John & Julie Doolittle - Sacramento Bee file, Renee C. Byer 
5.09.07
Feds wanted an admission of guilt, Doolittle says
By David Whitney
Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Rep. John Doolittle said Wednesday that the Justice Department tried to get him to admit to criminal behavior before agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided his house looking for evidence in connection with the Jack Abramoff political corruption scandal.
In a 40-minute interview with Tom Sullivan on KFBK radio in Sacramento, the Roseville Republican said that "as a result of my refusal to admit to a crime I did not commit, the government searched our house in what we believe was little more than an attempt to intimidate and pressure us."
The interview ratchets up Doolittle's effort launched over the weekend to turn the tables on the Justice Department, bringing in for the first time his wife Julie, who has been largely silent during the three-year investigation that started with a subpoena for her business records.
Julie Doolittle said she was not a "patsy" who allowed her company, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, to be a conduit for Abramoff money intended to buy the influence of her husband on Capitol Hill.
"This isn't a fly-by-night business I am involved in," she declared. "It's real."
But she said the FBI has questioned each of her clients, whose names she has not publicly disclosed. "They have effectively ruined my business," she said.
Doolittle said he sees political conspiracy in the raid of his home, saying the Justice Department is under pressure to produce more convictions in the Abramoff case, particularly members of Congress, and he is the only member implicated in the scandal that is still serving in Congress.
"If you really want to get a congressman, I am the one who is left," he said.
The raid occurred April 13. FBI agents armed with a search warrant for materials related to Julie Doolittle's business removed files and computers. Julie Doolittle is the lone employee of the company, operated out of the couple's house, that did work for disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and, later, the congressman's campaign and political action committees.
WASHINGTON - Rep. John Doolittle said Wednesday that the Justice Department tried to get him to admit to criminal behavior before agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided his house looking for evidence in connection with the Jack Abramoff political corruption scandal.
In a 40-minute interview with Tom Sullivan on KFBK radio in Sacramento, the Roseville Republican said that "as a result of my refusal to admit to a crime I did not commit, the government searched our house in what we believe was little more than an attempt to intimidate and pressure us."
The interview ratchets up Doolittle's effort launched over the weekend to turn the tables on the Justice Department, bringing in for the first time his wife Julie, who has been largely silent during the three-year investigation that started with a subpoena for her business records.
Julie Doolittle said she was not a "patsy" who allowed her company, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, to be a conduit for Abramoff money intended to buy the influence of her husband on Capitol Hill.
"This isn't a fly-by-night business I am involved in," she declared. "It's real."
But she said the FBI has questioned each of her clients, whose names she has not publicly disclosed. "They have effectively ruined my business," she said.
Doolittle said he sees political conspiracy in the raid of his home, saying the Justice Department is under pressure to produce more convictions in the Abramoff case, particularly members of Congress, and he is the only member implicated in the scandal that is still serving in Congress.
"If you really want to get a congressman, I am the one who is left," he said.
The raid occurred April 13. FBI agents armed with a search warrant for materials related to Julie Doolittle's business removed files and computers. Julie Doolittle is the lone employee of the company, operated out of the couple's house, that did work for disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and, later, the congressman's campaign and political action committees.
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