Ex-Justice official charged in corruption inquiry

The Justice Department’s corruption probe into the far-flung dealings of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff has ensnared one of its own.

Robert E. Coughlin II was charged in federal court Monday with violating federal conflict-of-interest laws by aiding a lobbyist and an unnamed lobbying firm -- believed to be Abramoff’s -- while serving in the department’s office of legislative affairs between 2001 and 2003.

According to the document filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Coughlin allegedly received “a stream of things of value” from the lobbyist. No details were immediately available on what those “things of value” were. Coughlin, now 36, is expected to plead guilty this afternoon before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle.

The case is an embarrassment to the Justice Department: In 2005, Coughlin became deputy chief of staff to the head of the department’s criminal division -- the unit chiefly responsible for overseeing the wide-ranging probe of Abramoff, which has led to the conviction of a dozen people, including administration officials, congressional staffers and a member of Congress, on a variety of corruption charges.

In 2006, he was among a group of Justice Department employees honored with the “Attorney General’s Award for Fraud Prevention” by then-Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales for their work investigating and prosecuting fraud-related cases after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Citing personal reasons, Coughlin resigned from the Justice Department in April 2007.

Because of Coughlin’s ties to senior officials at Justice Department headquarters, the case against him was handled by a special prosecutor at the U.S. attorney’s office in Baltimore. The probe was headed up by Stuart Goldberg, formerly a top official in the department’s public integrity unit.

Justice Department officials declined to comment on the court filing, known as an information, or on today’s scheduled hearing. Coughlin’s lawyer, Joshua Berman of Washington, also declined to comment.

Investigators have been focusing on the relationship between Coughlin and Kevin Ring, a onetime Abramoff lieutenant who had once worked for Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Roseville).

Coughlin and Ring came to know one another in the late 1990s as aides to John Ashcroft when Ashcroft was a U.S. senator from Missouri. After Ashcroft became attorney general in 2001, Coughlin followed him to the Justice Department. Ring joined Greenberg Traurig, a Washington law and lobbying firm where Abramoff was a top lobbyist.

Abramoff and his team raked in millions of dollars, in part by selling their connections in Washington to Native American groups trying to gain influence in the capital. To aid their efforts, they lavished European vacations, private-box tickets to sporting events, expensive meals and other items on administration officials, legislators and members of their staffs.

Among other things, investigators have examined Ring’s lobbying of Coughlin on behalf of tribal projects. While Coughlin was at the Justice Department, Ring reportedly got the department to free up millions of dollars in funding for a new jail for the Choctaw tribe, even though the tribe was wealthy and some officials thought the money could be better spent elsewhere.

Abramoff pleaded guilty to corruption and other charges in 2006 and was sentenced to six years in prison. He has been cooperating with investigators. Any plea deal that Coughlin might strike would probably require his cooperation with the government’s ongoing probe.

A lawyer for Ring declined to comment on Coughlin’s expected plea deal.

From 1993 to 1997, Ring worked for Doolittle, who has come under scrutiny for his own ties to Abramoff. Last April, the FBI raided the northern Virginia home consulting business owned by Doolittle’s wife, Julie. Abramoff hired her firm to raise funds for a charity he founded.

--

rick.schmitt@latimes.com