Kevin Ring (Getty Images)

National Journal is reporting that prosecutors and defense lawyers for Kevin Ring, an ex-associate of Jack Abramoff asked a federal judge to declare a mistrial Wednesday.

The judge, Ellen Segal Huvelle of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, declined the requests and instructed the jury to continue deliberations, which have spanned nearly seven days now.

In a note to Huvelle, the jury wrote, ”We do not see how we can reach a verdict,” according to National Journal.

On Tuesday, jurors told the Huvelle they’d reached a verdict on one of the charges but were stuck on the other seven. (They jury did not reveal the nature of the verdict.) Ring is charged with conspiracy, doling out illegal gratuities and depriving taxpayers of the honest services of public officials.

According to National Journal, prosecutors and defense lawyers said enough was enough.

“Let them go…. Declare a mistrial,” Andrew Wise, Ring’s attorney, said. “This jury has been at it for an extended period.”

“Take the verdict [on the one count], declare a mistrial… and get another trial moving as quickly as possible,” prosecutor Nathaniel Edmonds suggested.

Huvelle said that “given the length of the trial” — about three weeks — “the amount of evidence and the complications of the case,” the jury should continue deliberations.

Ring called for a mistrial last week, after a jury foreman alerted Huvelle to a barred exhibit the government mistakenly included in his evidence binder.

Ring is represented by Miller & Chevalier’s Wise and Timothy O’Toole. The team of prosecutors includes Edmonds, of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section; Michael Ferrara, of the Public Integrity Section; and Michael Leotta, Appellate Chief in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.

Kevin Ring (Getty Images)

The Associated Press has the latest in the trial of Kevin Ring, an ex-associate of imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Tuesday was the sixth day of jury deliberations.

Jurors have reached a verdict on one criminal charge and appear deadlocked on seven others in the trial of a lobbyist caught up in the Jack Abramoff influence peddling scandal.

The jury for Kevin Ring decided Tuesday to keep secret its verdict on the one count for now after being directed by U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle to resume deliberations Wednesday.

The charge involves a payment of $5,000 to a credit union account controlled by the wife of former California Republican Rep. John Doolittle.

In a note to Huvelle, the second of the day, jurors said that deliberations had been contentious and that arguments had shown no sign of movement toward a verdict, The AP reported. Huvelle told the jurors to continue deliberating.

In the first note, the panel asked Huvelle whether there was a limit on the dollar value of gifts Team Abramoff could give to public officials. (No, she told them.)

Ring is charged with conspiracy, giving illegal gratuities and depriving taxpayers of the honest services of public officials. Prosecutors allege Ring lavished public officials with meals and tickets to sporting events and concerts in return for helping his clients. His lawyers say Ring excelled at his profession, using only legal tools to influence members of Congress, their staff and Justice Department officials.

Jury deliberations in the trial of Kevin Ring, an ex-associate of Jack Abramoff accused of corrupting public officials, were interrupted Thursday, after the jury foreman informed a federal judge that the government mistakenly provided him with a barred exhibit.

Judge Ellen Huvelle, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, declined to call a mistrial. But she summoned the jury for additional instructions.

Kevin Ring (Getty Images)

Jurors have been mulling Ring’s fate since Monday. Ring is charged with honest services wire fraud, giving illegal gratuities and conspiring to do both. Prosecutors allege Ring lavished public officials with meals and tickets to sporting events and concerts in return for advancing the interests of his clients.

The exhibit in question is a plea deal between the government and Robert Coughlin II, one of Ring’s longtime friends and a former lawyer in the Justice Department’s Office of Intergovernmental and Public Liaison. Coughlin pleaded guilty in April 2008 to a conflict of interest charge.

He admitted helping Ring secure a $16.3 million grant for a jail for one of Ring’s tribal clients in return for meals and sporting tickets. Coughlin was not in a position to award the money, but he arranged for Ring to meet with high-ranking department officials and provided him with information to bolster Ring’s arguments for funding the grant.

