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An aide to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) is staying employed there after charges were dropped following his recent arrest on running an illegal strip club in Jackson, Miss., a spokesman for his office told Caught Our Eye.

The aide, Saleem Baird, is a legislative correspondent making a $52,000 salary out of the conservative senator's Washington office (a fact we know because then-Rep. Wicker's 2006 bill reacting to LegiStorm's launch with a ban on the publication of congressional staff salaries went nowhere). While working in Washington, Baird was also managing the club in Jackson, Miss. The staffer was arrested Sept. 3 at Jackson's Level 3 nightclub along with three women who were allegedly nude on stage when vice officers arrived. As the police report notes, "A male who identified himself as Saleem Baird advised that he was the manager and in charge. He was also placed under arrest for Violation of City Ordinance."

The arrest was first reported by the blog Jackson Jambalaya. LegiStorm first published this story Wednesday as a Caught Our Eye item exclusively for Pro subscribers.

The organizer of privately sponsored Caribbean trips which spurred ethics investigations into several lawmakers, including Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), pleaded guilty to lying to investigators, The New York Post reported this weekend.

Karl Rodney admitted the disclosure forms he submitted regarding the trips falsely claimed his New York Carib News organization was the sole sponsor of the trips. However, he actually used money from several corporations to pay for the trips. The false disclosure violated a federal law passed in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandel intended to limit trips paid for by lobbyists. The trips to St. Maarten in 2008 were sponsored for a conferences in the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008.

As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors will not seek a sentence of more than six months for Rodney.

A former congressional staffer who pleaded guilty to charges related to the Abramoff scandal was not given a prison sentence because the judge believed members of Congress were to blame for the corruption.

The Associated Press reported today that U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle sentenced John Albaugh to five years probation and four months in a halfway house, despite prosecutors asking for more than two years of jail time. The judge also did not levy a fine, saying Albaugh's fall from a six-figure salary on Capitol Hill to a $24,000 salary as part of a nonprofit was enough.

The judge indicated she was troubled by the lack of prosecutions aimed at members of Congress connected with the scandal. Former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) was the only congressman charged for his Abramoff dealings, although a number of others were investigated.

It seems the scandalous saga of Jack Abramoff has finally reached its end.

Fraser Verrusio was convicted of conspiracy and accepting an illegal gratutity Thursday, the final person to be tried for actions relating to the influence-peddling probe. Twenty-one people were charged in all, and all 21 either pleaded guilty or were convicted by a jury.

Verrusio, a former staffer on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee working for then-chairman Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), argued his acceptance of a trip to the World Series paid for by lobbyists was a common practice and was not illegal. The federal jury didn't agree.

Fraser Verrusio, a former staffer to Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), is on trial for accusations he illegally acepted a free trip and tickets to the 2003 World Series and then lied about it in financial disclosures.

In opening arguments Wednesday, Verrusio's lawyer told the jury that accepting travel from organizations who had business before lawmakers was a commonly accepted practice.

"Some of us may not like that fact," said Verrusio attorney Glen Donath, according to the Associated Press account. "But like it or hate it, that was part of working the Hill."

The fallout from former congressional staffer Ernest B. Moore's guilty plea to fraud has continued over the past few days.

Moore, who pleaded guilty last week to charges that he'd used aliases to rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, was fired from his visiting professor job at Williams College, the Bershire Eagle reported today.

Williams College also had to postpone a Congressional Black Caucus symposium that Moore had organized and was scheduled to take place on the campus Monday. The college's interim president William Wagner sent a letter to the college community Friday saying the event would not happen this week because of questions regarding Moore's involvement.

The guilty plea this week by an aide to Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) - an aide who doesn't appear in official records at times that he was working for Davis - may raise questions for the lawmaker since ethics rules prohibit maintaining slush funds and hiring unpaid staff except under strict circumstances.

Staffer Ernest B. Moore confessed to fraud charges for using multiple aliases to run up hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit card bills and student loans. On Capitol Hill, he went by the aliases Bernard Glenn-Moore and Bernard Moore. Moore came to the Hill in 2004, when he had a one-year senior policy fellowship with Davis's office through the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (such official fellowships are permitted under ethics rules). In 2006, he transfered to Davis's office as a legislative assistant and earned a salary for a few more months. After that, no official record ties him to Davis's office, despite public evidence that Davis knew he was claiming to represent Davis as an aide.

Politico broke the story of Moore's plea and described how he maintains a working house.gov email address, has organized events on behalf of Davis and claimed in his Williams College biography, where he has taught over the past few years, to be a continuing aide to Davis.

Former congressional aide Kevin Ring secured a hung jury in a corruption trial yesterday by claiming that showering gifts on members of Congress and their staff is the normal way of doing business in Washington. So how many precious gifts have been disclosed by congressional aides? Precious few, it turns out.

Our review of thousands of disclosures of congressional staff reveals only a handful of gifts that have been disclosed in recent years. Congressional rules require disclosure of all gifts greater than $50 and bans many kinds of gifts.

A common reason stated for receiving gifts has been for a wedding. When Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) staffer Richard Boykin got married in 2006, he received several gifts, including $500 from one of his boss's campaign contributors and $500 in china from long-time and well-known lobbyist Bernie Robinson (although Boykin did not disclose him as such). Gifts from lobbyists are banned by House rules.

A staffer to Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) was sentenced to three years of probation for stealing nearly $7,000 from the office account, according to the Associated Press.

The executive assistant, Caroline Valdez, forged her boss's name on a $6,000 bonus check. She also used the office credit card for pizza, groceries and airline tickets.

The judge ordered her to get counseling, saying she seemed to have a problem telling the truth.

In what has lately seemed like a near-weekly occurence, another guilty plea has been entered with the Jack Abramoff scandal.

Today it was Ann Copland, a former aide to Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), who pleaded guilty to accepting gifts from lobbyists in return for legislative favors. Court documents in the case revealed Copland asked for tickets to several events from lobbyists linked to Abramoff, even complaining that there were no hot dogs in the suite provided for a Baltimore Orioles game.

You can see Copland's salary history, the privately-funded trips she disclosed and her personal financial disclosures on LegiStorm.