It came about a year too late to do him any good, but the Justice Department has notified ex-Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) that he's no longer under investigation for his ties to Jack Abramoff. Burns, you may remember, lost very narrowly to Jon Tester (D) last November, with Burns' Abramoff problem a huge issue in the election.

The feds had been investigating whether Burns helped Abramoff's tribal clients in exchange for tens of thousands in campaign contributions and other goodies. Abramoff himself said that he got whatever he wanted from Burns and that his staffers "pratically" used Abramoff's D.C. restaurant Signatures "as their cafeteria."

Abramoff continues to busily cooperate with investigators from prison. But whatever prosecutors came up with on Burns, they apparently didn't think it would stick in court -- bribery cases, of course, are notoriously hard to make.

Burns, who spent around $300,000 in campaign contributions on defense lawyers, fittingly got a lobbying gig after his forced retirement. And how does he feel about not being under investigation for the first time in more than two years? He says that he feels "so great that it's unbelievable." I'll bet he's "ready to go get knee-walking drunk."

Update: Don't forget that Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) and ex-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) are still very much on the hook.

The White House may have lost a battle, but they have not lost the war.

For nearly two years, D.C. watchdogs Judicial Watch and Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington have been battling in court for Secret Service records of visits to the Bush White House and the Vice President's Office. The first request was for Jack Abramoff's visits, but they also set out to discover how often his associates and various conservative religious leaders had visited. Did they know what they were in for?

Over time, the White House has tried various legal theories to block the release. There was the imposing "mosaic theory," whereby seemingly innocuous information, such as visits to the White House, could prove a national security threat when combined with other seemingly innocuous information. And there was the Vice President's secret agreement with the Secret Service that even though the Secret Service makes and keeps the visitor records, they're not really Secret Service records (even though they'd been treated that way in the past), they're White House records, and thus not subject to FOIA. Oh, and there was the Vice President's order to destroy the records. And on and on.

Today, CREW had a good day in court, with a federal judge deciding that the secret agreement was bunk and that the Secret Service records really were public records. And there was also a partial victory. The judge denied CREW's motion to declare that the Secret Service could not destroy its White House visitor records once it had transferred copies to the White House; but because the judge said the records are public records, the White House now cannot destroy them without the say-so of the National Archives and Records Administration. And when you want to destroy documents, you really don't want any red tape, do you?

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If there's one thing that the Abramoff scandal has taught us, it's that it pays to snitch.

From the AP:

An environmental advocate who provided Jack Abramoff's entree into the Interior Department was sentenced Friday to two months in a halfway house and four years probation.

Italia Federici, who pleaded guilty in June to tax evasion and obstructing a Senate investigation, was spared prison only because she has become a key witness in the Justice Department's ongoing corruption investigation.

(I would be remiss if I didn't amusedly note the AP's description of Federici as an "environmental advocate." She did indeed head a group called Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA), so the word "environmental" was in her group's title. But her advocacy was definitely against the environmental movement, not with it.)

Federici was key in helping the feds bag Steven Griles, formerly the deputy secretary of the Interior Department (and formerly her boyfriend). Griles was sentenced to 10 months in prison back in June. And for that, she's been rewarded.

The scheme went this way: Jack Abramoff's tribal clients gave CREA at least $500,000 in contributions, providing practically the entire operating budget for the group. In return, Federici used her close connections to Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton (for whom she used to work) and the #2 Steven Griles (whom she was dating) to make sure that Abramoff's concerns were addressed. Here's the whole rundown.

Old habits die hard, I guess.

Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) is under investigation for his ties to Jack Abramoff, who's still causing plenty of trouble for Republicans, Feeney and Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) most of all. A Scottish golf junket with Abramoff in 2003 is the source of Feeney's problems. But even as Feeney tries to put Abramoff far behind him ("There's no relationship") with the help of a legal defense fund, he can't help himself.

Abramoff's old associate Todd Boulanger, The Orlando Sentinel reports, will be co-hosting a $500-a-person fundraiser for Feeney tonight. Boulanger, Abramoff enthusiasts might remember, was among Abramoff's coterie of go-getting young lobbyists at the firm Greenberg Traurig. And Boulanger's go-getting spirit was on full display in an email TPMmuckraker obtained last year, where he urged others in the office to pony up for Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), who was a fast friend to the firm's clients (he'd "never said 'no'"). In it, Boulanger allowed that Abramoff's team had already delivered thousands in contributions for Cochran, but that wasn't "good enough for the member who keeps the lights turned on here at Greenberg."