Prosecutors removed Coughlin from their witness list on the eve of trial. During a mock cross-examination, he told prosecutors that he was unfairly targeted for prosecution and that “the things of value Mr. Ring gave him did not influence his official actions,” according to a government letter to Ring’s lawyers.

Huvelle struck the plea agreement from the Ring trial when it was clear Coughlin would not be called to testify, but the government left the document in the jury foreman’s evidence binder. Prosecutors compiled the binders. The defense team was given the opportunity to review the binders before the jurors received them.

The foreman told Huvelle he had given the exhibit a “cursory” review. He alerted other jurors to the government’s mistake, though he did not discuss the substance of Coughlin’s plea deal with them.

After considering draft instructions from both parties, Huvelle called in the jurors and told them to disregard the exhibit. She explained that Coughlin’s plea deal was in no way evidence of Ring’s guilt and that he did not plead guilty to any of the charges Ring is facing.

Court officers are sifting through the binders for other stray documents.

Ring is represented by Miller & Chevalier’s Andrew Wise and Timothy O’Toole. The team of prosecutors includes Nathaniel Edmonds, of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section; Michael Ferrara, of the Public Integrity Section; and Michael Leotta, Appellate Chief in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.

This original version of this post incorrectly stated that the jury was deadlocked.

In closing arguments today, Justice Department prosecutors portrayed Kevin Ring, a former associate of Jack Abramoff, as an aggressive young member of a lobbying team that was corrupt to its core. But Ring’s lawyer insisted his client found legal, if occasionally unseemly, ways to navigate the currents of Washington and thrive professionally.

Kevin Ring (Getty Images)

The case, which went to the jury this afternoon after four hours of closing arguments and three weeks of trial, explored relationships between Justice Department officials and Team Abramoff. It is also a high-profile undertaking for the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity and Fraud sections, which collaborated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland on the case.

Ring is accused of plying public officials with meals and tickets to sporting events and concerts in return for advancing the interests of his clients — by inserting projects in appropriations bills, drafting legislation and applying pressure where needed. He is charged with conspiracy, honest services wire fraud and giving illegal gratuities. Of the 20 or so former lobbyists, executive officials and congressional aides tripped up by the Abramoff probe, Ring is only the second defendant to opt for a trial.

The other, David Safavian, the former head of federal procurement policy at the Office of Management and Budget, was found guilty last December of making false statements and obstructing justice. Abramoff is serving a six-year sentence after pleading guilty to bribery and fraud in two separate cases. He has been cooperating with the government in the investigation.

Though Abramoff did not testify, he was never out of mind. ”Kevin Ring learned to lobby from Jack Abramoff,” began Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Leotta in his closing arguments.

Ring, an aide to former Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), followed Abramoff in January 2001 from the firm then known as Preston Gates to Greenberg Traurig, where the lobbyists enjoyed more autonomy. There they had access to an “unlimited expense account” for grooming public officials with “little bribes” and rewarding friends who helped their clients, Leotta said.

“This is about the corruption of our democracy,” Leotta said.

In court filings, the government named Doolittle and his wife, Laura, as unindicted co-conspirators. Prosecutors said Ring worked with Abramoff to get Doolittle’s wife a job, which paid tens of thousands of dollars, in a bid to curry favor with the California Republican. Doolittle, who helped Team Abramoff with numerous projects, once said he felt like a “subsidiary” of Preston Gates. Doolittle declined to seek a 10th term last year.

Miller & Chevalier’s Andrew Wise, who represents Ring, sought to distance his client from Abramoff. He noted wryly that Leotta slipped the imprisoned lobbyist’s name into the first six words of his closing. “Eight if you count ‘Good morning,’” he added.

Wise presented Ring as someone with profound understanding of the political process, a knack for policy and the ability to build lucrative relationships on Capitol Hill and elsewhere.

“His excellence as a lobbyist is something you may not set aside,” Wise said.

Ring was different, Wise said, noting that his colleagues used to rib him for leaving bars earlier than everyone else.  ”Don’t go all K. Ring on me,” went the joke.

He never intented to corrupt public officials, Wise said. ”It was his job to influence public officials…he used what were traditional tools, including entertainment, meals, tickets to games,” Wise said.

