Another ‘Victim’ of the Abramoff Probe

A Justice Department official has been convicted on “a single conflict-of-interest charge” for accepting “meals, concert tickets and luxury seats at Redskins and Wizards games from a lobbyist while helping the lobbyist and his clients.”

Conflict of interest? Sounds like bribery to me, but it was a plea deal.

The lobbyist is Kevin Ring, who worked for Jack Abramoff and who also is under investigation.

Coughlin … 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 same division handling the Abramoff probe – before he resigned a year ago, citing personal reasons.

This isn’t the end of the story:

As part of his plea, Coughlin agreed to cooperate in the ongoing investigation. He has already offered substantial information about Ring’s behavior, based on details in court papers, and the papers also refer to at least two other unnamed Justice Department officials who ate out on Ring’s dime.
 

[...]
 

Coughlin’s cooperation is expected to be ongoing and [Judge] Huvelle did not set a sentencing date.