UNITED STATES: In a fresh blow to Republican hopes of retaining control of Congress next month, Ohio congressman Bob Ney faces more than three years in prison after pleading guilty to accepting bribes from lobbyists. Ney admitted taking money, gifts and favours in return for official actions on behalf of clients of disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Ney is not seeking re-election next month but his conviction could reinforce popular hostility to the Republican-controlled Congress, following the scandal surrounding Florida congressman Mark Foley's lewd Internet exchanges with teenage boys.
Mr Ney is the first congressman to plead guilty as a result of an investigation into Mr Abramoff's influence peddling but the probe has elicited guilty pleas from two former aides to former house majority leader Tom De Lay.
"I never acted to enrich myself or to get things I shouldn't, but over time I allowed myself to get too comfortable with the way things have been done in Washington DC for too long.
"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," Ney said in a statement after yesterday's hearing.
The congressman is currently undergoing treatment for alcohol abuse and his lawyer asked the judge to send Ney to a prison with an alcohol treatment facility.
Republican leaders issued a statement condemning Ney and expelling him from the party caucus in the House of Representatives.
"Bob Ney must be punished for the criminal actions he has acknowledged. He betrayed his oath of office and violated the trust of those he represented in the House. There is no place for him in this Congress. If he chooses not to resign his office, we will move to expel him immediately as our first order of business when Congress resumes its legislative work in November," they said.
Ney admitted accepting trips, meals, drinks, tickets to sporting events and concerts and gambling chips at London casinos. In exchange, he supported or opposed legislation or contacted government agencies at Mr Abramoff's request.
The Abramoff scandal also has reached into the White House, with the conviction of former Bush administration official David Safavian and last week's resignation of Susan Ralston, an aide to presidential adviser Karl Rove.
Ney's guilty plea came as the House ethics committee continued its investigation into Mr Foley's email exchanges with teenage congressional pages, interviewing Republican congressman John Shimkus, chairman of the page board.
Mr Shimkus has said former house clerk Jeff Trandahl came to him a year ago to complain about e-mails from Foley to a teenage former page from Louisiana.
The committee spent four hours on Thursday interviewing Mr Foley's former chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, who claims he warned about Mr Foley's activities three years ago.
- (Additional reporting: Reuters)