WASHINGTON - Rep. John Doolittle's associations with some notorious scoundrels have him uniquely tied to both congressional bribery scandals that have sent other Republican lawmakers to jail.
Justice Department investigators are focusing on the California Republican's dealings with jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff, including $5,000 monthly checks from Abramoff to Doolittle's wife.
Then there's $37 million in federal funds Doolittle secured for a defense contractor accused of bribing now imprisoned ex-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Brent Wilkes, a benefactor of both Cunningham and Doolittle, is awaiting trial in San Diego on charges of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering.
There's no indication prosecutors are investigating Doolittle in connection with Wilkes or Cunningham, and the nine-term lawmaker may be guilty of nothing more than a poor choice of friends. But his favors for and from Abramoff leave him the only sitting member of Congress still under investigation in a scandal that netted a dozen convictions, including a guilty plea from now imprisoned former Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio.
"I'm the only one of the congressmen mentioned that hasn't retired or left and therefore the focus seems to be on me," Doolittle, 56, said recently on a talk radio show in Sacramento. "If you really want to get a congressman, I'm the one that's left."
In April the FBI raided the Doolittles' Oakton, Va., house with a search warrant for Julie Doolittle's home bookkeeping and fundraising business, which had done work for Abramoff. The congressman denied wrongdoing and blamed his woes on Justice Department leaks and politics. But he was forced to relinquish his seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee, where Cunningham was once one of his colleagues and where both did favors for Wilkes.............
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