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.

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.

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.

Another wrinkle in the story of ex-Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), who's currently a guest of the Bureau of Prisons in rustic West Virginia. Ney, of course, pleaded guilty last year to accepting bribes from Jack Abramoff.

It turns out that investigators built their case with the help of Ney's very young chief of staff, Will Heaton, who recorded phone conversations with Ney, even wearing a wire during a 2 1/2-hour meeting. The revelation came in a court filing earlier this week. Heaton, who's pleaded guilty to corruption charges, will be sentenced next month, and prosecutors are arguing for a lenient sentence for the staffer, given the help he was in bringing down his boss.

Ex-Rep Bob Ney (R-OH) heads to prison today, where he'll spend the next thirty months. But before he disappears behind the gates of rustic FCI Morgantown, Ney sent an email out to friends and family, waxing philosophical on his fate. It was a touching send off from the man who accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.

The email:

hello,

i will not have access to e mail so this will be my last for awhile. i wanted to drop you a short e mail to give you my address:

robert ney
inmate number 28882-016
fci morgantown
446 greenbag road
route 857
morgantown, west virginia 26501

i also wanted to thank you for all you have done for me and my family. your kind words, thoughts, and prayers throughout the last six months have helped all of us quite a lot.

someone asked me the other day, if i wish i had never ran for office. i answered that i am glad that i did. nothing can erase the wonderful memories, thoughts, constituents, and changes that we, working together with the republicans and democrats, have been able to do. working to bring jobs to the district, helping constituents with issues, and trying to change law to help people has been the greatest memory ever.

would i change things if i could, sure. am i sorry for things that happened, absolutely, and i will pay the price. but, i am grateful for many good people in our office that helped the district and grateful for a free nation, the men and women that protect it, and a wonderful constituency in the district that i used to serve.

my family and i have lost everything on an economical basis, house, health care, possesions, but so have other people, people in the district, many, have lost all. and yes , that is painful for anyone that has gone through it, but, i am so fortunate to have my wife and children, we are so rich with family, friends like you, loved ones that are there for us, and full of hope for a good future.

the darkest days are not ahead, i have gained a higher power, the god of my understanding, is with all of us and that allows me to view tomorrow, although as a day of loss of freedom, as a day of enlightenment and of life to come.

as garth brooks said in his song the dance:

and now i'm glad i didn't know
the way it all would end, the way it all would go
our lives are better left to chance,
i could have missed the pain,
but i'd have had to miss, the dance

my family and my life is starting new, thanks for being part of it.

god bless,

bob ney

Note: Just for fun, compare and contrast the letter-writing styles of ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA) and Bob Ney.

Update: On a more serious note, don't miss the latest from The Washington Post today on the Walter Reed scandal: "Top officials at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, including the Army's surgeon general, have heard complaints about outpatient neglect from family members, veterans groups and members of Congress for more than three years."

I just read through the charging documents against Will Heaton, ex-Rep. Bob Ney's (R-OH) former chief of staff who pled guilty today, and they contain a couple precious details about how it was being Ney's right hand man for four years.

As I noted before, Heaton admitted to accepting bribes (the actual charge was conspiracy to commit honest services mail and wire fraud) from Jack Abramoff and others. The bribes included trips to Scotland, New Orleans, among others, tickets to sporting events, and drinks and meals at Abramoff's restaurant Signatures, among other things. In exchange, Heaton helped Ney help Abramoff's clients.

Which brings me to the precious details. The first comes from what's called the Information, a filing that lays out the prosecutors' case against Heaton (you can read it here). In the document, prosecutors show how Ney kept his congressional staff in line:

Ney controlled the receipt of things of value by his personal office staff and the House Administration Committee staff as a way to reward and punish staff by approving their receipt of things of value or by taking things of value and redistributing them to others.

In other words, if you weren't on Ney's good list, you didn't get goodies from the lobbyists courting him.

And there's yet another unforgettable detail in the charging documents.

Read more »

Today, ex-Rep. Bob Ney's (R-OH) former chief of staff pled guilty to corruption charges related to the Jack Abramoff scandal, making Will Heaton the second of Ney's chiefs of staff to do so. The first one, Neil Volz, continues to cooperate with prosecutors.

We'll have the court documents up soon, but the AP has the basics of what he admitted to:

According to federal court documents filed Monday, Heaton's conspiracy charge involves that trip and others. Prosecutors say he also helped Ney solicit and conceal gifts given by lobbyists.

"Heaton and Ney solicited and accepted a stream of things of value from Abramoff and his lobbyists, including overseas and domestic trips, meals and drinks, golf, tickets to professional sporting events and concerts, and monetary and in-kind campaign contributions from Abramoff," prosecutors wrote.

Heaton, who went to work for Ney in 2001 (ultimately succeeding Volz, who went off to join Abramoff), is 28 years old. More soon.

Update: Here is the "Information" filed by prosecutors, detailing the charges against Heaton.

