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Justice Department Drops Feeney Investigation

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.

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