Ex-official guilty in conflict case

The Justice Department lost one of its own to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal Tuesday as a former high-ranking department attorney pleaded guilty to conflict of interest.

Robert E. Coughlin II admitted in federal court in Washington that he accepted meals, concert tickets and luxury seats at Redskins and Wizards games from a lobbyist while helping the lobbyist and his clients. He pleaded guilty to a single conflict-of-interest charge and faces up to 10 months in prison under a plea deal with the government.

The lobbyist is identified in court documents only as “Lobbyist A,” but details make it clear that he is Kevin Ring, a former member of Abramoff’s lobbying team who also is under investigation.

Ring was a friend of Coughlin’s and lobbied him on issues mentioned in the court papers, including money for a jail for the Choctaw tribe, the Associated Press has reported. Coughlin obliged with insider tips, running interference with colleagues, and other help, the court papers said.

Abramoff, the disgraced GOP lobbyist, appears in the documents as “Lobbyist B,” but plays mostly a bit part as Ring’s demanding boss, pressuring him for action on the Choctaw jail and other issues. The court papers say Coughlin “never had a substantive conversation with Lobbyist B.”

Coughlin, 36, lives in Texas. He 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 division handling the Abramoff probe -- before he resigned a year ago, citing personal reasons.