There is one standard for ordinary citizens and another standard for the elite:
Former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, convicted in a corruption probe tied to former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has been released from a minimum security federal prison in Morgantown, W.Va., and transferred to a halfway house.
Officials said Wednesday he will serve out his 30-month sentence at a halfway house at an undisclosed location.
Ney, a former chairman of the House Administration Committee, resigned from the House Nov. 3, 2006, after pleading guilty Oct. 13, 2006, to making false statements and conspiracy to commit fraud. The charges arose from his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is also in federal prison. Ney admitted receiving lavish gifts from Abramoff in return for political favors.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons said Ney will be released from the bureau’s custody on Aug. 16, and he could be transferred to home confinement in Ohio before then. That release date depends on Ney continuing to compile “good time credit.”
Ney reported to the Morgantown prison to begin his sentence March 1, 2007. While there, he has participated in an alcoholism rehabilitation
program.
In my opinion, people that commit public corruption should be among the last to enjoy leniency. Yes, violent offenders need to kept separated from the general public, but non-violent offenders should get the benefit of the doubt long before elected officials that betray the public trust.
Guess we know which group Bob Ney belongs to. I am sure that come the fall of 2009 he will walk out of home confinement and right into a very nice position courtesy of his connections in the lobbying world.
Maybe we’ll get some help from the 2009 congress and get a law passed making convicted felons ineligible to be lobbyists.
You, back there in the corner, please quit laughing, you’re going to hurt yourself.
My friend’s mom got busted on pretty much the same charge that Ney did, but she got busted at a private employer. She got 6 years in County. She had to serve 5 of them. She often jokes that when she was working as a county employee and did it she wishes she had gotten busted then, ’cause then she would have only gotten year in Fed. prison.
Ney is rumered to be a CIA asset. He can’t do much for them while in jail (constant monitoring and cameras). If he is hidden away during “house arrest”, he could be anywhere in the world distributing money or favors or weapons… who would suspect?
huh????
Gee, if only he’d also robbed a liquor store too.