But a string of convicted lobbyists and a former congressional aide testified that Ring was an integral part of team Abramoff, and prosecutors said he followed its warped code.

“He wants you to believe everybody got it wrong but him,” said Michael Ferrara, a trial lawyer in the Public Integrity Section. ”It doesn’t make sense.”

At trial, the government relied heavily on emails between Ring and his colleagues. A key piece of the government’s case focused on Ring’s relationship with Robert Coughlin II, a former lawyer in the Justice Department’s Office of Intergovernmental and Public Liaison.

Coughlin pleaded guilty in April 2008 to a conflict of interest. He admitted helping Ring secure a $16.3 million grant for a jail for one of Ring’s tribal clients in return for meals and sporting tickets. While Coughlin was not in a position to award the money, he arranged for Ring to meet with high-ranking department officials and provided him with information to bolster Ring’s arguments for funding the grant.

Prosecutors removed Coughlin from their witness list on the eve of trial after he accused the Justice Department of unfairly singling him out for prosecution and denied that he was ever influenced by Ring’s gifts.

The government alleged that David Ayres, chief of staff to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, ultimately made the decision to award the grant, overruling then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General Tracy Henke, who thought the figure too high. Ayres is now CEO of Ashcroft’s consulting firm. Henke is a principal there.

In March 2002, Ring gave Ayres tickets to the NCAA college basketball tournament at the MCI Center. The Justice Department later waived the competitive bidding requirement on the grant, allowing the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians to pick its contractor of choice. Ring also supplied Ayres wife, Laura, with basketball tickets in January 2003. She approached Ring, saying they were a birthday gift for her husband, according to court documents.

Ring wanted to put Ayres on the stand to prove he had no intention of influencing Ayres, but the longtime Ashcroft aide and his wife invoked their Fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. The government declined to grant the Ayreses immunity, and Judge Ellen Huvelle, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, denied Ring’s motion to compel it.

David Ayres, chief of staff to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, can invoke his Fifth amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying in the trial of Kevin Ring, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

David Ayres (Ashcroft Group)

Ayres, who is now CEO of Ashcroft’s consulting firm, appeared in federal court in Washington with his wife, Laura Ayres, to take the Fifth in the presence of U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle.

David Ayres was on the stand for about five minutes, during which he declined to answer several questions related to a $16.3 million grant the Justice Department awarded to one of Ring’s tribal clients in 2002 and college basketball tickets he received from the lobbyist. Laura Ayres’s appearance was even briefer. She was asked one question about Wizards tickets Ring gave her in 2003.

Ring, a former associate of imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff, sought to put them on the stand to disprove the government’s allegations that Ring intended to cultivate Ayres with the tickets in return for future favors. Ring is charged with 10 felony counts for allegedly plying public officials with meals and tickets to sporting events and concerts in exchange for helping his clients.

Ayres is not accused of any wrongdoing, nor is his wife. But the government alleges that in January 2002 Ayres helped Ring secure $16.3 million for one of the lobbyist’s tribal clients, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, overruling then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General Tracy Henke, who thought the figure too high. The grant was for a new jail.

In March 2002, Ring gave Ayres tickets to the NCAA college basketball tournament at the MCI Center. The Justice Department later waived the competitive bidding requirement on the grant, allowing the Choctaw to pick its contractor of choice. Ring also supplied Laura Ayres with basketball tickets in January 2003. She approached Ring, saying they were a birthday gift for her husband, the government says.

The government has refused to grant the Ayreses immunity; Ring’s lawyer, Miller & Chevalier’s Andrew Wise, argued Huvelle could compel it. But Huvelle said Thursday she doubted she had such power.

“I’m not comfortable saying they don’t have a right to invoke the Fifth Amendment,” she said.

The ruling leaves unanswered the question of who made grant decision, though emails between Ring and his colleagues strongly suggest Ayres had some involvement. Wise said Ayres would have testified that he never pressured Henke, that Ayres and Ring discussed the jail but there was no quid pro quo, and that the two were friends.

