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Trial Is Expected to Bring New Scrutiny of Lawmaker
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By PHILIP SHENON
Published: May 30, 2006
WASHINGTON, May 29 — Testimony in the trial of a former White House budget aide accused of lying about his contacts with the lobbyist Jack Abramoff is expected to result in new scrutiny of Representative Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican caught up in the influence-peddling scandal centered on Mr. Abramoff.
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Mr. Ney's former chief of staff, Neil G. Volz, who has pleaded guilty to conspiring with Mr. Abramoff to give illegal gifts to Mr. Ney, has been called to testify this week at the trial of David H. Safavian, the White House aide. Mr. Volz is expected to describe how Mr. Abramoff organized a $130,000 golf trip to Scotland by private jet in August 2002 for a group that included Mr. Ney and three House aides.
Mr. Safavian, who was then a senior official at the General Services Administration, was also invited on the trip. He is accused of lying to investigators when he asserted in 2002 there was no conflict of interest in accepting the invitation from Mr. Abramoff.
Mr. Volz's testimony is scheduled to take place in the wake of several embarrassments for Mr. Ney, who is facing a difficult re-election fight this fall. These include the disclosure last week that his current chief of staff and another former House aide were resisting defense subpoenas and threatening to assert their Fifth Amendment rights against compelled self-incrimination if called to the stand in Mr. Safavian's trial.
Testimony at the trial last week focused on the lavishness of the travel arrangements for the 2002 golf trip, producing unwelcome attention for Mr. Ney in his home state, Ohio. The headline on an article about the trial in Saturday's Plain Dealer in Cleveland read: "Ney got flight on plush, private jet." The article noted that the jet chartered by Mr. Abramoff "came equipped with mahogany woodwork, plush seats, computers and a bar stocked with two bottles of red wine."
While Mr. Ney has insisted he is not guilty of wrongdoing, the Justice Department has repeatedly made clear that he is a focus of the criminal investigation of Mr. Abramoff's lobbying operations on Capitol Hill and may face indictment. The House ethics committee announced this month that it was opening an investigation of Mr. Ney's ties to Mr. Abramoff.
A spokesman for Mr. Ney, Brian Walsh, said the lawmaker had no comment on the decision by Mr. Ney's current chief of staff, William Heaton, and a former aide, Paul D. Vinovich, to resist subpoenas by asserting their Fifth Amendment rights. Both men joined Mr. Ney and Mr. Abramoff on the golfing trip. Mr. Walsh said Mr. Ney continued to cooperate with the Justice Department's investigation.
Mr. Vinovich, counsel to the House Administration Committee, which Mr. Ney led as chairman until earlier this year, did not return phone calls for comment. A lawyer for Mr. Heaton, John N. Nassikas III, also had no comment. A spokesman for the House Administration Committee, Jon Brandt, said he was unaware that Mr. Vinovich might have cited his Fifth Amendment rights.
Mr. Safavian, who resigned as head of procurement policy at the White House budget office only days before his arrest in September, is accused of lying to investigators when he sought permission to go on the 2002 golfing trip by insisting that Mr. Abramoff, a former lobbying partner, did not do business with the General Services Administration, which serves as the government's real estate manager.
In fact, prosecutors say, Mr. Abramoff was pressuring Mr. Safavian at the time of the trip to gather information about two government-owned real estate parcels that Mr. Abramoff wanted to acquire.
The disclosures about the subpoenas to Mr. Heaton and Mr. Vinovich, and their efforts to resist testifying, came in exchanges at Mr. Safavian's trial last week among the trial judge, Paul L. Friedman; prosecutors; and Mr. Safavian's lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder.
Ms. Van Gelder had said that defense witnesses she had subpoenaed were refusing to testify, citing their Fifth Amendment rights. The chief prosecutor, Peter Zeidenberg, then disclosed that Mr. Vinovich was among the potential witnesses who had a "Fifth Amendment" concern. |
