FOXNews.com: Key GSA Official to Plead Fifth in Vegas Scandal

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Key GSA Official to Plead Fifth in Vegas Scandal Apr 14th 2012, 14:26 WASHINGTON –  The Government Services Administration official who is emerging as a key figure in the inquires into a lavish, 2010 agency conference in the Las Vegas area will invoke his Fifth Amendment right next week during a GOP-led House hearing on the issue, according to his lawyers.  However, the House oversight committee has issued a subpoena require Jeffrey Neely -- the regional GSA administrator for the Western Region who was in charge of the 2010 conference -- to attend the hearing. "The subpoena compels Mr. Neely to a appear before the committee" on Monday, California Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in a letter to Neely's Washington attorney Preston Burton. The estimated cost for planning and holding the 2010 conference at the posh M Resort in Henderson, Nev., is now estimated at $830,000. The inspector general's report has either costs GSA employees to lose their jobs or be placed on leave. Agency chief Martha Johnson has resigned, and Neely has been place on administrative leave.  On Friday, Congressional sources told Fox News the GSA's inspector general is asking the Justice Department to probe the conference  for possible criminal charges. An internal government memo released Friday shows GSA officials were concerned about the federal agency's now-infamous 2010 Las Vegas-area conference long before details of the lavish spending, satirical videos and other embarrassing details emerged this month. Susan Brita, the GSA's deputy administrator and an Obama political appointee, emailed other agency officials in July 2011 saying the agency's inspector general found "no substantive agenda" at the conference. She also said that expenses for a clown suit, bicycles for a training exercise, tuxedos and a mind-reader "didn't lend themselves to the claim of a substantive conference." Brita suggested the agency should deal with the prospect of the news media latching onto the conference's nearly $1 million cost. If the story "were to hit the press, what would public reaction be?" Britta wrote. "What would congressional reaction be?" Last year, Brita questioned why Neely had received only a disciplinary letter. Britta called Neely a "seasoned" administrator "who is expected to display the highest standards of common sense and prudent financial management. He did neither." She called the disciplinary letter "not even a slap on the wrist.". In other emails, Administrator Johnson discusses the performance and bonuses for Neely. In one email, Johnson defends giving him a bonus, saying he was an acting regional administrator "for forever and a day." Multiple emails between her and Bob Peck, the GSA's public buildings administrator, refer to Neely as a "Steve Jobs" type, "someone who is very creative and does good work ... but doesn't fit conveniently into the standard human resources boxes." In one email, Johnson describes Peck as having a "problematic personality" and refers to his behavior with an unnamed congressman when both were where in California. Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

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