Laura Ayres, Wise said, would have testified that Ring made her promise not to reveal the source of tickets because he “didn’t want Ayres to feel uncomfortable” about them coming from a lobbyist.

Huvelle said Wise could call Henke to testify about the Choctaw decision. Henke, who also works for Ashcroft, said in her grand jury testimony that she made the decision. But after a phone call to Ayres in January 2002, Henke emailed her staff, saying her last attempt to keep the grant amount to $9 million had failed.

Ring, now four days into his trial, did not leave the hearing empty-handed. Huvelle struck government exhibits referring to the birthday tickets and said she would instruct the jury not to speculate about the nature of two discussions between Ring and Ayres.

Henry Schuelke III has the awkward distinction of being both Justice Department witness and Justice Department bane. Today, he was the former, testifying about his investigation of Jack Abramoff and his team of lobbyists, including Kevin Ring, whose trial began Friday.

Schuelke, whom we profiled here over the summer, is also the court-appointed counsel investigating the prosecutors involved in the dismissed Ted Stevens case for criminal contempt. Depositions in Schuelke’s DOJ investigation appear to be a few months off.

Hank Schuelke (photo by Susana Raab for Main Justice)

Ring’s lawyers raised concerns about Schuelke’s dual roles in pretrial hearings, but U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said she didn’t see a conflict. One of the Stevens prosecutors, William Welch II, is the head of the Public Integrity Section, which is sharing the Ring case with the Maryland U.S. Attorney office and the criminal Fraud Section at Main Justice. Welch recused himself from the Ring case to end what he called “distracting” defense motions.

In 2004, Greenberg Traurig hired Schuelke, of Janis, Schuelke & Wechsler, to investigate Jack Abramoff and his work for the firm’s D.C. lobbying practice. Schuelke interviewed about 25 GT employees and several of Team Abramoff’s tribal clients, and he rummaged though thousands of emails and financial records. Ring, as it turns out, was the first lobbyist Schuelke interviewed.

Ring is accused of lavishing members of Congress, their staff and executive branch officials with meals and tickets to concerts and sporting events in exchange for helping his clients. Some of the counts carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years.

He is the first lobbyist to go to trial. The others members of the team, including Abramoff, have pleaded guilty. Abramoff is not a witness in the case, but two of his associates — Neil Volz and Todd Boulanger — are scheduled to testify.

Schuelke, the government’s first witness, described a loose culture in which congressional ethics rules were considered quaint. Schuelke testified that Ring told him “gift ban rules were widely ignored [by members of Congress] and it was Mr. Abramoff’s policy to likewise ignore the rules.”

The firm-wide head of the lobbying practice, based in Florida, was in charge “in theory,” Schuelke said, but Abramoff and his team enjoyed autonomy.

Kevin Ring (Getty Images)

Schuelke’s testimony followed opening statements by Ring’s lawyers on Friday that called into question the government’s assertion that David Ayres, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft’s chief of staff, helped secure a $16.3 million grant for a jail for one of Ring’s tribal clients.

Last week, we reported here that the government believes Ayres in early 2002 helped secure a $16.3 million grant for a new jail for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians after another DOJ official, Tracy Henke, recommended less money. But Miller & Chevalier’s Andrew Wise in court Friday appeared to contradict the government’s assertion about Ayres. ”Tracy Henke made the decision. The evidence will not show that David Ayres overruled Tracy Henke,” Wise said on Friday.

Henke, a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Justice Programs, now works with Ayres at Ashcroft’s consulting firm, The Ashcroft Group. Ayres has not responded to requests for comment.

Ring gave Ayres tickets in March 2002 to the March Madness NCAA college basketball tournament at the MCI Center, the government says. And in January 2003, his wife, Laura Ayres, asked Ring for “several expensive tickets” to a professional basketball game at the MCI Center, telling Ring they were a birthday gift for her husband, according to a government filing over the weekend. Ring gave the tickets to her, with Abramoff’s approval, the filing said.