The Sentinel notes that Boulanger, who now works at the lobby shop Cassidy & Associates, represents among other clients Freddie Mac; Feeney sits on the House Financial Services Committee. Boulanger gave Feeney $1,250 in contributions in 2005. Though a number of Boulanger's former colleagues are either in prison or under investigation, Boulanger himself appears never to have been a focus of the investigation.

Even though Jack Abramoff is about to celebrate his one year anniversary of reporting to prison, House sleuth Henry Waxman (D-CA) hasn't forgotten about the convicted briber.

Oversight committee chairman Waxman is continuing to press for evidence of the lobbyist's ties to the White House, and in a letter to White House counsel Fred Fielding today, he reveals that that the administration has turned over 3,700 pages of documents related to Abramoff, but refused to turn over 600 pages more, because they “contain internal deliberations among White House employees, or that otherwise implicate Executive Branch prerogatives.”

Waxman tells the White House to either follow through and claim executive privilege for the documents or hand them over. He also muses with (one imagines) a crafty grin, "Given the prior statements by White House officials, it is surprising that there would be this volume of documents of internal deliberations involving Mr. Abramoff."

The scandal created when Waxman released a report last year about Abramoff's significant contacts with the White House forced the resignation of Karl Rove's aide Susan Ralston (who also, coincidentally, used to be Abramoff's personal assistant). Our favorite revelation remains an email where one of Abramoff's associates calls then-White House political director Ken Mehlman a "rock star" for being such a helpful ally.

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Neil Volz, who recently was sentenced to probation for accepting bribes while a staffer with ex-Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) and giving bribes while working with Jack Abramoff, explained to The Columbus Dispatch this weekend how it all fell apart. The short version: moral scruples are no match for sweet court-side tickets:

"I came to Washington this total idealist," Volz told The Dispatch last week in his first public comments since he began working with federal prosecutors in 2005. "But it's kind of like I took on this mind-set that there was a machine at work and I was just a cog in the machine. And, therefore, I need to get mine."

It was a world of trying to justify accepting gifts that he knew were wrong, in exchange for legislative favors that he knew never should have been granted.

"It is a lot easier to rationalize something away when you are in the front row watching Michael Jordan play basketball," Volz said. "That's sad to say, but if I can kind of spend the next many years at least being honest about what's happened … hopefully, whatever does come about, for my life, I can live with that."

An interesting entry in the TPMmuckraker Where Are They Now file: evidently trying to erase his moral deficit, Volz now works at U.S. Vets, a nonprofit group that helps homeless veterans.

John Bresnahan over at The Politico reports that a federal grand jury has subpoenaed House payroll records for Ed Buckham, formerly ex-Rep. Tom DeLay's (R-TX) chief of staff. Bresnahan notes that it's a clear indication that the feds are closing in on Buckham, who left DeLay to found the Alexander Strategy Group, the firm that made millions as the gateway to DeLay during the heady years when he ran the Hill.

Buckham, as DeLay's bag man, has long been considered the key to prosecutors building a case against DeLay as part of the Jack Abramoff investigation. The vise has been closing on him for quite some time. But Peter Stone reports in this month's National Journal that Buckham finally turned down a deal offered by prosecutors to plead guilty, and that "he expects to be indicted soon."

Buckham would be the third former DeLay aide to be targeted in the scandal. Two other ex-aides who went on to work with Abramoff, Michael Scanlon and Tony Rudy, have pleaded guilty.

Note: Here's our rundown on all of Buckham's many entanglements.

Update: Back in May, DeLay challenged the Justice Department to "Fish or cut bait. Do something," since they seemed to be taking their own sweet time questioning his associates about his relationship to Buckham and Abramoff. It appears that the Department has chosen the "fish" option.

Neil Volz, ex-Rep. Bob Ney's (R-OH) former chief of staff, and one of Jack Abramoff's partners in crime was richly rewarded for his ample cooperation with investigators today. Judge Ellen Huvelle sentenced him to two years probation and $2,000.

