Robert E. Coughlin

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 and was a senior figure in the Jack Abramoff Probe.

[1] 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 and Hurricane Rita.

Ring, who had known each other since 1992[2] and had worked together as aides to Senator John D. Ashcroft;[4] has been linked in media reports to the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal.

[7] According to his plea, from March 2001 to October 2003, Coughlin received "things of value"[1] 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 Kevin A.

"[3] In November 2009, Ellen Segal Huvelle of Washington federal district court sentenced Coughlin to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay a $2,000 fine.