Nathaniel Edmonds, a prosecutor in the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, said Friday that Ring gave Ayres the tickets with the intent of influencing him on future matters. He pointed to an email in which Ring wrote to an associate, “Glad [Ayres] got a chance to relax. Now he can pay us back.”

Ring’s lawyer said the email was a joke. Ring knew he couldn’t “bully” the chief of staff to the top law enforcement official in the nation, Wise said Friday.

David and Laura Ayres have indicated they will take the Fifth Amendment if called to testify. The government has refused to grant them immunity. Ring’s lawyers say they need the Ayreses as witnesses to prove the longtime Ashcroft aide never performed any officials act for Ring.

Ayers is not accused of any crime. His name surfaced in court documents last week in connection with the Choctaw jail. Ring’s lawyers have filed a motion asking Huvelle to compel the government to grant Ayres and his wife immunity to testify on Ring’s behalf. Huvelle is expected to rule on the motion later this week.

Prosecutors also say Ring plied Robert Coughlin II, the only Justice Department official to face charges in the Abramoff probe, with meals and tickets for his help with the Choctaw matter, among others. Coughlin pleaded guilty in April 2008 to a conflict of interest. Prosecutors, however, took Coughlin off their witness list last week after he accused the Justice Department of unfairly singling him out for prosecution and denied that he was ever influenced by Ring’s gifts.

Coughlin is a former lawyer in the Office of Intergovernmental and Public Liaison and was deputy chief of staff in the Criminal Division under then-AAG Alice Fisher. Ring referred to Coughlin as his prized contact in the Justice Department. The two are longtime friends.

Wise said Ring exaggerated Coughlin’s usefulness so he could use his expense account to pay for his friend’s meals.

“Lying to your boss about how you’re using your expense account is not a crime,” Wise said.

David Ayres, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft’s chief of staff, apparently helped an associate of lobbyist Jack Abramoff secure $16.3 million in government funds for an Indian reservation jail in 2002, prosecutors said over the weekend.

The revelation that Ashcroft’s long-time top aide was involved in the controversial award for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians came Sunday in this government court filing in the Kevin Ring case.

David Ayres (Ashcroft Group)

Ring is a former lobbyist who worked closely with the now-imprisoned Abramoff at Greenberg Traurig LLP in Washington. The ongoing Abramoff investigation has netted a slew of guilty pleas and one conviction from lobbyists, congressional aides, a congressman, and executive branch officials. Jury selection for Ring’s trial on public corruption charges is slated to begin today.

Ayers, who is now CEO of Ashcroft’s consulting firm, The Ashcroft Group, is not accused of any crime. But his name surfaced in connection with the notorious Choctaw jail last week, when Ring’s lawyers filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle to compel the government to grant Ayres and his wife immunity to testify on Ring’s behalf.

David and Laura Ayres have indicated they will invoke their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination if called to testify, a filing by Ring last week said. Ring argues he needs the couple’s testimony to refute government charges he offered them tickets to basketball games at the MCI Center in Washington with the intent of influencing David Ayres’s official actions. But prosecutors have declined to grant immunity, the Ring filing said. Read our previous coverage here.

“Neither Ayres has been willing to speak to the government, which consequently has no idea what either would say about those events,” the government said in its Sunday filing, which also noted that Ayres didn’t report the basketball tickets from Ring on his government financial disclosure forms.

It’s not entirely clear what’s going on here. The government’s refusal to grant Ayres immunity could mean he’s a target of the probe. But it didn’t allege in Ring’s 2008 indictment any direct connection between Ayres’s official actions and the basketball tickets he received from Ring.

Rather, prosecutors said they believe Ring was dangling perks before Ayres in order to secure his assistance in the future. “The evidence at trial will show that Ring hoped and intended that David Ayres would ‘pay … back’ Ring and his lobbying colleagues for those and other things of value,” Sunday’s filing said.

Ring, a former aide to then-Sen. Ashcroft (R-Mo.) in the late 1990s, was indicted in 2008 on broad charges he corrupted public officials in Congress and the executive branch by offering them free meals at expensive restaurants and tickets to concerts and sporting events in exchange for official acts. Access to Abramoff’s exclusive suite at the MCI Center was one of the draws for public officials, the government alleges. (The downtown Washington sporting and concert venue has since been renamed the Verizon Center.) Ring has denied the charges.

