Ney to Temporarily Resign Chairmanship
AP Bob Ney has been linked to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and has denied wrongdoing.

WASHINGTON (Jan. 15) - Rep Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican implicated in a lobbying corruption investigation, will step aside temporarily as chairman of the House Administration Committee, his spokesman said Sunday.

He said the congressman needed a few days to think about the decision after word got out Friday that he was in negotiations with House Speaker Dennis Hastert to relinquish the post.

"Congressman Ney continues to believe he will be vindicated and he hasn't done anything wrong," spokesman Brian Walsh said Sunday.

Ney is at the center of the Justice Department's ongoing corruption probe and was identified by lobbyist Jack Abramoff in his guilty plea earlier this month.

The Administration Committee controls disclosures of lobbying practices and would be a key part of efforts to reform the system.

Walsh said Ney did not want to become a distraction as the Republican Party tries to reform Congress' relationship with lobbyists and special interests.

Ney will maintain his chairmanship of a Housing subcommittee, Walsh said.

A GOP leadership aide said Friday that Hastert was pressuring Ney to step aside because he believes it would be inappropriate for him to head the committee with jurisdiction over the Republican reform agenda.

Ney said after that disclosure Friday that he was thinking about stepping aside because he did not want to get in the way of Congress continuing its work.

The GOP aide, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of private talks between Ney and Hastert, said the speaker himself could not fire Ney, and unless Ney stepped aside it would be at least three weeks until the GOP caucus could consider removing him.

Ney continues to maintain that he has done nothing wrong.

Among other accusations, Abramoff said Ney took favors including a 2002 golf trip to Scotland, free dinners and events and campaign donations in exchange for his support of Abramoff's American Indian tribe clients in Texas and the lobbyist's purchase of a fleet of Florida casino boats.

Court papers released as part of Abramoff's plea to charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and income tax evasion detailed lavish gifts and contributions that Abramoff says he gave an unnamed House member, identified elsewhere as Ney, a Republican from Ohio.

Other accusations include that Ney supported legislation to help a California Indian tribe with taxes and a post office and, as chairman of the Administration Committee, approved a lucrative deal for an Abramoff client to improve cell phone reception in House buildings.

Ney's decision comes as House and Senate Republicans scramble to devise a plan that would go well beyond current rules governing travel, gifts and lobbying by former members of Congress and their aides, as part of an effort to curtail the influence of lobbyists on lawmakers.

Ney was elected to Congress from an expansive, rural district in 1994. He won a sixth term in 2004 with 66 percent of the vote, was unopposed in 2002 and hasn't earned less than 60 percent in any election since 1996.

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Lobbying: The Web Widens
Newsweek

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Jan. 23, 2006 issue - Ohio Rep. Robert Ney personally lobbied the then Secretary of State Colin Powell to relax U.S. sanctions on Iran. Who asked him to? A convicted airplane broker who had just taken the congressman and a top aide on an expense-paid trip to London, NEWSWEEK has learned. Ney's lawyer confirmed to NEWSWEEK that federal prosecutors have subpoenaed records on Ney's February 2003 trip paid for by Nigel Winfield, a thrice-convicted felon who ran a company in Cyprus called FN Aviation. Winfield was seeking to sell U.S.-made airplane spare parts to the Iranian governmenta deal that would have needed special permits because of U.S. sanctions against Tehran. Ney's lawyer, Mark Tuohey, said Ney had no idea of Winfield's criminal past, which included a 1982 conviction for trying to swindle Elvis Presley in an airplane deal and two more in the late 1980s for tax evasion. Tuohey said there was "absolutely nothing improper" about Ney's raising the issue of Iranian sanctions with Powell and other Bush administration officials. At the time, there had been a number of civilian plane crashes in Iran attributable to a lack of spare parts. Ney, who had a longstanding interest in Iran, considered easing sanctions to allow spare-parts sales a "humanitarian" matter, Tuohey said.

The Justice Department subpoenas of Ney's travel records grew out of the Jack Abramoff lobbying case. Ney is identified in Abramoff's recent plea agreement as "Representative #1," who allegedly agreed to intervene on behalf of one of Abramoff's Indian tribal clients after receiving political contributions and an earlier all-expense-paid golfing trip to Scotland arranged by Abramoff. The Iranian airline deal shows how the Abramoff case is already expanding into a broader investigation into D.C. lobbying practices. Ney was introduced to Winfield by lobbyists Roy Coffee, a former legislative aide to the then Gov. George W. Bush, and David DiStefano, who had previously been Ney's chief of staff. Coffee and DiStefano (who did not respond to requests for comment) arranged for Ney and a staff member to fly over to London, where Winfield and his Syrian-born business partner, Fouad Al-Zayat, pitched the congressman on their business plan. Back in Washington, Ney talked to Powell, Tuohey said. But "nothing ever came of it," Tuohey said, because the company's deal fell through. Spokespeople for Powell and the State and Commerce departments (which administer U.S. trade sanctions) had no immediate responses to requests for comment.

Mark Hosenball, Michael Isikoff and Holly Bailey

© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.

© 2006 MSNBC.com

Rep. Robert W. Ney From Ohio May Be the Next Politician to See His Career Plans Evaporate In the Abramoff Scandal