If that don't beat all.

Facing federal indictment last August, then-Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) shut down his re-election campaign. (He confessed his guilt a month later.) He fired all of his staffers -- but one: his better half, Elizabeth.

That's right -- from August to Dec. 31, 2006, Elizabeth has been the campaign's sole paid employee, bringing in about $1,700 a month, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

Who's to say she hasn't earned it?

With a federal judge's order to serve 30 months in a minimum security prison, former Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) has received the longest sentence to date in the Jack Abramoff scandal.

He doesn't face much competition -- yet. Only one other figure has been sent to do time, former White House official David Safavian. He was sentenced to 18 months for four counts relating to obstructing the Abramoff investigation. (He's currently living at home, pending appeals.) Roger Stillwell, a former Interior Department official, was recently sentenced to 24 months' probation for accepting illegal gifts from Abramoff.

Of course, Ney won't hold the record for long. When Abramoff and his key co-consipirators are sentenced, they will likely receive several years apiece. Their sentencings have been delayed because they have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

When he's told them everything, prosecutors are expected to recommend a sentence of between 9 1/2 and 11 years for the disgraced GOP superlobbyist himself. Abramoff business partner and confidante Michael Scanlon faces five years in prison and millions in fines once he tells all; former lobbyist (and onetime Ney chief of staff) Neil Volz could also face five years, though he'll likely get far less. Tony Rudy, another former Abramoff associate, will likely face a sentence of two to two-and-a-half years, depending on his cooperation.

A judge has just sentenced Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) to 30 months. Prosecutors had recommended a 29 month sentence.

According to Fox News, the judge is sending him to a federal prison in Morgantown, West Virginia.

More soon.

Update: From the AP:

When he is released, the judge said, Ney will serve another two years on probation and pay a $6,000 fine. She also ordered him into a prison alcohol rehabilitation program for treatment of a drinking problem he has acknowledged in recent months.

The sentence was harsher than recommended by prosecutors or Ney's lawyers, Huvelle said, because Ney had violated the trust place on him as a public official. "Both your constituents and the public trusted you to represent them honestly," she said.

Journalist Ellen Ratner, writing on Rep. Bob Ney's (R-OH) behalf to the judge who will sentence him, reports on her conversations with the "many" lawmakers who "would like to support former Congressman Ney, but because of the political climate in Washington, they dare not."

One jewel in particular (read the full letter here):

One of the members I spoke with told me how much then-Congressmen Ney had cared, and how other members of Congress had done far worse things. That member told me that those members are getting off with fines and so forth, but Congressman Ney did not act in lockstep. His voting in congress angered the powers that be in the majority, and he is paying for it unfairly. [Her emphasis]

Hard to know where to start here. But I'll settle with the image of Ney stuffing his pockets with gambling chips in a London casino, a bribe from a Syrian businessman known as "The Fat Man."

From The Plain Dealer:

Attorneys for former Ohio GOP Rep. Bob Ney today submitted 95 pages of letters from Ney's friends, family, and former staffers urging leniency for the disgraced congressman and citing the role of alcohol in his fall.

Ney's lawyer, Mark Tuohey, submitted the letters to make the case that Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle should send Ney to a residential drug abuse treatment program when she sentences him tomorrow on charges of conspiracy and making false statements.

"Bob was a functioning alcoholic who could rarely make it through the day without drinking and would often begin drinking beers as early as 7:30 a.m.," said a letter from his former staffer and campaign manager Matthew Parker.

Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), who accepted a host of bribes from lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has said before that drink made him do it.

Now his lawyer, in a request to the judge for lenience, repeated that again yesterday, and requested that "the Court specifically find that Mr. Ney’s alcohol addiction contributed to the conduct he has admitted." His lawyer added that "Mr. Ney would benefit from participation in the Residential Drug Abuse Program offered by the Bureau of Prisons during any term of imprisonment." (You can read the entire filing here.)

As Justin pointed out before, the residential program would remove Ney from the general inmate population and may ultimately reduce his sentence by up to a year. Prosecutors have recommended 29 months in prison for Ney. His sentencing will take place January 19th.

A friend in need is a friend indeed. So if you're buddies with Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), now's the time to show it.

Ney, who pled guilty to bribery charges last month, is scheduled to receive his sentence January 19th. The prosecutors have recommended he serve 27 months of not-so-hard time. Like Jack Abramoff, he would likely serve it in a minimum security prison.

But Ney's lawyers want as much leniency as possible so they've written to Ney's friends and colleagues, asking them to write to the judge about "your feelings about Bob’s character, his work for his constituents in Ohio, his work on national issues, his integrity, his dedication to public service, and anything else that you think will give the judge a full understanding of who Bob is and the work he has done.”

Letters like these can indeed help at a sentencing -- but so does taking responsibility for your crime, which Ney (like former administration official David Safavian, who was also convicted of charges related to the Abramoff investigation) has shown no indication of doing.

Lo, how the mighty have fallen.

