Former Rep. Ernie Istook (R-Okla.) secured several earmarks that appear to match pet projects cited in criminal documents filed against his top aide. These few targeted measures may hold the keys to where the widespread investigation into convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s corrupt practice is headed next.

Ever since the FBI’s raid on Rep. John Doolittle’s (R-Calif.) home last year, Republicans have worried that Doolittle would be the next lawmaker to be indicted in the wide-ranging Abramoff scandal, so much so that they urged him to retire at the end of the session, and he reluctantly agreed.

That lobbyist is Kevin Ring, Doolittle’s former legislative director who invoked the Fifth Amendment in Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) Indian Affairs Committee investigation in 2005, according to a lawyer familiar with the investigation. Ring resigned from Greenberg Traurig the same day the FBI raided Doolittle’s home in April 2007.

Albaugh spent eight years as an aide to Istook, who left Congress to run for governor of Oklahoma in 2006. Istook lost the gubernatorial bid and is now a fellow at the Heritage Foundation. A spokesman for the Foundation said he would pass The Hill’s request for comment to Istook, who was involved in a family baptism Tuesday. Istook did not return calls seeking comment.

In addition to closing in on Doolittle and possibly former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who has had two aides plead guilty in the Abramoff scandal, prosecutors could be focused on squeezing Istook next. The former lawmaker has said prosecutors have not informed him that he is a target in the Abramoff investigation.

Before leaving Congress, Istook chaired the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury and Independent Agencies, and Albaugh is accused of urging Istook (referred to in court documents as “Representative 4”) to earmark funds for Abramoff clients in exchange for use of FedEx Field suites for a fundraising event and for tickets to concerts and shows including Tim McGraw and the children’s band the Wiggles.

Abramoff told the lobbyists working under him that Istook had “basically asked what we want in the transportation bill” and to “make sure we load up our entire Christmas list,” according to Albaugh’s criminal filing.

Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS), a watchdog group devoted to eliminating corruption and waste in government spending, released an analysis Tuesday of the earmarks Ring attained on behalf of his clients. It found that several of Ring’s clients received earmarks in the fiscal 2004 Transportation appropriations bill, which Istook oversaw in his role as subcommittee chairman.

The court documents likely refer to some of the earmarks that Ring’s clients received, according to the TCS evaluation. At least four of the earmarks in question went to a Ring client based in Doolittle’s district.

“This case demonstrates the nature of corruption in the earmarking process,” said Ryan Alexander, TCS president. “We cannot continue with a broken system where we only discover corruption through criminal investigation.”

The earmarks TCS scrutinized include:

• A $3.5 million earmark to construct Highway 323 from Alzada to Ekalaka in Carter County, Mont.
• A $1.425 million earmark for a Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians’ Roads project.
• A $5 million earmark to study the use of diesel multiple units that benefited Colorado Railcar Manufacturing, a Fort Lupton, Colo., Company.
• Elk Grove, Calif., in former Rep. Doug Ose’s (R-Calif.) district, received two earmarks: $300,000 for the Sheldon Road SR 99 Interchange and $960,000 for a traffic operations center.
• Lincoln, Calif., in Doolittle’s district received four earmarks: $500,000 for expansion of regional buses; $1 million for the Lincoln Boulevard Improvement Project; $2 million for Lincoln bypass-SR65/Ferrari Interchange construction; and $250,000 for the Auburn Ravine Bridge.
• The Michigan-based Saginaw Chippewa tribe received two earmarks: $1.2 million for the Transportation Improvement Project and another $1 million for the Transit Multimodal Downtown Transit Facility.