Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Attorney Edward MacMahon leaves the U.S. Federal Courthouse Tuesday after his client, Mark Zachares, not shown, pleaded guilty to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from lobbyist Jack Abramoff in a influence-peddling scandal. CHRIS GREENBERG: AP

The federal probe into corruption related to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff could be inching closer to former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay of Sugar Land as investigators focus on a former DeLay chief of staff who later employed the Republican leader's wife.

DeLay has not been charged with any crime in the Abramoff case. And his lawyer, Richard Cullen, said federal investigators have given DeLay no indication that he is a target of the ongoing grand jury probe, such as subpoenaing documents.

But prosecutors could decide within weeks whether to bring charges against former DeLay staff chief Edwin Buckham, according to sources close to the investigation who spoke on the condition that they not be identified. The decision should give a clear signal on whether DeLay remains in legal jeopardy, the sources said.

In recent days federal prosecutors have served notice that their sprawling Abramoff case has remained very much alive.

On Tuesday a former aide to Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, pleaded guilty to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from Abramoff — including a golf junket to Scotland — in exchange for giving the lobbyist illegal help. Mark Zachares accepted more than $30,000 in sports tickets from Abramoff, including $10,000 through a nonprofit foundation Abramoff controlled.

Zachares is the 11th person convicted in the scandal.

Last week, FBI agents raided the northern Virginia home of Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., as part of an inquiry into whether Doolittle performed improper favors for Abramoff in exchange for money funneled through the lawmaker's wife, Julie.

Doolittle has denied wrongdoing and has stepped down from a key House committee assignment.

Some similarities

Like Zachares, DeLay took a golfing trip to Scotland. Although lobbyists cannot fund such trips, the 2000 excursion was indirectly funded by Indian gaming clients of Abramoff. DeLay's airfare was charged to an American Express card issued to Abramoff. DeLay has said he believed the trip was properly paid for by a nonprofit public interest group.

And like Doolittle's wife, DeLay's wife, Christine, received payments from lobbyists that are now being scrutinized by investigators to determine whether they were part of an improper granting of favors.

Investigators have looked closely at the $115,000 that Buckham's lobbying firm, Alexander Strategy Group, paid Christine DeLay at a rate of $3,200 a month beginning in 1998, soon after Buckham left his job as DeLay's chief of staff. A nonprofit company set up by Buckham, the U.S. Family Network, received a major part of its funding from companies with ties to Abramoff. Then, the nonprofit paid Buckham and his lobbying firm hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees.

Buckham's attorney did not return calls and e-mails seeking comment.

The payments to Christine DeLay resembled, at least superficially, those Abramoff's former lobbying firm gave to Julie Doolittle's company, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions Inc., between September 2002 and February 2004.

Cullen has said the money for Christine DeLay was a legitimate payment from the lobbying firm for work she did to compile a list of charities in House members' districts.

And Cullen noted that there had been no allegation of any improper favor done by DeLay for Abramoff — which would be a key part of charging him with abusing his office.

"Mr. DeLay is eager for the investigation to run its course," Cullen said Tuesday. "He has been fully cooperative and he remains at peace — confident that he has done nothing wrong."

Deals for testimony

Several former DeLay associates have been helping federal law enforcement agents as they continue their investigation of Buckham and others. That includes Abramoff himself, as part of a plea deal with the Justice Department in January 2006 in which he admitted to charges of conspiracy and mail fraud.

Also taking deals for testimony were former DeLay staff members Tony Rudy and Michael Scanlon, both of whom had close ties to Abramoff.

Scanlon left DeLay's staff to open a public relations firm, and with Abramoff concocted a scheme to swindle Indian tribes interesting in lobbying Congress for gaming rights out of tens of millions of dollars.

Then, just three days before DeLay bowed out of his House race last year, Rudy pleaded guilty to bribing public officials, including former Ohio GOP Rep. Bob Ney.

Rudy did not implicate DeLay in court documents released in his plea agreement but indicated cooperation to come, noting, "(The plea bargain) does not include all of the facts known to me ... concerning criminal activity in which I or others engaged."

Court papers in Rudy's guilty plea stated that Rudy, while working for DeLay, arranged for the congressman to sign a letter opposing a postal-rate increase to aid an Abramoff client and helped kill an anti-gambling bill opposed by another Abramoff client.

At the same time, Abramoff arranged for $86,000 in consulting payments to be made to Rudy's wife, Lisa, according to the documents. Cullen has said that DeLay had no knowledge of improper dealings by Rudy.

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