FBI raids Abramoff-linked congressman’s home
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18183698/

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. John Doolittle's Northern Virginia
home was raided by the FBI in recent days, NBC News has
learned. The California Republican and his wife have been linked
to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Law enforcement sources tell NBC producer Mike Kosnar that
the raid, which occurred sometime before Tuesday, took place at
Doolittle's house, which also is where his wife ran a fundraising company.

Doolittle's name came up in documents released by the Senate
Indian Affairs Committee last summer as part of its investigation
into the Abramoff influence-peddling scandals.

Julie Doolittle, Rep. Doolittle's wife, owned a fundraising firm,
Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions. The firm was retained by
Abramoff's law firm, Greenberg Traurig.

On Monday, Kevin Ring, a lobbyist also tied to Abramoff and
who previously worked as an aide to Doolittle, resigned from the
law firm where he worked.

A Roll Call article noted that Doolittle wrote a letter to
then-Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton in support of the
Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa, an Abramoff client.
The letter asked Norton to allow the tribe to reopen a gaming casino
that had been shut down by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The letter was written at the same time that Sierra Dominion was
receiving payments from Abramoff's lobbying firm.

Abramoff is currently serving a 5 1/2-year sentence for his
conviction in the Florida-based SunCruz Casinos gambling boat
fraud case. A federal judge has granted him a hearing to determine
a reduction in his sentence as a reward for his continued
cooperation in the Department of Justice probe.