer to the former Majority Leader Dick Armey was indicted on five corruption charges:

Horace Cooper, a legal commentator, active conservative writer and blogger who served as a top aide to former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), was indicted Friday on public corruption charges related to the wide-ranging case involving Jack Abramoff.

The Justice Department charged Cooper, 44, with on count of conspiracy, one count of fraudulent concealment, two counts of false statements and one count of obstruction of an official proceeding.

The allegations stem from Cooper’s last three years with Armey, as well as his stints as chief of staff for Voice of America (VOA) from 2001 to 2002 and the Employment Standards Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor from 2002 to 2005.