Crooked Cop

There has been so little news on the Jack Abramoff investigation that I had pretty much forgotten about it. I guess I assumed that once a couple of congresscritters got disgraced and Abramoff himself got nailed the investigation was over. Clearly I was wrong. This AP article, published in today's Los Angeles Times, indicates that the investigation is ongoing and even includes the Justice Department itself as a target.

The Justice Department lost one of its own to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal Tuesday as a former high-ranking department attorney pleaded guilty to conflict of interest.

Robert E. Coughlin II admitted in federal court in Washington that he accepted meals, concert tickets and luxury seats at Redskins and Wizards games from a lobbyist while helping the lobbyist and his clients. He pleaded guilty to a single conflict-of-interest charge and faces up to 10 months in prison under a plea deal with the government. ...

Coughlin, 36, lives in Texas. He accepted the gifts from 2001 to 2003 while working on legislative affairs for the Justice Department. He later became deputy chief of staff of the department's criminal division -- the division handling the Abramoff probe -- before he resigned a year ago, citing personal reasons.

The lobbyist directly involved was not Jack Abramoff, but rather one of his lieutenants, Kevin Ring, who is still under investigation. Abramoff appears in the court papers as "Lobbyist B" and as Ring's hectoring boss, pressuring Ring to close the deal for one of his clients, the Choctaw Tribe.

What is so astounding is that Abramoff's corruption reached into the Justice Department itself. At the same time, what is so heartening is that there are still some in the Justice Department who take their jobs seriously enough to root out the corruption in their midst.