Probers contact former Doolittle aides

WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors are contacting former aides to Rep. John Doolittle seeking information in their investigation of the Roseville Republican's association with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

David Lopez, the congressman's former chief of staff, has declined to meet voluntarily with prosecutors, on the advice of his Sacramento attorney, William Portanova.

"As a general rule, we advise our clients not to discuss matters with anyone, including government representatives," Portanova said Wednesday.

But others are cooperating.

Peter Evich, who served as the congressman's legislative director from 1998 to 2002 and now is vice president for the Washington office of Van Scoyoc Associates, a lobbying firm, said he will comply with the Justice Department request.

"Representatives of the Department of Justice recently contacted me regarding their investigation of Congressman Doolittle," Evich said in a statement Wednesday. "I have been told that I am not a focus of the investigation, and I plan to voluntarily speak with them in the near future."

Evich is expected to meet with Justice Department investigators next month.

Earlier this week, Portanova said that Lopez had provided campaign finance records to investigators pursuant to subpoenas in November.

But the requests for interviews with the former staffers have come in the last few weeks, and after federal agents executed a search warrant on April 13 on the Oakton, Va., home where Doolittle and his family live.

Prosecutors had offered Doolittle a plea deal. The congressman said recently that the search of his home came after the Justice Department asked him to plead guilty "to a crime I didn't commit." During the April 13 search, FBI agents seized computers, business records and the personal diaries of Julie Doolittle.

Julie Doolittle runs a bookkeeping and events planning business out of the couple's home. The business, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, worked for Doolittle's campaign committees and also for Abramoff for 19 months. Between August 2002 and March 2004, the company received more than $66,000 from Abramoff's law firm, according to a Senate Indian Affairs Committee report last year.

Doolittle has said prosecutors believe the Abramoff payments were for bogus work and were intended as a payoff to him for favors he provided Abramoff's clients.

The congressman has steadfastly denied that anything like that occurred, insisting that he and his wife did nothing improper. He has vowed to vigorously fight any charges brought against him.

Lopez, as the congressman's chief of staff until 2005, and Evich, as legislative director, were in positions to know about assistance Doolittle may have provided the lobbyist.

Among Abramoff's clients was the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Doolittle had taken steps in 1999 to help Abramoff regain that $600,000-a-month contract and then, as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, met regularly with Kevin Ring, a former staffer who later went to work for Abramoff, to discuss earmarks for the Pacific territory.

According to billing records that Abramoff's law firm submitted to the commonwealth, Evich and Lopez were regular contacts for Ring on legislation and appropriations.

Ring abruptly resigned from his lobbying job in April and is believed to be cooperating with federal prosecutors. Abramoff also is cooperating with the Justice Department as part of a negotiated plea deal on political corruption charges.

Among Evich's lobbying clients is Sierra College. Doolittle recently announced that he had won a $300,000 earmark for the Rocklin college's program on robotics and high-tech equipment.

A call to Doolittle's criminal defense attorney, David Barger, was not returned.

About the writer:

• The Bee's David Whitney can be reached at (202) 383-0004 or dwhitney@mcclatchydc.com.