Justice’s Conspiracy against Ney

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Just about weekly, there’s a bit of new spin from Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) on his unfortunate legal predicament. And today, I got my weekly fix.

Past gems include:

— That the abrupt departure of his entire senior staff was the result of “inevitable” turnover

— That his famous Scottish golf junket with Jack Abramoff, rather than a cosmopolitan good time, was a week of drudgery akin to poring over an “arcane tax issue

Today’s spin builds on spin first floated a couple of weeks ago by “a person close to” Ney. The idea was that the Justice Department’s recent subpoenas of his staff members could actually be helpful to Ney — the reasoning being that voters would be outraged at the DoJ’s clear attempts to sabotage his candidacy. The subpoenas, issued in late June and early July, come only a few months before the election.

Now Ney himself is touting that line, or rather, hinting at it:

“I will tell you this that don’t you find it unusual that after 17 months that the Justice Department all of the sudden, 120 days before the election, subpoenas a staffer. They could have called him within the last 17 months. I’ll leave it right at that. I find it very unusual.”

Expect to hear Ney wondering, when the indictment finally does come down, why the DoJ indicted him close to his election, when they could have indicted him any time within the last 17 months.

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