Prosecutors had suggested no jail time for Volz since he'd been such a helpful cooperator in putting away Ney and offering muck on other lawmakers. The judge went along with that, saying that "The government has clearly viewed you as the key to their case against Congressman Ney."

Ney's other former aide who cooperated against him, Will Heaton, also got off with no jail time.

Update: More from the AP here.

If it seems like the FBI has been mighty busy investigating public officials lately (and it certainly seems that way to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) and others), it's no accident. As Peter Stone reports in August's National Journal (not available online), the FBI has put a major emphasis on bagging crooked pols:

According to FBI officials, cases involving corrupt government officials are now the bureau’s top criminal priority. The number of FBI agents focusing on public corruption has jumped by more than 40 percent—from 451 agents in fiscal 2001 to 641 in fiscal 2007. In 2005 and 2006, FBI probes were instrumental in the convictions of 1,060 government officials on corruption charges -- 177 federal officials, 158 state officials, and 725 local officials and police -- an increase of 40 percent from the previous two-year period.

In an interview with National Journal, Kenneth Kaiser, the assistant director of the FBI’s criminal investigative division, emphasized that public corruption probes typically are lengthy and require “a lot of evidence” to end in conviction. “Corruption cases are the most difficult to investigate and the most difficult to prosecute,” Kaiser said. “A lot of the time, we use very sophisticated techniques to make these cases.”

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Just in case you'd forgotten dead-pol-walking Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) is under federal investigation for his ties to Jack Abramoff, a reminder today:

GOP Rep. John Doolittle's chief of staff and deputy chief of staff have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in a federal probe into ties between Doolittle, his wife and jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The grand jury subpoenas from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia were issued to Chief of Staff Ron Rogers and Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Blankenburg. They were announced on the House floor as Congress returned from its August recess Tuesday after the aides informed House leaders about the subpoenas, as required under House rules.

The Sacramento Bee reported back in June that the feds had contacted as many as six of Doolittle's former aides. The feds raided his Virginia home in April after he refused to plead guilty.

Abramoff may be in prison, but he's continuing to cooperate with investigators. Recently a status conference was pushed back to December, meaning that Abramoff will likely not be sentenced for his bribery conviction until 2008. Abramoff pleaded guilty way back in January, 2006, and has been cooperating with investigators since 2004. It's been quite a run, and it's not over yet.

Late Update: According to the LA Times, three of Doolittle's aides have been subpoenaed, including his Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff.

Which former aide to Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) was the more formidable cooperator?

Will Heaton was sentenced to just two years probation as a reward for the effort (e.g. wearing a wire, taking documents) the young chief of staff put into nailing his boss over to the feds. Ney eventually pled guilty to corruption charges and was sentenced to thirty months in prison.

But Neil Volz, Heaton's predecessor who left to work for Jack Abramoff, might have the greater claim. Despite the fact that Volz played both sides of the fence (essentially working for Abramoff when he was still Ney's aide and then moving over to help Abramoff bribe his former boss and other pols), prosecutors are recommending that he also receive no jail time, but instead get house arrest. That's because, as The Hill reports, Volz has been pulling overtime as a cooperator, not only dishing information on Ney, but also serving as a sort of consultant for investigators on how Capitol Hill works:

In February 2006, he began providing “unlimited cooperation in dozens of debriefings, and his cooperation was substantial, especially in connection with the investigation and prosecutions of Ney, Heaton and [General Services Administration chief of staff] David Safavian,” according to the document.

In the memo, prosecutors said Volz “has spent and continues to spend countless hours providing information about other matters under investigation by the Department of Justice, as well as insight into how staff members and lobbyists conduct business before Congress and the Executive Branch.”

They also said that Volz’s cooperation is ongoing, and could involve other separate DoJ investigations. His cooperation could help prosecutors snare other lawmakers under FBI investigation and those who prosecutors believe may be implicated in the Abramoff bribery scandal.

Well, not so bad apparently. Ex-Rep. Bob Ney's (R-OH) former chief of staff Will Heaton was sentenced to two years of probation today for his involvement with Ney and Jack Abramoff.

Apparently the judge was mollified by Heaton's extensive cooperation with investigators -- wearing a wire for conversations with Ney and even passing on documents from Ney's office.