From this morning's Wheeling (WV) Intelligencer:

The Robert W. Ney Center soon could be renamed “The Ohio University Eastern Health and Physical Education Center.” That is the suggestion of the OUE Regional Coordinating Council, which met late Monday afternoon at Shannon Hall. . . .

Belmont County Western Division Court Judge Harry W. White — chairman of the council — delivered a statement indicating that while OUE officials appreciated Ney’s support leading to the construction of the facility, they would recommend that his name be removed from the OUE athletic complex.

CQ reporting:

Rep. Bob Ney, 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.” . . .

“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.”

As we noted back in mid-October after Ney pled guilty, he just needed to hang around Congress until November 1st to get his last paycheck of $13,000.

A few weeks ago, when Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) first acknowledged breaking the law, he blamed his alcoholism and skedaddled to a rehab facility.

More than a few readers cried foul. For one thing, who knew this guy was a lush? they asked. (We checked, and the answer was "a lot," at least among Capitol Hill denizens.)

A smaller number of readers thought this rehab gambit was a way to trim his eventual jail sentence. When at Ney's guilty pleading yesterday his lawyer, Mark Tuohey, specifically asked the judge that Ney be considered for a treatment program while incarcerated, I began to wonder if they were right.

So I checked the Bureau of Prisons Web site, and guess what? It looks like our readers were onto something.

"Non-violent inmates who are diagnosed with a substance use disorder may be eligible for up to a year off his/her sentence," the site says. And in certain prisons, inmates with substance abuse problems can be placed in a separate residential treatment program which keeps them apart from the general inmate population.

That's a good lawyer you've got there, Bob.

The House Republican leadership released a statement today saying that if Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) doesn't resign by the time Congress reconvenes after the election, then they will "move to expel him immediately."

But Bob's taking his time. His lawyer said this morning he won't be stepping down for a "few weeks," because he's got some housekeeping to do.

That "housekeeping" may include picking up a final Congressional paycheck: As Roll Call points out, "House employees get paid on the first of every month, so if Ney remains in his seat until at least Nov. 1, he will receive one final paycheck of more than $13,000."

As if to emphasize that he still feels very much a part of Congress, it appears that Ney wore his Congressional lapel pin to his plea hearing. The pin is what members use to identify themselves to Capitol Police.

So Bob Ney says, "I never acted to enrich myself or to get things I shouldn’t, but over time, I allowed myself get too comfortable with the way things have been done in Washington, D.C. for too long."

Never? On the score of trying to "enrich [himself]" and "get things [he] shouldn't," I think Ney's acceptance of "thousands of dollars worth of gambling chips" from Syrian-born businessman and notorious gambling man Fouad "The Fat Man" al-Zayat might qualify. In his guilty plea, Ney admitted to accepting the chips for a couple high-flying nights in a London casino. With Zayat's help, Ney walked away with "more than $50,000."

Because Ney wanted more money than he was willing to publicly declare when he re-entered the country, he had one of his staffers tell U.S. Customs that $5,000 of it was his -- Ney then re-collected the money once they were safely back in the country.

In return for Zayat's generosity, Ney helped Zayat get a U.S. travel visa. And since Zayat had a company that was seeking to sell U.S.-made airplanes and airplane parts to Iran, Ney also tried to get an exemption to U.S. laws that ban the sale of such parts to Iran.

I guess that's what Ney means by getting "too comfortable with the way things have been done in Washington?"

In a statement issued after his guilty plea today, Bob Ney said that he was "[accepting] responsibility," but then explained, "I never acted to enrich myself or to get things I shouldn’t, but over time, I allowed myself get too comfortable with the way things have been done in Washington, D.C. for too long."

He also seemed to indicate that he wasn't a totally willing participant in Jack Abramoff's "schemes," saying "I accepted things I shouldn’t have with the result that Jack Abramoff used my name to advance his own secret schemes of fraud and theft in ways I could never have imagined."

Full statement below the jump...

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Rep. Bob Ney's lawyer Mark Tuohey said in court this morning during his guilty plea hearing that Ney will not be resigning from Congress immediately -- but rather "in the next few weeks."

Tuohey said the delay came because Ney had some “constituent issues he wanted to tie up” and also wanted to ease the transition for his congressional staff. Tuohey didn't offer a specific date. Ney himself did not speak during the hearing, except to say "Yes" or "No," or "I plead guilty, your honor."

The judge set Ney's sentencing for January 19th. Ney faces a maximum of ten years, but prosecutors have said that they'll recommend a sentence of 27 months.

Tuohey also asked that Ney be considered for alcohol treatment while in prison. Ney's been in an alcohol rehab facility since he pled guilty September 15.

"Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) will formally resign from the House today, according to two House GOP sources," Roll Call reports.

The speculation has been that he would resign today, in a bid to convince the judge how very sorry he is for his crimes (or maybe he did get the hint). Justin will have more later from the scene at the courthouse.