Rep. Doolittle’s House is Raided by FBI

By Scott Horton

The head of the FBI field office in San Diego announced that the sacking of Carol Lam was “all about politics.” Then he, too, was sacked. And that, quite certainly, was also all about politics. But just what was the politics that brought these two public servants down? We know that internal email communications suggest that the real reasons for Lam's sacking were too sensitive to put to paper. But it takes little imagination to know what that would have been. Lam had successfully prosecuted Rep. Duke Cunningham, a man one investigative reporter calls the “most corrupt congressman of all time.” Porter Goss's right-hand man at the CIA, Dusty Foggo, was also indicted, bringing Goss's tenure at the Company to an abrupt end. The investigation had stumbled over extremely suspicious contracts in the affair which came out of the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. And Lam was known to be investigating two other California Republican congressmen in the thick of the Abramoff scandal: Jerry Lewis and John Doolittle.

Now it is revealed that FBI agents raided the Northern Virginia home of John Doolittle on Friday. Cunningham, Lewis and Doolittle were powerful figures in the House Republican leadership, with close ties to and interests in the defense industry. The Hill reports:

The FBI searched the Virginia home of Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) last Friday in its investigation into ties between the congressman and his wife, Julie, and disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to law enforcement and other Congressional and K Street sources.

The search took place on the same day that his former chief of staff, Kevin Ring, abruptly resigned from his lobbying firm. Ring left Doolittle's office to work for Abramoff at the law firm Greenberg Traurig and may have played a role in Abramoff's decision to hire Julie Doolittle's consulting firm. After the Abramoff scandal broke, Ring went to work for the lobbying firm Barnes and Thornburg.

Josh Micah Marshall's Talking Points Memo has a good background summary for the case, and offers analysis of Doolittle's current posture. In sum, it looks like he decided to throw his own wife under the bus, but this won't save him.

As this story unfolds, keep in mind that two serious professionals of unquestioned competence were fired for pursuing these matters. The wheels of justice grind on as they should. But if they are suddenly brought to a stop or the case is closed with a slap on the wrist—be sure to test the air carefully.