Heaton's youth (he's still a ripe 29) was also a factor. As prosecutors wrote in a recent court filing, Heaton was tapped to be Ney's chief of staff at 24 exactly because he was young and unqualified. "Ney intentionally hired and quickly promoted young, inexperienced staffers - who did not receive any formal ethics training from Congress - so that the staffers would have neither the knowledge nor the maturity to question Ney's conduct," prosecutors wrote. And he kept all those young staffers in line by making sure they knew that if they stepped out of line, they'd be cut off from all the lobbyist freebies.

Most of the major cooperators in the Abramoff investigation (such as Ney's prior chief of staff Neil Volz) have yet to be sentenced, as they continue to cooperate with investigators.

I can't count how many times I read stories last year about the new culture of fear on K Street. In the wake of the Jack Abramoff and Duke Cunningham prosecutions, the story went, lobbyists were now shifty-eyed, hunted creatures. Suddenly their every move was suspect. Even an innocent campaign contribution could be construed as a crime.

But, with the Republican Congress in power, the reforms never came. And all in all, 2006 was a banner year for lobbyists. According to Political Money Line, special interests spent nearly $2.6 billion on lobbying last year, $229 million more than 2005.

But now the reforms have come, courtesy of the Democratic Congress. And while it's unclear whether they will really change the culture of Washington, one thing is clear: they will make lobbying a lot less fun.

No gifts, no meals, no sports tickets, no trips from lobbyists are allowed anymore. And breaking that ban could land a lobbyist with up to five years in prison. Witness, courtesy of The New York Times, what a sad state this has put influence peddling in:

....[W]orse still for [veteran lobbyist H. Stewart Van Scoyoc], under the new law he is required to certify each quarter that none of the 50 lobbyists in his firm bought so much as a burger or cigar for someone on a lawmaker’s staff....

Another lobbyist recently scaled back the menu at a breakfast briefing for lawmakers, offering bagels and cream cheese instead of ham and eggs. The rules permit lobbyists to provide refreshment of “only nominal value.” The House ethics committee guidelines suggest “light appetizers and drinks, or soda and cookies,” a standard that is known as “the toothpick test.”....

Lobbyists complain that Congress is unfairly punishing them for the misdeeds of its own members, not to mention ruining the social lives of innocent and underpaid staff members.

“All those people who grew up in the system — who aren’t evil-doers, just good people — used to be able to entertain and have fun,” lamented Jim Ervin, a veteran military industry lobbyist.

No more sushi (a favorite of ex-Rep. Bob Ney's, a "sushiholic"), no more well-done filet mignon (Duke Cunningham's preference), not even ham and eggs. Bagels (and probably plain ones at that). How's a lobbyist supposed to get anything done?

Well, it's not so bleak, it turns out. While lobbyists are prevented from their more traditional avenues of access, they can still throw political fund-raisers -- in fact the new bill may have the perverse effect of increasing the importance of those events. And the requirements melt away when lawmakers and lobbyists find themselves side by side at “widely attended events” -- then the lawmakers can be made more comfortable.

Furthermore, all these requirements might serve to professionalize influence peddling even more, since corporations might be unsure of how to comply with the new laws. Rather than risk going to jail for buying a representative a cheeseburger, why not hire someone who knows the loopholes?

Even the "bundling" provision of the new bill, which will require that lawmakers disclose when lobbyists solicit and provide a group of individual contributions (as, for instance, from company executives), might not turn out to be a bad thing, the Times points out:

But lobbyists say the recognition may only encourage them to bundle. Ties to lawmakers are calling cards for clients.

“That is not going to be viewed as the mark of Cain or anything,” Lawrence O’Brien III, a Democratic lobbyist and fund-raiser, said dryly. “It could be perceived as bragging rights.”

But if there's one group for whom this bill is plainly good news, it's muckrakers. The bundling provision allows a journalist to keep tabs as to who's bragging about access to a lawmaker, and the earmark provisions make it much easier to follow an earmark from the lobbyist to the lawmaker:

A self-described “earmarks guy” who specializes in spending items, [James Dyer] said the new rules were an invitation to scandal hunters. For the first time, the law will require disclosure of both the lawmakers who sponsor such items and the campaign contributions of the lobbyists who seek them.

“It is a road map that says, ‘Hey, come look at me; I have got my name against an earmark,’ ” he said.

Update: Actually, as The Washington Post points out, it's unclear who will be supervising all these new filings. So we'll have to wait and see whether the new system of disclosure is what it's cracked up to be.

