FBI Agent in Abscam Sting to Campaign for Pressler in South Dakota

The FBI is on his trail.

In South Dakota, former FBI agent John Good is joining Larry Pressler on the campaign trail to highlight the former senator’s  honesty during the Abscam inquiry in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Mr. Pressler, who is running as an independent to regain his old seat, will be campaigning later this week with Mr. Good, who was the supervising FBI agent during the Abscam investigation. Mr. Good arrives in South Dakota on Wednesday for appearances in Sioux Falls, Watertown, Aberdeen and Rapid City.

He endorsed Mr. Pressler last week, saying he was the only lawmaker to turn down an offered bribe during the FBI sting in the late 1970s that snagged other members of Congress for accepting bribes from a fake Arab sheik, the basis of the 2013 movie “American Hustle.”

“The only way this country is ever going to recover from the disastrous gridlock taking place now is to get people like Pressler in there,” Mr. Good said in a statement released by Mr. Pressler’s campaign on Tuesday.

Mr. Pressler was offered a bribe as a senator from South Dakota in 1978 by undercover agents, but “flatly turned it down,” according to his campaign.

“In the meeting room, we got rid of him as quickly as we could because it was obvious he was doing nothing wrong,” Mr. Good said in his earlier endorsement. Messrs. Good and Pressler later reconnected when “American Hustle” was being filmed in Washington.

In a June ad, the Pressler campaign included footage — filmed by a secret FBI camera — of Mr. Pressler turning down the bribe.

Republicans had been expected to easily win the open Senate seat in South Dakota this year, but the race has tightened recently. Earlier this month, Democrats began sending cash to the race after concluding the unusual, four-way race was winnable. Republican Mike Rounds, a former governor, faces Democrat Rick Weiland and two independent candidates, including Mr. Pressler, who served two terms in the House and three in the Senate as a Republican, until losing the 1996 election.