Legistorm: Transparency's Sidekick

In what has become an all-too-common pattern this year, another former congressional aide pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy in the long-running Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

James Hirni, a former legislative director to Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.), admitted in court that he helped provide an all-expense paid trip to the 2003 World Series to two congressional aides. At the time, Hirni was a lobbyist working on Abramoff's team.

There's no reason to believe this is the end yet.

Nearly three years after lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and fraud, the scandal is still playing out.

Thursday, former congressional staffer Trevor L. Blackann pleaded guilty to charges he failed to report gifts he received from lobbyists on this tax returns.

Among the more than $4,000 in gifts received was a trip to New York City for the opening game of the 2003 World Series. Blackann admitted to knowing the trip was paid for by lobbyists. The court documents do not identify the lobbyists in question, but the Department of Justice issued a release calling the case part of the investigation into the lobbying activities of Abramoff. Blackann also did not report the trip to Congress.

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When congressional staffers get in trouble, newspapers often cite LegiStorm. Aides rarely do good in the media - if they do, their elected bosses take the credit. 

The Washington Post cited our employment data in reports that one such aide, Jeffrey Rosato of Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.) staff, was arrested last Friday on charges of receiving and distributing child pornography. Boxer fired him immediately upon learning of the charges.

The past year has led to several other such news announcements about congressional aides, minors and pornography.

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The Washington game of musical chairs has begun in earnest as current and former congressional aides angle for new positions. Last week's election has created plenty of opportunity for staffers. Former aides Daniel Maffei, Betsy Markey and Eric Paulsen were actually chosen by voters to return as members of Congress.

One congressional aide has already been named to the new presidential administration. Phil Schiliro, a long-time Hill hand who was chief of staff for Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), has been selected the head of President-elect Barack Obama's legislative affairs office during the transition, and is expected to be Obama's legislative affairs director when the new administration takes office in January. Obama will likely take a large cohort of his Senate staff with him, as well. His own chief of staff, Pete Rouse, is co-chairing the transition team and is expected to serve as a deputy chief of staff in the White House.

Jim Messina, a former chief of staff to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), joined the Obama campaign earlier this year and is the personnel director for the transition team. Robert Gibbs served as Obama's Senate communications director before moving to the same role in the campaign and will likely be the next White House press secretary.

As the adminstration takes shape over the coming weeks, expect many other top congressional aides to move up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.

We have made a few changes to the LegiStorm main search feature, which we hope will improve our ability to give you the information you need.

The main search box in the top left corner of our pages has always been a handy quick search for some of our key data. You have always been able to search for a legislator or a congressional staffer's name. Or you could find the sponsor or destination for a congressional trip.

Now, if you're searching for a specific staffer on our site, the search results now show you what office each person has worked in. Previously, you had to click through each name to see where they had worked.

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Election Day 2008 will take on a whole new meaning for some former congressional aides.

Tomorrow, a number of former staffers are trying to get back to Capitol Hill with a promotion as a legislator. LegiStorm has the information on how they got their political start.

Perhaps the most notable is Daniel Maffei. Maffei, a former communications aide to Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), narrowly lost to then-incumbent Jim Walsh in 2006. This time around, Walsh has announced his retirement and Maffei is expected to win the seat.

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Like many web sites, we try to keep tabs on how people are using our site. We are usually pleased to see mention of us, even if we don't always agree with the way our site's data is used. Accountability can be messy sometimes and that means that dull-witted analyses often appear alongside sharp insights in the public arena.

But this new age of blogging can also lead to some downright irresponsible claims about members of Congress and their staff. And whenever congressional aides are mentioned in news stories, LegiStorm is usually cited as a source, at least for salary and other public record data we have.

This past weekend, a story has been circulating on the web about a member of Congress and a staffer. We won't mention who because the story was so lacking in any indicia of truthfulness that as far as we can tell, it was made up from whole cloth.

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Yesterday's indictment of Kevin Ring, a former legislative director to Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) and colleague of disgraced superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, is further evidence of the need for accurate financial disclosures by members of Congress and their top aides.

The 10-count indictment alleges that Ring made false statements about receiving a $135,000 kickback himself, as well as showering Doolittle and others with illegal gifts. Prosecutors say that congressional officials were filing false financial disclosures regarding these gifts because doing so would have been admitting to receiving illegal gifts.

The indictment says that Ring provided legislative and executive branch officials with gifts in exchange for official actions. They include all-expenses-paid domestic and international trael, fundraising assistance, meals, drinks, golf, sports tickets and employment opportunities to spouses, including Doolittle's wife.

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