Now that Jack Abramoff is in jail, Bob Ney has pled guilty and David Safavian has been sentenced, I have been granted permission from the investigator involved for posting this diary and including his name.

One sunny, Mid-Atlantic October afternoon, I came home to find a business card on my door. It was from a Special Investigator, and it had a note on the back to call another Special Investigator, Jeffrey Reising, along with his phone number. I didn't think a whole lot of it at first, because at the time I was undergoing an investigation for a Public Trust clearance for my job with a Federal Agency. I figured at first I'd just been visited by one of those investigators.

Upon closer examination of the business card, I noticed the investigator was from the General Services Administration (GSA). That was not who was handling my Public Trust investigation, so that's when I started to panic a bit. What the heck does the GSA need to talk to me about? Is someone investigating misuse of funds at the agency I worked for? Or was it something else?

Turns out it was something else. There's nothing quite like getting email from the FBI containing a post you'd made here on DailyKos.

Jeffrey A. Reising

to me show details

10/1/05

This email was transmitted via matewan.squarespace.com. Sender: Jeffrey A. Reising ---------------------------------------------------------------------- waitaminute.... (none / 1) Ney? Really? Where are you getting this information? I had no idea that Ney was involved. The reason I ask is because I'm pretty sure that's the guy my friend works for. She said Safavian was meeting with Ney just last week to discuss budget issues. She said Safavian was in charge of budget policy, or something like that. She told me he had been arrested and I told her I already knew (because I heard it here on DKos first!). She also said that the trip in question was supposed to be some sort of charity event, so they all wrote it off on taxes, which meant we, the taxpayers, ended up paying for this trip. She also said Safavian has kids (boohoo--if you're evil, your family will eventually pay the price), and his wife is a lawyer. Well crapola. I need to talk to her again. She said she's had job offers from lobbyists, etc., so far since she's been there (since January), but she's not taken any bait. She says the "people in charge" (Republicans) on The Hill are so corrupt it makes her sick. She says they spend taxpayers money like nobody's business and spend waaaay more money than the Dems did. But we already knew that. I'm supposed to see her on Sunday. If I don't get good answers from her before then, I'll be sure to get the scoop on Sunday and post a diary if the scoop warrants. *************** I would love to meet your friend. Thanks, Jeff

SA FBI (emphasis added)

O_o

Gulp.

I made a call to Mr. Reising to discuss this matter. He told me what the call was about but by that time I'd figured it out. Oddly enough, I'd not checked that email account in a few days so I missed his email until he told me he'd sent one.

We had a nice conversation about why he contacted me and about my friend who worked on Capitol Hill. He asked me to forward his info to my friend, which I did, but I explained to him that she didn't work for Ney. Turns out I had mistaken the name of the Congressman my friend worked for at the time, and I'd posted a comment to that effect the next day. However, I did not post that comment attached to the one above, so the FBI thought I knew somebody who knew something.

Here's the follow-up post they missed:

my friend (none / 0) Doesn't work for Ney, as I posted earlier. She works on the House Small Business Committee with Chairman Donald Manzullo. So I feel better knowing she's not tied in any way to Ney. But I'm still going to grill her today for any info she can give me on these guys or this story.

I remember hearing of a White House meeting she and another friend attended in 2000. They were talking about how the Republicans were whining about Dems spending (and wasting) so much money. Yeah, right. by rioduran on Sun Sep 25th, 2005 at 04:45:29 EDT

So I gave him the missing info about her working for Manzullo on Small Business and that's who Safavian had met with, but she'd said it was after Katrina so they were discussing ways to help small business in New Orleans.

He asked if I'd like to know how he found me and I said yes.

He Googled me.

Of course.

I thanked him for his work and apologized for talking out of my ass in that post. He asked me to not post the experience because he didn't want word to get out that we were being watched and didn't want anything interfering with the investigation. I confess I posted a cryptic diary late that night and a few people figured out what was going on, so I deleted the diary only a couple of hours after posting it.

Mr. Reising will be getting a link to this diary so please be nice in the comments. Feel free to thank him for his hard work in taking down Abramoff and company.