Part of the indictment focuses on Ring’s efforts to secure the jail grant for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, who had been Abramoff clients since 1995. Ring maneuvered to thwart a lower-ranking DOJ official’s recommendation that the $16.3 million grant for the jail be cut nearly in half, the indictment says.

In a Jan. 22, 2002, email to Abramoff marked “COMPLETELY Confidential,” Ring wrote that he’d heard the DOJ official in charge of the jail grant “had kicked the final decision on the jail upstairs” to more senior DOJ officials after pressure from Ring, the indictment says. Six days later, Ring held a teleconference with an unidentified “senior DOJ official,” the indictment says.

A few days later, DOJ awarded the tribe the entire $16.3 million grant, according to the indictment.

Afterwards, Ring lobbied the DOJ to grant a waiver from a requirement the jail construction project be awarded through competitive bidding, the indictment says.

In the filing Sunday, the government identified Ayres as a senior DOJ official who helped Ring secure the full grant for the jail. Moreover, the government said Ring later intended to seek Ayres’s help to circumvent the competitive bidding rules for the jail’s construction.

Ring, with Abramoff’s consent, gave Ayres tickets in March 2002 to the March Madness NCAA college basketball tournament at the MCI Center, prosecutors said in their Sunday filing. Ayres appears to be the unnamed DOJ official in the indictment about whom Ring emailed a lobbying colleague on March 16, 2002: “Glad he got a chance to relax. Now he can pay us back.”

Then in January 2003, Laura Ayres asked Ring for “several expensive tickets” to a professional basketball game at the MCI Center, telling Ring they were a birthday gift for her husband, the government filing said. Ring gave the tickets to her, with Abramoff’s approval, the filing said.

Ayres did not respond to a request for comment.

UPDATE (9/8):

In a filing Sunday, the government said Robert Coughlin II, the only Justice Department official to face charges in the Abramoff probe, would not be called as a witness at trial. Coughlin is a former lawyer in the Office of Intergovernmental and Public Liaison and was deputy chief of staff in the Criminal Division under then-AAG Alice Fisher.

He was also Ring’s prized contact in Main Justice, helping the lobbyist with the Choctaw matter, among others, in return for free concert tickets, luxury seats at sporting events, meals and golf outings. Coughlin pleaded guilty to a conflict of interest charge.

But Coughlin told prosecutors during a mock cross-examination last week that he was unfairly targeted for prosecution and that “the things of value Mr. Ring gave him did not influence his official actions,” according to a government letter to Ring’s lawyers.

In their Sunday filing, prosecutors said Coughlin’s absence would  strip “quite a bit” of substance from their case, adding that it amounted to a “windfall” for Ring. But the government still intends to use Coughlin’s out-of-court statements at trial. Ring’s lawyers have asked Huvelle to strike them.

The Sunday filing also appears to clear up a witness problem related Ann Copland, a former staffer for Mississippi Sen.Thad Cochran (R), who pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to commit honest services wire fraud. She told investigators back in January she “could not bring herself to admit that the things of value she received [from Ring] influenced her, even in part, in her performance of official actions,” according to a filing last week by Ring’s lawyers.

The government disclosed Copland’s statement to Ring’s lawyers last Wednesday. Ring has asked Huvelle to cordon off Copland’s out-of-court statements, arguing that her January interview shows she was never part of the Abramoff cabal.

But in a second meeting the with prosecutors and agents in February, this one at her request, Copland apologized for ”not being entirely forthcoming” and admitted tickets she received from Ring influenced her to advance his client’s interests, prosecutors said.

“Since then Copland has consistently told the truth: that she conspired with Ring and others to commit honest-services wire fraud,” the filing said.

***

There’s been a lot of turbulence this week in the government’s case against Kevin Ring, the former associate of imprisoned ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff who’s accused of corrupting public officials.

