Posted By: Mark Thatcher
By CQ StaffFri Nov 3, 4:34 PM ET
Written for CQ by Martin Kady II.
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Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), facing certain expulsion from the House after being convicted of two felonies in relation to the Jack Abramoff scandal, said on Friday he will resign by the end of the day.
Ney, who pleaded guilty Oct. 13 to making false statements and conspiracy to commit fraud, is the first member of Congress to be convicted as part of the wide-ranging Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.
Ney, in a call to Congressional Quarterly, said “I’ll be resigning today, approximately 4 or 4:30 p.m. I’ll be submitting my letter to the Speaker of the House.”
Ney’s resignation comes just four days before a midterm election in which several GOP members of Congress are dogged by various scandals. Ney had come under fire from leaders in both parties, and House Republican leaders had threatened to expel him if he returned to the House for the lame-duck session that begins Nov. 13.
Ney's troubles have hurt especially hurt Republican hopes of retaining his seat in Ohio's 18th District, where Democrat municipal attorney Zack Space has at least a slight edge over Republican state Sen. Joy Padgett, who won a special election to replace Ney on the ballot after he announced he would not seek re-election (story).
While Democrats and some Republicans wanted Ney to resign immediately, he said in a statement shortly after he pleaded guilty last month that he wanted to remain a member of Congress for a few weeks so he could take care of his staff and close up his office. While he carried out these final duties, Ney took home a congressional paycheck of more than $3,100 a week.
“I have completed the loose ends — the audit came back, the boxes are shipped out,” Ney said. “I’m done with everything I wanted to complete.”
Ney, who recently emerged from a monthlong stint for alcohol rehabilitation will be sentenced in January, and faces up to 27 months in jail and $500,000 in fines when he is sentenced Jan. 19.
Ney’s corruption case was detailed in Justice Department documents released in September, and they revealed a five-year association with Abramoff that included taking trips to Scotland, luxury sports suite tickets and gambling chips from a foreign businessman.
In return for these favors, Ney tried to give Abramoff clients favorable treatment.
In the plea document, Ney says he accepted free trips, including a $160,000 excursion to play golf in Scotland in 2002; a $7,200 gambling vacation in New Orleans in 2003; and a $3,500 vacation in Lake George, N.Y., that same year, with lobbyists picking up the tab in each case.
Ney also accepted thousands in gambling chips at a British casino. He had a staffer carry $5,000 in cash through U.S. Customs so he wouldn’t have to report tens of thousands in winnings from the casino.
Ney has admitted to inserting favorable statements into the Congressional Record that backed Abramoff’s business ventures. In another instance, Ney agreed to insert an amendment into a voting overhaul bill that would allow a liquor distiller — an Abramoff client — based in a former Soviet republic to label its liquor as “Made in Russia.”
Ney’s Friday afternoon departure, before his party faces its most tenuous midterm election in years, closes a major chapter in the Abramoff case. Justice officials, however, have only indicated that the probe is ongoing but will not say if any other members of Congress will be implicated.
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