Robert E. Coughlin, II, is an American lawyer and former government official who served as the Deputy Chief of Staff, Criminal Division, of the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

and was a senior figure in the Jack Abramoff Probe.

U.S. Department of Justice

Legislative Affairs

In March 2001, Coughlin was hired at DOJ as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs, John D. Ashcroft. Then in May 2002, Coughlin was promoted to Deputy Director of the Office of Intergovernmental and Public Liaison (OIPL) until June 2003.

Deputy Chief of Staff, Criminal Division

In June 2005 Coughlin became Deputy Chief of Staff, Criminal Division for the U.S. Department of Justice and in 2006 received the “Attorney General’s Award for Fraud Prevention” by then Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales for his work investigating and prosecuting fraud cases after

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

and

Hurricane Rita Hurricane Rita was the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Gulf of Mexico, tying with Hurricane Milton in 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, 2024, as well as being the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. Part of the ...

. Coughlin resigned from the Department of Justice in April 2007.

Abramoff probe

A media report linked Coughlin's 2007 resignation to his connection with longtime friend,

Kevin A. Ring Kevin A. Ring (born October 19, 1970) is a former American attorney and congressional staffer; he served Republicans in both the House and the Senate, including U.S. Representative John T. Doolittle (R-CA). He also served as a counsel on the Sena ...

, who had known each other since 1992 and had worked together as aides to Senator John D. Ashcroft; has been linked in media reports to the

Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal The Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal was a United States political scandal exposed in 2005; it related to fraud perpetrated by political lobbyists Jack Abramoff, Ralph E. Reed Jr., Grover Norquist, and Michael Scanlon on Native American ...

. Although Coughlin didn't have substantive contacts with Jack Abramoff, Coughlin's position as Deputy Chief of Staff for the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division placed him high in the chain of supervision, over the unit that was primarily responsible for the wide-ranging probe of Abramoff. Coughlin accepted a plea bargain on April 22, 2008, pleading guilty to conflict of interest. According to his plea, from March 2001 to October 2003, Coughlin received "things of value" worth $4,800 to $6,180 from Kevin Ring who took Coughlin out for 25 meals (mostly at Abramoff's Signatures Restaurant), to seven Washington Wizards and Washington Redskins games (a total of twenty tickets and access to Abramoff's skyboxes), to three concerts (a total of five tickets) and one round of golf while helping

and his clients set up meetings with “friendly” DOJ officials. During this period Ring and Abramoff got a $16.3 million grant from the Justice Department to build a jail for Abramoff's client, the

Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians () is one of three federally recognized tribes of Choctaw, an indigenous Indian people, and the only one in the state of Mississippi. On April 20, 1945, this tribe was organized under the Indian Reorgan ...

, even though the tribe was wealthy and some officials thought the money could be "better spent elsewhere." In November 2009,

Ellen Segal Huvelle Ellen Judith Huvelle ( ''née'' Segal; born June 3, 1948) is an inactive Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She has overseen several significant cases. In a case decided in May 2 ...

of Washington federal district court sentenced Coughlin to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay a $2,000 fine. Coughlin was disbarred, but in July 2016 was reinstated to the Bar of the District of Columbia. President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

pardoned Coughlin (and 25 other individuals convicted of other crimes) on December 24, 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coughlin, Robert E. Living people United States Department of Justice lawyers Year of birth missing (living people) People pardoned by Donald Trump