From NBC's Phoenix affiliate:

Former Republican Congressman J.D. Hayworth is confirming for 12 News that he is cooperating with a federal investigation involving former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Hayworth's new campaign finance report shows almost $170,000 in payments to a Washington law firm since his defeat last November by Democrat Harry Mitchell. Hayworth says the bills are connected to a Department of Justice request for 12 years worth of documents covering his legislative work with the Congressional Native American Caucus.

Hayworth said today, "I wanted to accommodate the request as soon as possible because I thought it was important to clear up questions. I've done nothing wrong, and I don't expect there to be any further action."

National Journal reported in April that prosecutors were making "new" inquiries into Hayworth's relationship with Jack Abramoff. Ex-Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT), who joined Hayworth in early retirement, has also been spending loads of old campaign dollars on his defense.

Hard times. From The Sacramento Bee:

Rep. John Doolittle's cachet with big Washington, D.C., campaign financiers seems to have plummeted in the aftermath of the FBI's April 13 raid on his Oakton, Va., house, and the eight-term Roseville Republican heads toward the 2008 election season with his campaign still in debt and receipts on the decline.

Meanwhile, the campaign of Democrat Charlie Brown, who came within 3 points of defeating Doolittle in November, is gaining steam. Brown's campaign raised almost twice as much as Doolittle's in the last three months and ended the six-month mark with a net cash balance of $251,000. Doolittle posted $32,250 in debts.

Doolittle's biggest expense during the three-month period was $50,000 in fundraising payments to Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, a company owned by his wife and operated out of the couple's house....

Even with the hefty campaign payments to Julie Doolittle's company, Sierra Dominion still was owed more than $76,000 in commissions from the 2006 race.

The Doolittle campaign's second largest expense was $30,000 to defense attorney David Barger's law office, bringing the campaign's attorney's fees for defending the congressman in the last year to more than $130,000.

Federal investigators are continuing on Rep. Tom Feeney's (R-FL) trail. The latest pin to drop -- the FBI has asked Florida Today for a video of an interview with Feeney. During the interview, from September of last year, Feeney minimized his relationship to Jack Abramoff to the vanishing point, saying that "“My office has never done anything for Jack Abramoff” and that "he’s never asked us for anything.” (The St. Petersburg Times later found a possible exception to that.)

“We didn’t have any relationship at all with him other than he gave us a contribution" was the kicker.

Feeney, of course, accompanied Abramoff on one of his infamous golf junkets to Scotland in 2003. Feeney was one among three lawmakers on the trip -- the other two were ex-Reps. Bob Ney (R-OH) and Tom DeLay (R-TX).

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From the Sacramento Bee:

Federal prosecutors have recently contacted as many as a half dozen former aides to Rep. John Doolittle, seeking information from them in their investigation of the Roseville Republican's association with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, The Bee has learned.

And so it continues:

California GOP Rep. John Doolittle's former legislative director said Wednesday he was recently contacted by federal investigators in their probe of Doolittle's ties to jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Pete Evich, Doolittle's legislative director from 1998 to 2002 and now a lobbyist, told The Associated Press that he plans to talk to the Justice Department.

Prosecutors had asked for only five months imprisonment, coupled with five months house arrest for Steven Griles, the former #2 at the Interior Department who's pled guilty to lying to Senate investigators about his relationship with Jack Abramoff.

A federal judge, apparently unconvinced that Griles had learned anything from the whole affair, today sentenced him to twice that. From the AP:

The Interior Department's former No. 2 official was sentenced to 10 months in prison Tuesday for lying to senators in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, the highest administration official sentenced in the probe....

"Even now you continue to minimize and try to excuse your conduct," [Judge Ellen] Huvelle told Griles.

Griles had asked for three months home confinement and community service in the form of pro bono lobbying.

Prosecutors want to send the former #2 at the Department of Interior J. Steven Griles to jail for five months, arguing that Griles' lies to Senate investigators threw investigators off the scent of his ties to Jack Abramoff and he ought to be punished for it.

But Griles' lawyer Barry Hartman responded yesterday, saying that while Griles admittedly lied (he pled guilty after all) about the extent of his ties to Abramoff, those lies didn't constitute a cover-up. If investigators had "actually asked a question about a particular subject," Hartman writes, Griles would have fessed up. Too bad investigators didn't know the right questions to ask.