On the cusp of trial, it appears both sides are having witness problems. David Ayres, who was chief of staff to Attorney General John Ashcroft, plans to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if the defense calls him to testify, Ring’s lawyers said in this Sept. 2 court filing. Jury selection begins Tuesday.

On the government side, potential witness Ann Copland, a former staffer for Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran (R), told investigators back in January she “could not bring herself to admit that the things of value she received [from Ring] influenced her, even in part, in her performance of official actions,” according to a Sept. 3 Ring filing, citing newly disclosed information from the government. Ring’s lawyers said the government disclosed Copland’s statement to them on Wednesday.

Copland’s statement is a bit of a surprise, considering Ring is accused of smothering Copland with gifts — while she was on Cochran’s payroll — to advance the interests of Team Abramoff. Copland pleaded guilty in March to accepting gifts in exchange for official acts, including helping one of Ring and Abramoff’s clients, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, secure $16.3 million for a new jail.

The government appears to be having second thoughts about another potential witness, Robert Coughlin II, a former lawyer in the Office of Intergovernmental and Public Liaison and deputy chief of staff in the Criminal Division under then-AAG Alice Fisher. Coughlin pleaded guilty in April 2008 to a conflict of interest between his DOJ job and his relationship with Ring. He admitted to helping Ring, his friend of two decades, with the Choctaw matter, among others, and to accepting free concert tickets, luxury seats at sporting events, meals and golf outings.

In meetings with prosecutors on Tuesday and Wednesday, however, Coughlin asserted that “the things of value Mr. Ring gave him did not influence his official actions,” according to a pre-trial letter from Public Integrity Trial Lawyer Michael Ferrara to Ring’s lawyers, who entered the government disclosure into the court record today.

“He opined that the decision to charge him with a felony was an abuse of prosecutorial discretion,” Ferrara said in the letter to Miller & Chevalier’s Andrew Wise and Timothy O’Toole. Coughlin also told DOJ interviewers he believes the government “unfairly singled him out for prosecution,” Ferrara’s letter disclosed.

(Coughlin is the only Justice Department official to become ensnared in the Abramoff probe, though other unnamed officials appear in court filings in his case and elsewhere. Click here for more background on Abramoff’s influence within the department.)

These disclosures, Ring’s lawyers argued in court filings, make clear that Copland and Coughlin “did not enter into an agreement to commit any criminal act, and that the government accordingly has no good faith basis” to use their email or hearsay statements at trial. Ring’s lawyers are pressing U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle to strike them.

Also on Wednesday, prosecutors told Ring’s defense team they planned to call three additional witnesses, Daniel Bryant, Su Daly and Gregory Harris — all former Justice Department officials — presumably to substitute for Coughlin, Ring’s filing said. Ring’s lawyers argued the government should be barred from adding these late additions to the witness list. “Mr. Ring could have prepared and filed extensive briefing on why this sort of testimony would be improper. For now, he can simply point out that the lack of percipient knowledge of the witnesses and the impropriety of any opinion testimony that would purport to offer,” Ring’s filing said.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment, as did Ring’s defense team.

Meanwhile, Ayres’s apparent refusal to testify raises questions about what potential liability he might consider he has. Ayres, who is now CEO of Ashcroft’s consulting firm, The Ashcroft Group LLC, did not respond to a phone call and email seeking comment.

Ring’s lawyers want to put Ayres and his wife, Laura Ayres, on the stand to discuss event tickets they received from Ring in 2002 and 2003. The government intends to argue that Ayres took the tickets in exchange for an official act, Ring’s lawyers said in the filings. But they believe that “Mr. Ayres and Ms. Ayres each would provide critical exculpatory testimony regarding the circumstances of Mr. Ayres’ receipt of those tickets and regarding Mr. Ring’s contact with Mr. Ayres on relevant issues,” according to Ring’s court filings. It’s unclear what that exculpatory testimony might be. However, Ring and Ayres have known each other since the late 1990s, when both were on then-Sen. Ashcroft’s Senate staff.

