Three years after losing the Montana Senate seat he held for nearly two decades, Republican Conrad Burns is still talking about how the Jack Abramoff scandal cost him the tight 2006 race against Democrat Jon Tester that came down to 3,562 votes.

In an interview this week with KTVQ in Billings, Burns (who is now a registered federal lobbyist at Gage LLC) said the Department of Justice's handling of investigations allowed his name to be tarnished during the campaign, when contributions he received from Abramoff and his office's relationship with the now imprisoned lobbyist were called into question.

"If you call [the Department of Justice] up today and say, 'Well, is Conrad Burns under investigation?', they'll say, 'Well we can't confirm it, we can't deny it,'" Burns said. "Well, that allows your opponents or the press, if they've formed a perception already, to just to run wild with it."

Burns also said he was never interviewed by Justice or the House Ethics Committee, and that the government "didn't interview anybody in the office with the exception of one person." He described implications that he was involved with the Abramoff scandal as "a hoax."

Two of Burns' former staffers were mentioned during the recent trial of former Abramoff lobbying associate Kevin Ring. A former associate of Ring and Abramoff testified about an all-expenses-paid 2001 Super Bowl trip that the lobbying team planned for lawmakers and staffers. No lawmakers attended, and only two Senate staffers, Ryan Thomas and Will Brooke, both of Burns' office, made the trip. Thomas was also listed as a co-conspirator in Ring's trial for evidentiary reasons.

(Thomas is also listed as a registered lobbyist for Gage, Senate lobbying documents show)