Hartman also disputed prosecutors' comparison of Griles to Scooter Libby and David Safavian -- two former administration officials convicted for lying to investigators who got harsh sentences (2 1/2 years for Libby, 1 1/2 for Safavian):

"Mr. Libby was convicted after trial of multiple counts of obstruction of justice, making false statements, and perjury in a grand jury investigation related to a very serious issue of national security and covert operations in foreign countries. Mr. Griles' concealment of a personal relationship and how it led to his meeting and knowing Mr. Abramoff is hardly comparable.

Mr. Safavian's conduct was also far more egregious than Mr. Griles'...."

In other words, Griles' committed at most the third most egregious felony by an administration official.

Griles' lawyer has asked that Griles be sentenced to community service, well, that he be sentenced to do what he does best, and that is lobby -- though on behalf of supposedly noble causes.

His sentencing is set for Tuesday.

Yesterday, prosecutors made their case against Steven Griles, the former #2 at the Department of Interior who pled guilty in March to lying to Senate investigators about his relationship with Jack Abramoff. Prosecutors want a ten month sentence for Griles, split between prison and home detention.

Their sentencing memo extensively detailed how Griles was Abramoff's man in Interior, providing a constant stream of confidential information valuable to Abramoff's tribal clients. In return, Abramoff helped Griles' many lady friends: channelling $500,000 into Italia Federici's right-wing group, the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, and interviewing two others for possible jobs with Abramoff's lobbying firm (Griles, as we've noted before, is quite the lady's man). Abramoff also came close to hiring Griles himself. You can read The Washington Post's rundown of the sentencing memo here.

But my favorite part from the memo was this:

On September 24, 2003, Touchstone Pictures/Declaration Productions, Inc. was filming the 2004 motion picture "National Treasure" on the grounds of the United States Navy Memorial located in Washington, D.C. The Navy Memorial, built on Federal land and under the jurisdiction of the DOT National Park Service, was steps away from the entrance to Signatures. Abramoff was upset that the film crew and its trailers and equipment were blocking the valet parking area abutting his restaurant. Because the film crew had a valid permit, they ignored Abramoff's demands to move away from his restaurant.

Knowing that the Navy Memorial was built on Federal land, Abramoff telephoned defendant Griles. The defendant, in turn, contacted the Special Assistant to the Director of the National Park Service and asked the Government official to investigate Abramoff' s complaint. The National Park Service official went to the restaurant, spoke with both the manager of Signatures and a representative of the film crew, and directed the film crew to move their equipment away from the restaurant's valet parking area.

So who wins in a power showdown between Abramoff and Nick Cage (who starred in National Treasure)? In D.C., Abramoff would have won that battle every time.

The Hill has the story on former aide to the Interior Secretary Gale Norton:

The Hill has learned that Italia Federici, a one-time political aide to former Interior Secretary Gale Norton, has agreed to plead guilty to tax evasion and obstruction of Congress as part of the investigation into the lobbying activities of Jack Abramoff.

The Republican activist will be the second person with ties to Norton to plead guilty in the Abramoff investigation. Former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about his relationship to Abramoff and Federici. He is to be sentenced later this month.

Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) is marching forward with his “the-FBI-unfairly- raided-my-house” media campaign.

Doolittle, who is under scrutiny for his ties to Jack Abramoff, and has been hyping up his defense in the media recently, went on Tom Sullivan’s KFBK radio show yesterday to complain about being a victim of a political move by the Justice Department to produce another Abramoff-related indictment.

You can read the full transcript of the 40-minute interview here.

The Sacramento Bee noticed that during the interview Doolittle admits that the Justice Department approached him and his wife before the search with an apparent offer to plead guilty. But the Doolittles stood strong. And what did their courage win them? A search of their home.

Here’s that passage from the radio transcript:

And I think it's fair to ask, Well, why was this search conducted? And I would just point out to you a few weeks before the search occurred, our attorneys had a meeting with the government, and at that point, it became apparent to us that there is an attempt by the government to strongarm Julie in order to get me to admit to a crime that I did not commit. And in our mind, as a result of my refusing to admit to a crime that I did not commit, the government searched our home in what we believe was little more than an attempt to intimidate and pressure us.

...or to gather evidence?