Month: November 2009

Figure in Abramoff scandal gets 1 month in halfway house, fine, and community service

Under the Influence reports that former DOJ official Robert Coughlin was sentenced today. Before arriving at the sentence, the government and Coughlin disagreed over the value of the tickets given to him by Ring, with prosecutors saying they were worth more than $5,000 and Coughlin saying the value was under $5,000. Huvelle ruled that the […]

The Office of Congressional Ethics bites back against House Ethics Committee in sharply-worded response

A controversy surrounding the Office of Congressional Ethics’ treatment of a matter involving Rep. Sam Graves has generated this sharply-worded response from OCE. In conclusion, the Board [of OCE] believes the interests of the House and the public will be better served if both the SOOC and the OCE each focus on their own internal […]