The Justice Department has dropped its ethics investigation into former Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.), the Orlando Sentinel reported today.
Feeney had been under an investigation following a $160,000 golf trip to Scotland in 2003 with ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
“The investigation is over and completely resolved in Congressman Feeney’s favor,” said Robert Luskin, a Washington attorney who has represented Feeney since 2007.
The Feeney investigation was part of a larger federal inquiry into Abramoff, and also led to the convictions of several Capitol Hill aides and former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio).
Last year, Abramoff received four years on corruption charges for trading luxuries such as golf junkets for political favors. Feeney was a target because of the 2003 Scotland trip, one of three that Abramoff took with lawmakers.
The trip, which was paid for by a think tank connected to Abramoff, came during Feeney’s first year in Congress.
A House ethics committee said in 2007 that the golf trip — with luxury hotel accommodations and golf at the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews — violated Congressional rules.
Feeney agreed to pay $5,643 to the U.S. Treasury for what he said was his share. But he denied doing favors for Abramoff and said he paid his own airfare and greens fees.
