Lobbying Probe Looks at Payments To DeLay's Wife

By BRODY MULLINS

09/06/06 "Wall Street Journal" -- Page A8 --- WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department's congressional lobbying-and-bribery investigation is looking into whether former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's wife received money from a lobbying firm for a no-show job, recent FBI interviews indicate.

The two-year investigation is examining whether lobbyist Jack Abramoff and others sought legislative favors for their clients by offering expensive meals, sports tickets, golf outings and other gifts to about a dozen lawmakers and congressional aides.


In the last few weeks, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have interviewed several people at the Alexander Strategy Group lobbying firm to determine if Christine DeLay was being paid $3,200 a month -- a total of $115,000 over three years -- but not earning it. In a series of interviews last month, investigators questioned people who used to work at Alexander Strategy as well as people who worked in the same building as the now-defunct firm. "They wanted to know how often she came to the office? What did she do there? How long was she there?" said one person who was interviewed by the FBI.

Alexander Strategy was run by a pair of Mr. DeLay's former aides: Tony Rudy, who pleaded guilty to bribery charges in March; and Edwin Buckham, who remains under investigation. The firm also shared clients with Jack Abramoff.

In last month's interviews, investigators also asked about $144,000 that Mrs. DeLay received from one of Mr. DeLay's fund-raising committees, the Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee, which was housed at the lobbying firm's offices. Investigators also inquired about fees paid to Mr. DeLay's daughter, Dani DeLay Ferro, a longtime political consultant to her father.

Richard Cullen, a lawyer for the DeLay family, said Mrs. DeLay was a "key adviser to her husband and her employment at Armpac and Alexander Strategy was real and valuable." Mr. Cullen has said that Mrs. DeLay's job at the firm was to compile a list of lawmakers' favorite charities. Neither Mr. DeLay nor his wife has been interviewed by the Justice Department, Mr. Cullen said.

He also said that prosecutors haven't made the DeLays a "target" of their investigation. The Justice Department generally doesn't consider someone a target until it is close to issuing indictments.

The latest round of FBI questioning signals that the Justice Department doesn't plan on letting up on Mr. DeLay now that he has left Congress. They also show that prosecutors might target his wife in order to force a guilty plea from Mr. DeLay.

Federal prosecutors used that tactic earlier this year to secure a guilty plea from Mr. Rudy, who admitted in March to accepting bribes when he worked for Mr. DeLay and later conspiring to bribe other lawmakers when he was a lobbyist. As part of the plea deal, Mr. Rudy told prosecutors that he sabotaged an Internet-gambling bill on Capitol Hill in exchange for $50,000 in payments to his wife. In return for his cooperation, federal prosecutors agreed to give Mr. Rudy a lighter sentence and not to prosecute his wife.

Mr. DeLay was indicted in Texas last fall on unrelated charges concerning his role in the 2002 election there. The combination of the Texas and Washington investigations forced Mr. DeLay to step down from his job as majority leader and announce that he wouldn't run for re-election to his House seat this fall.

The federal investigation has already netted guilty pleas from a number of former confidants of Mr. DeLay, in addition to Mr. Rudy. Mr. Abramoff, a top fund-raiser and adviser to Mr. DeLay, pleaded guilty in January to charges that he tried to bribe lawmakers. DeLay aide Michael Scanlon pleaded guilty to similar charges.

Neil Volz, a former chief of staff to Rep. Bob Ney (R., Ohio), pleaded guilty to trying to bribe Mr. Ney when he was a lobbyist working for Mr. Abramoff. Soon after, Mr. Ney announced that he wouldn't seek re-election. David Safavian, another former lobbyist at Mr. Abramoff's firm, was found guilty in June of lying and obstructing justice in the federal corruption investigation.

Write to Brody Mullins at brody.mullins@wsj.com

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