Ney's Chief of Staff Wore Wire, Was Key To Boss's Conviction
    By James V. Grimaldi
    The Washington Post

    Monday 13 August 2007

    When Will Heaton went to work for Rep. Robert W. Ney in 2001, he was 23 years old and still in awe of the members of Congress he had come to know years earlier as a congressional page. Within six months, the Ohio Republican promoted the fresh-faced neophyte to be the youngest chief of staff in Congress.

    For the next five years, Heaton stuck by Ney, even as the House Administration Committee chairman accepted free meals at super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's downtown restaurant, sports tickets in his arena skyboxes and luxurious junkets around the world. Heaton accompanied Ney on a golf junket to Scotland with Abramoff, and he helped Ney return the favors to Abramoff.

    But as Ney's political career disintegrated amid revelations of his ties to Abramoff, Heaton became disillusioned and began secretly helping an FBI task force investigating Abramoff. At first, through his attorney, Heaton handed over internal documents from Ney's office to the FBI. Then he recorded colleagues in Ney's office.

    Last summer, Heaton began secretly recording his conversations with the six-term congressman, according to documents filed in court last week by the government and Heaton's lawyers. Heaton taped numerous phone calls and wore a hidden wire to a 2 1/2 -hour, face-to-face meeting with Ney that provided "exceptionally important" help to the FBI's investigation of Abramoff.

    Heaton's cooperation was crucial because of constitutional obstacles involved in prosecuting a member of Congress, according to a memo by Justice Department attorney Mary Butler.

    A congressional aide choosing to wear a wire on his boss is a Washington rarity, according to legal experts - especially for an aide such as Heaton, whose entire career was spent working in Congress, mostly for Ney.

    "The moment I walked into my first meeting with the Justice Department, a huge weight was lifted off my chest," Heaton wrote in an Aug. 1 letter to U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle, who is scheduled to sentence him on Thursday. Dreading the role of "tattletale on the playground," Heaton wrote, "I chose to let these grossly unprofessional and immoral actions slide for the sake of acceptance amongst my professional peers. For that, I am ashamed and deeply sorry."

    Ney is serving a 30-month sentence in federal prison in Morgantown, W.Va., for performing official acts for Abramoff's lobbying clients between 2001 and 2004 in exchange for luxury vacation trips, sporting tickets, campaign contributions, expensive meals and thousands of dollars in gambling chips.

    Heaton pleaded guilty in February to conspiring with Ney and Abramoff in the corruption scheme and is seeking leniency because of his cooperation. Heaton's lawyers filed a joint request with the government last week asking Huvelle to sentence him to home detention.

    His decision to secretly turn on Ney last year was a major break in the case, government lawyers said. Heaton not only recorded Ney but also provided internal documents that prosecutors had been "unable to obtain from any other source."

    Heaton recorded most of his conversations with Ney during a two-week period when the lawmaker was out of town, Butler said. "Heaton's substantial assistance in the investigation and prosecution of Ney was critical to Ney's decision to admit his involvement in the corrupt relationship with Abramoff," Butler wrote. "The tapes made by Heaton captured important circumstantial evidence that statements Ney had made to others about matters material to the investigation were false or intentionally misleading."

    Members of Congress have been secretly recorded in congressional scandal investigations, including undercover videotaping in the ABSCAM probe in the 1980s. "It is not a routine occurrence, but it happens," said Stanley Brand, a criminal attorney who often defends politicians. "In an era where they are executing search warrants on members' offices and homes, it doesn't come as a shock."

    Butler said it is "quite possible" that Ney would have fought the charges, and a subsequent trial would have been difficult without recordings because two of the key actions Ney performed for Abramoff involved statements he placed in the Congressional Record.

    Certain congressional actions, even when done in exchange for a bribe, cannot be introduced as evidence in a criminal trial because of the "speech or debate" clause of the U.S. Constitution. It protects official legislative actions and materials from interference by the executive branch.

    "Had Ney proceeded to trial, the prosecution could have established Ney's agreement to insert the Congressional Record statements, but the prosecution could not have shown that Ney actually inserted those statements," Butler wrote.

    The same speech-or-debate clause forced a constitutional showdown over the search of the offices of Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.). An appeals court last week ruled that the FBI improperly seized documents from Jefferson's Capitol Hill office last year and ordered authorities to return them.

    Heaton provided internal records through his lawyer and began active cooperation in June 2006. "Throughout his proactive cooperation, Heaton conscientiously followed the instructions given him by the FBI, notwithstanding that he was cooperating in an investigation of his one-time friend and mentor Bob Ney," Butler said.

    Heaton's lawyer, John N. Nassikas III, said his client was an "earnest, moral and at times naive" congressional staffer taken advantage of by "a corrupt, deceitful and manipulative public official." Nassikas said that Ney "intentionally hired and quickly promoted young, inexperienced staffers - who did not receive any formal ethics training from Congress - so that staffers would have neither the knowledge nor the maturity to question Ney's conduct."

    Heaton, a government major at the College of William and Mary with a passion for American politics and history, was hired in part because he was inexperienced and deferential, Ney told Neil Volz, Heaton's predecessor. Volz later became a lobbyist for Abramoff and then a cooperating witness for the government.

    Volz told the government that Ney said "other, more seasoned candidates might 'get up and walk out of dinner because it was too expensive' " and violated the $50 gift ban.

    Ney had a reputation among colleagues in both parties as collegial and cooperative, but inside his office he could be abusive and manipulative, said Heaton's wife, Kathryn Knapp, in another letter to the judge. He frequently "fired" Heaton when under the influence of alcohol, only to rehire him "once Ney was sobered up," Knapp said.

    Early on, when Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) came under scrutiny in 2005, Heaton, a devout Roman Catholic, turned to House Chaplain Daniel P. Coughlin, a Catholic priest. "As Will wrestled with his guilt," Couglin said in a letter to the judge, "I saw in him someone young, talented, responsible and reliable, yet caught in a web of evil around him."

    By the spring of 2006, the investigation of Ney had intensified, despite repeated denials from him and his spokesman that he was in trouble. Prosecutors had subpoenaed thousands of documents and called numerous staff members for grand jury testimony.

    In mid-June, the FBI tested Heaton, the documents said. The government recorded a phone call from another staff member who was cooperating with the federal investigation. With guidance from FBI agents and prosecutors, the staff member talked about the investigation with Heaton, asserted that his lawyers wanted him to provide information and repeatedly asked Heaton for advice. Heaton warned the staff member against trying "to cover something up."

    Heaton also said in the recorded call, "The truth is what the truth is."

    Heaton then "began cooperating proactively with government prosecutors and investigators" - recording phone calls, meeting with Ney and answering questions from investigators over "many hours of debriefings."