Meet Representative #3

Tom Feeney is known as "Representative #3" in FBI documents. Feeney told the media he is "not a target" of a criminal investigation. Feeney does need to explain the company he keeps.

Feeney went to Scotland on a trip paid for by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Mark Zachares was also part of the trip. Zachares recently pleaded guilty to conspiracy. He accepted "tens of thousands" in gifts from Abramoff.

What is more curious is that the FBI has contacted the Orlando Sentinel and St Petersburg Times about information on Feeney.

Federal agents also have asked the St. Petersburg Times for an email sent to the newspaper by Feeney's office describing a golfing trip the congressman took with Abramoff to Scotland in 2003.

More.

Last week, an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation contacted an Orlando Sentinel reporter, seeking information about ties that Feeney and a former member of his staff had with Abramoff.

The agent did not return calls seeking comment Monday.

Charlotte Hall, editor for the Orlando Sentinel, said in a statement Monday that the paper had not received a subpoena and did not have "a firm understanding of what the FBI is looking for."

"We have referred the matter to our attorney," she said.

If Feeney is not being investigated than why is the FBI taking such an interest in him? Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell wrote, "It's not every day the FBI comes asking for my notes and records. But an agent did so just last week -- wanting whatever I could give him about Tom Feeney and Jack Abramoff. He wanted e-mail, maybe notes as well, from as far back as two years ago."

Feeney may not be a target (yet), but now would be a good time to retain a high-powered lawyer.