Former DeLay aide pleads guilty in lobbyist fraud probe
By MARK SHERMAN
AP
WASHINGTON — A former top aide to Rep. Tom DeLay pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy and promised to cooperate with a federal investigation of bribery and lobbying fraud that has so far netted three convictions and prompted calls for ethics reform in Congress.
Tony Rudy, DeLay's former deputy chief of staff, admitted to conspiring with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff both while Rudy worked for DeLay and after he left the lawmaker's staff to become a lobbyist himself.
He faces up to five years in prison, but could receive much less based on the extent of his help with the investigation, U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle told Rudy at a court hearing in Washington.
As a top aide to DeLay in his role as House majority leader, Rudy took payments from Abramoff in 2000, then helped stop an Internet gambling bill opposed by Abramoff's clients, according to court papers.
Later, while working as a lobbyist, Rudy also was extensively involved in arranging a golf trip to Scotland for Rep. Bob Ney, described as Representative 1, and congressional staffers, the court papers said.
Rudy, who resigned as DeLay's deputy chief of staff in 2001, is the first person to plead guilty in the case since Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud charges in January. Michael Scanlon, a former DeLay press secretary who later became a lobbying partner with Abramoff, pleaded guilty in November to conspiring to bribe public officials...
get the rest of the story at http://www.statesman.com/news/content/gen/ap/Lobbyist_Fraud_Rudy.html
10 comments:
I think the Houston/Sugar Land voters who backed DeLay in the recent primaries should be forced to eat this article right out of their newspapers.
Maybe that way they'll finally digest the truth about their exterminator.
Yes, dear lark, they are all those things, but I hear Katherine Harris is just delightful and quite charming in person.
Thank you. Will you give me some money?
Hey..a new guy is running for Prez..Christopher Walken..
hes' not a friend of Tommyboy is he? :P
A second actor in the whitehouse..why not? wait..walken would be the third..the Shrub is an actor as well..albeit a bad one.
Christopher Walken is the actor who always plays psychos. In the movie Pulp Fiction, he played the returning soldier who carried that kid's father's watch in his anus all through the war so he could return it to the kid, who turned out to be the boxer, played by Bruce Willis.
He was also onboard the yacht the night Natalie Wood died.
I think he's also a blogger, but his blog was too weird for my taste.
I think he hasn't picked a party..if its a joke ala harriet miers blog..its well done.
I just hope Mr. Tony Rudy is one of many in a long line of politicians to circle the pipe and disappear from now through election day, and I really don't care anymore if a few Democratic politicians are swept up in it too (but I doubt many are). It's time for a little sunshine in D.C. gurls and watch 'em all run like roaches!
As far as actors/directors running for President, it's a damn shame that Divine kicked the bucket. She'd take no prisoners in the White House. Since she's dead, John Waters would be an o.k. substitute. Try to imagine a Waters presidency with Patty Hearst as Secretary of the Treasury and Traci Lord as Secretary of State. I guess that guy who used to stomp on people's feet in the movie could be Secretary of Defense or something. I'm ready for it! (Could it be any worse than what we have now?)
Hey, a lot of us in Texas are pushing for Kinky Friedman to be our next Governor.
What's not to like about a guy who called his band "Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys"?
His campaign slogan is: "How hard could it be?"
Classic.
penny...I gotta use that phrase..its great..run like roaches..both parties can kiss my ass lately..Feingold is the only person I have any respect for that is currently in office.
I do hope Kinky gets in there..it can't be any worse than the governator..actually he could a helluva lot better than anyone thinks..he ISN"T a politician..and therefore is used to telling it like it really is. Kinky is getting alot of support I hope KZ..
Kinky actually has a very good platform, filled with common sense initiatives.
Texas is starting to go down the tubes and we need someone with fresh ideas who isn't owned by special interest groups to bail us out.
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