Doolittle Throws His Wife Under The Bus

Rep. John Doolittle’s (R-CA) statement tonight:

Doolittle Responds to Reports about FBI Search of Wife’s Business

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Roseville) issued a statement to media questions regarding reports of an FBI search of his wife’s business in Virginia.

Doolittle said, “My wife has been cooperating with the FBI and the Justice Department for almost three years and that cooperation is going to continue in the future. I support my wife 100 percent and fully expect that the truth will prevail.”

Doolittle apparently expects people to believe that he has nothing to do with the investigation of his wife’s business. That’s laughable.

The relationship between John Doolittle and criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff is extensive. Doolittle received $64,500 from Abramoff, his partners and clients between 2001 and 2004. Abramoff let Doolittle hold fundraisers in his sky box for free, and paid to send Doolittle’s top aide to Puerto Rico. Abramoff hired Doolittle’s then-chief of staff, Kevin Ring, who in turn helped hire Doolittle’s wife. Julie Doolittle, who owned a consulting firm, was brought on by Abramoff and his firm, Greenberg Traurig, to do fundraising for Abramoff’s charity.

The fact that investigators raided Julie Doolittle’s business suggests that they are attempting to show how John Doolittle himself — not just his staffers or campaign committee — benefited from Abramoff’s largess. Too bad for the Doolittles, California is a communal-property state:

San Diego attorney Stanley Zubel, who heads Californians for a Cleaner Congress, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said Julie Doolittle’s commissions raise troubling questions about whether the congressman personally benefited from his support of Wilkes’ projects. “For all practical purposes, when someone’s wife earns money, then he earns money, especially in a community-property state like California,” Zubel said. “He can’t separate this out and say, ‘This is my wife’s money.’ If she’s getting a benefit, he’s getting a benefit.”

UPDATE: More from McClatchy: “Rep. Doolittle’s attorney, criminal defense lawyer David Barger, said Wednesday that the raid was in connection with a search warrant for Sierra Dominion records and not anything related to the congressman. He declined to say, however, whether John Doolittle had become a target of investigation in the ongoing probe.”

UPDATE II: The Washington Post story is out with more details on Julie Doolittle’s work with her husband.