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Doolittle maintains innocence, vows to run in 2008 |
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By Jeremy Jacobs
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Posted: 04/21/07 02:57 PM [ET] |
Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), who temporarily resigned from his position on the coveted House Appropriations Committee, maintained his innocence in the FBI investigation into his and his wife’s connection to convicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
“I have no intention of resigning from Congress and I have every intention of running for re-election again,” Doolittle told reporters from his district in a conference call, The Grass Valley Union reported Saturday.
Doolittle said he plans to set up a legal defense fund to cope with the mounting legal fees he faces. He has spent approximately $100,000 thus far in the three years he and his wife have been the subject of the investigation
The nine-term congressman also said the April 13 raid of his Oakton, Va. took him and his wife by surprise. In the raid, FBI officials searched his home and confiscated three computers and two large filing cabinets that his wife Julie, uses to run her fundraising business, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, Inc. Sierra Dominion previously worked for Abramoff’s lobbying firm.
Amid allegations of connections to Abramoff, Doolittle eked out the 2006 election against Democratic challenger Charlie Brown. |
