posted on April 19, 2007 01:32:06 PM new
FBI Searches Congressman's Home
Rep. John Doolittle Temporarily Gives Up Committee Seat
By ERICA WERNER
AP
WASHINGTON (April 19) - Rep. John Doolittle has decided to temporarily give up his House Appropriations Committee seat after FBI agents searched his house in an influence-peddling investigation.
The decision by Doolittle , R-Calif., to be announced Thursday, was confirmed by two Republican congressional staffers who spoke on condition of anonymity because the news was not yet public.
The lawmaker's decision followed by a day the disclosure of the raid on his Oakton, Va., home last Friday. FBI agents had a search warrant for information connected with a fundraising business run by Doolittle 's wife, Julie, that had done work for convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
The search on the Doolittles' home came the same day that Kevin Ring, a former Doolittle aide who went on to work for Abramoff, abruptly resigned his law firm job without explanation.
Doolittle 's ties to Abramoff have been under investigation in the ongoing probe that already sent one former Republican congressman, Bob Ney of Ohio, to jail on a guilty plea to charges of conspiracy and making false statements.
Doolittle is a Northern California conservative and ally of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. He called Abramoff a friend and the two had numerous connections. Among them, Doolittle accepted tens of thousands of dollars in campaign cash from Abramoff and interceded on behalf of his Indian tribe clients.
Julie Doolittle 's company, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions Inc., was paid a near-monthly retainer by Abramoff's firm Greenberg Traurig from September 2002 to February 2004. She was hired to work on a March 2003 fundraiser at the Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., for an Abramoff outfit called the Capital Athletic Foundation, but the event was canceled after the invasion of Iraq .
Abramoff is cooperating with the government after pleading guilty in January 2006 to conspiracy, mail fraud and other charges, admitting to bilking his Indian tribe clients out of tens of millions of dollars with promises to influence the decisions of Congress and the Interior Department.
Julie Doolittle also worked for her husband's campaigns, an arrangement that was criticized during his re-election to a ninth term last year. Doolittle came dangerously close to losing to a Democratic political neophyte even though his district is among the most heavily Republican in California.
This year, Doolittle announced he'd be hiring an outside fundraiser. But he still owes his wife more than $126,000 in fundraising commissions from last year.
