WASHINGTON — The Justice Department's corruption probe into the far-flung dealings of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff has ensnared one of its own.
Robert E. Coughlin II was charged in federal court Monday with violating federal conflict-of-interest laws by aiding a lobbyist and an unnamed lobbying firm -- believed to be Abramoff's -- while serving in the department's office of legislative affairs between 2001 and 2003.
According to the document filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Coughlin allegedly received "a stream of things of value" from the lobbyist. No details were immediately available on what those "things of value" were. Coughlin, now 36, is expected to plead guilty this afternoon before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle.
The case is an embarrassment to the Justice Department: In 2005, Coughlin became deputy chief of staff to the head of the department's criminal division -- the unit chiefly responsible for overseeing the wide-ranging probe of Abramoff, which has led to the conviction of a dozen people, including administration officials, congressional staffers and a member of Congress, on a variety of corruption charges.
In 2006, he was among a group of Justice Department employees honored with the "Attorney General's Award for Fraud Prevention" by then-Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales for their work investigating and prosecuting fraud-related cases after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Citing personal reasons, Coughlin resigned from the Justice Department in April 2007.
Because of Coughlin's ties to senior officials at Justice Department headquarters, the case against him was handled by a special prosecutor at the U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore. The probe was headed up by Stuart Goldberg, formerly a top official in the department's public integrity unit.
Justice Department officials declined to comment on the court filing, known as an information, or on today's scheduled hearing. Coughlin's lawyer, Joshua Berman of Washington, also declined to comment.
Investigators have been focusing on the relationship between Coughlin and Kevin Ring, a onetime Abramoff lieutenant who had once worked for Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Roseville).
Coughlin and Ring came to know one another in the late 1990s as aides to John Ashcroft when Ashcroft was a U.S. senator from Missouri. After Ashcroft became attorney general in 2001, Coughlin followed him to the Justice Department. Ring joined Greenberg Traurig, a Washington law and lobbying firm where Abramoff was a top lobbyist.
