Legistorm: Transparency's Sidekick

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.

With his indictment today, the powerful and cantankerous Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is finding that it's often not the underlying deed that proves your undoing but the coverup.

Stevens would probably have been in a heap of legal trouble for taking more than $250,000 in gifts from a contractor in the form of home renovations and household goods. But it's the failure to report these gifts on his personal financial disclosures that makes it such an easy case for federal prosecutors, who just unveiled a seven-count indictment against the senior senator for making false statements.

There's no need for prosecutors to prove a quid pro quo. All they need to show is that Stevens took the gifts, knew he was taking gifts and that he knowingly failed to report it.