The alleged official act likely circles back to Choctaw jail. Congress earmarked $16.3 million for the project in 2001, but Tracy Henke, then a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Justice Programs, thought the job could be done with $9 million.

Team Abramoff applied pressure, the government says, and eventually the Justice Department reversed itself, doling out the full $16.3 million. It’s still unclear who overruled Henke, if anyone — but that question will likely be answered during the four-to-six week trial. (Henke also works for Ashcroft’s consulting firm, as a principal.)

The Justice Department declined Ring’s request to grant David and Laura Ayres immunity against future prosecution, and they won’t testify without protection, Ring’s filing said. Ring’s lawyers argue that “the refusal to grant immunity and the blanket invocations of the Fifth Amendment privilege in response are unsustainable” because charges against the Ayreses would be time-barred. (Their testimony would be confined to events that occured in 2002 and 2003, beyond the statute of limitations.)

Ring has asked Huvelle to compel immunity or, failing that, to consider another remedy, such as disqualifying government documents or testimony.

Mary Jacoby contributed to this report.

The Abramoff investigation keeps on a-givin.

Horace Cooper (Princeton)

Horace Cooper, a well-known Republican commentator and one-time aide to former Majority Leader Dick Armey, was charged today with accepting thousands of dollars worth of tickets to sporting events and concerts in return for helping Jack Abramoff and his clients advance their interests.

Cooper, 44, is also accused of failing to disclose the gifts on his financial disclosure forms and lying to investigators about free meals he received from Abramoff, according to an indictment returned today by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C.

Cooper worked for Armey from 1994 to 2001, and later served as the chief of staff for Voice of America, an executive branch agency, and chief of staff for the Labor Department’s Employment Standards Administration. The indictment outlines alleged acts that occurred during a a seven-year period, beginning in 1998.

From the Justice Department’s news release:

Specifically, the indictment alleges that during this time, Cooper solicited and received from Abramoff and his colleagues thousands of dollars worth of tickets to sporting events and concerts; that Cooper and his companions allegedly received free or discounted meals and drinks on dozens of occasions at a restaurant controlled by Abramoff; and that Cooper, at Abramoff’s invitation and expense, allegedly hosted a Super Bowl party for his friends at another restaurant Abramoff controlled.  The indictment also alleges that Cooper, rewarded and influenced by the tickets and meals solicited and received from Abramoff and his associates, agreed to use his official positions at VOA and the Department of Labor to advance Abramoff’s interests and those of his clients.  In addition, the indictment alleges that from approximately 1998 to 2000, Cooper received from Abramoff and his colleagues thousands of dollars worth of tickets to concerts and sporting events while Cooper was serving as a Congressional staffer.

To date, 20 individuals have been snared in the Abramoff probe. The former lobbyist was sentenced in September to four years in prison and is cooperating with authorities in the ongoing investigation.

Cooper’s case is being prosecuted by Public Integrity trial lawyers Matthew Stennes and Marc Levin. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for conspiracy; five years in prison for fraudulent concealment; five years in prison for each of two false statement counts; and 20 years in prison for obstruction of justice. If convicted, Cooper also faces a maximum fine of $250,000.

A footnote: Armey resigned from DLA Piper last week. The former majority leader told The BLT his ties to a conservative nonprofit opposed to health care reform were hurting the firm.

The Justice Department is no longer investigating former Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) over a 2003 golf trip to Scotland with convicted ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, The Hill reported Saturday.

Tom Feeney (Gov)

The ex-congressman’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, told The Hill that federal officials informed him that DOJ has dropped its probe. A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment to Main Justice.

Feeney served in the House from 2003 until 2009. Feeney lost in November to Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-Fla.), who railed against the ex-congressman over his connections with Abramoff.

“Everybody that loves Tom is glad that it’s over with but still feel a lot of frustration that it dragged out as long as it did and cost him his seat in Congress,” former Feeney Chief of Staff Jason Roe told The Hill.

The former member of Congress agreed to pay $5,643 to the Treasury for his trip after he was scolded by the House ethics committee.

The DOJ investigation became public after the FBI asked several Florida newspapers for information about Feeney.