Who's the Next Target in the Abramoff Probe?

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Court papers detail Ney's acknowledgment of exchanging official acts for benefits, including an August 2002 golf trip to Scotland, paid for by Abramoff and his clients. The junket, which included a White House procurement official as well as Ney's then chief of staff, cost in excess of $160,000, according to the papers.

Ney also asked for and received trips to Lake George, N.Y., and New Orleans as well food and drink costing thousands of dollars at Abramoff's swanky Washington restaurant, not to mention concert and sports tickets and thousands of dollars more in campaign contributions, the government said.

In return, Ney achnowleded in the plea, he took actions to benefit Abramoff clients. The Congressman also also admitted receiving gambling chips worth thousands of dollars from a foreign businessman.

"Congressman Ney and his co-conspirators engaged in a long-term pattern of defrauding the public of his unbiased, honest services as an elected official," Alice Fisher, assistant attorney general, said in a statement. "Congressman Ney admits that he corruptly solicited and accepted a stream of benefits, valued at tens of thousands of dollars, in exchange for agreement to perform, and performing, a series of official acts. He also admitted deceiving the public and the U.S. House of Representatives about his actions."

Ney occupied a special role as chairman of the committee with jurisdiction over internal workings of the 435-member House of Representatives. But G.O.P. Speaker Dennis Hastert demanded that Ney surrender his chairmanship earlier this year, and Ney then withdrew his candidacy for reelection in his Ohio district. This week, the Congressman's office indicated he had entered residential treatment for alcohol dependence. In a statement, he said, "I have made serious mistakes and am sorry for them. I am very sorry for the pain I have caused to my family, my constituents in Ohio and my colleagues."

FBI Assistant Director Chip Burrus, head of the Criminal Investigative Division, put the Ney plea deal in context, stressing that it is just part of a much wider federal crackdown on corruption. "The FBI is deeply committed to tackling corruption anywhere we find it—this is our promise to the American people, and corruption is the FBI's top criminal priority," he said. "We have more than 600 agents and dozens of analysts working more than 2200 investigations in all 56 field offices right now. Nationwide indictments are up 40 percent. In the past year alone, we have had over 950 arrests, 700 convictions, over 300 million dollars in restitution and over 15 million dollars in fines. The FBI participates in over 30 public corruption task forces and over 100 public corruption working groups." With that kind of tough talk, no one on Capitol Hill remotely linked to Abramoff will be breathing easy for quite some time.