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.

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.

Coughlin resigned from the Department of Justice in April 2007. has been linked in media reports to the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal. 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" Coughlin was disbarred, but in July 2016 was reinstated to the Bar of the District of Columbia. President Donald Trump pardoned Coughlin (and 25 other individuals convicted of other crimes) on December 24, 2020.