Abramoff Makes Plea Deal, Will Cooperate
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
49 minutes ago


WASHINGTON - Lobbyist Jack Abramoff will plead guilty to federal charges in Washington and Miami, clearing the way for him to cooperate in a massive government investigation of influence peddling involving members of Congress, lawyers said Tuesday.

As part of the deal, prosecutors filed conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion charges against the embattled lobbyist. The filing outlined lavish gifts and contributions that it said Abramoff gave an unnamed House member, identified elsewhere as Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, chairman of the House Administration Committee, in return for Ney's agreement to use his office to aid Abramoff clients.

Abramoff was scheduled to appear at a hearing in U.S. District Court here later Tuesday, said department spokesman Bryan Sierra. Abramoff was expected to plead guilty to three charges as part of his agreement.

Abramoff was then to plead guilty to two criminal charges in Florida stemming from a 2000 purchase of a fleet of gambling boats, said Neal Sonnett, his attorney there.

Abramoff will plead guilty to two of the six charges in a federal indictment, Sonnett said.

U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck has scheduled a telephone status conference for later Tuesday. Four other charges in Florida will remain pending.

Any such plea agreement likely would secure the Republican lobbyist's testimony against several members of Congress who received favors from him or his clients. The Justice Department is believed to be focusing on as many as 20 lawmakers and aides.

The new charges were contained in a criminal information — a filing made by a federal prosecutor with a defendant's permission that bypasses action by a grand jury.

Prosecutors say Abramoff and former partner Michael Scanlon conspired to defraud Indian tribes in Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi and Texas of millions of dollars. Abramoff reaped roughly $20 million in hidden profits from the scheme, according to the information. Scanlon pleaded guilty in November.

Abramoff and Scanlon also lavished a golf trip to Scotland and other things of value on Ney, the court document said. Ney has denied doing anything wrong.

It also said Abramoff solicited $50,000 from a wireless telephone company and got Ney's agreement to push the company's application to install a wireless telephone infrastructure in the House of Representatives, a job Ney's committee would oversee.

Pressure had been intensifying on Abramoff to strike a deal with prosecutors since another former partner, Adam Kidan, pleaded guilty earlier this month to fraud and conspiracy in connection with the 2000 SunCruz boat deal in Florida.

Abramoff's cooperation would be a boon to an ongoing Justice Department investigation of congressional corruption, possibly helping prosecutors build criminal cases against up to two-dozen lawmakers of both parties and their staff members.

The continuing saga of Abramoff's legal problems has caused anxiety at high levels in Washington, in both the Republican and Democratic parties.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan could not say Tuesday whether Abramoff ever met President Bush. But when asked at the White House about this, the spokesman said that "what he is reportedly acknowledged doing is unacceptable and outrageous."

"If laws were broken, he must be held to account for what he did," McClellan said.

For months, prosecutors in Washington have focused on whether Abramoff defrauded his Indian tribal clients of millions of dollars and used improper influence on members of Congress.

In a five-year span ending in early 2004, tribes represented by the lobbyist contributed millions of dollars in casino income to congressional campaigns, often routing the money through political action committees for conservative lawmakers who opposed gambling.

Abramoff also provided trips, sports skybox fundraisers, golf fees, frequent meals, entertainment and jobs for lawmakers' relatives and aides.

In Florida, Abramoff and Kidan were indicted in August on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and mail fraud in connection with their purchase of the SunCruz fleet for $147.5 million from Miami businessman Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis.

Prosecutors said the pair faked a $23 million wire transfer to make it appear that they were making a significant contribution of their own money into the deal. Based on that transfer, lenders Foothill Capital Corp. and Citadel Equity Fund Ltd. agreed to provide $60 million in financing for the purchase.

Kidan pleaded guilty Dec. 15 to one count of conspiracy and one count of wire fraud. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines at sentencing scheduled for March 1.

Scanlon agreed to cooperate in the SunCruz case as part of a plea agreement in a separate case with federal prosecutors in Washington. In that agreement, Scanlon admitted helping Kidan and Abramoff buy SunCruz, partly by persuading Ney to insert comments in the Congressional Record designed to pressure Boulis to sell.

I'm looking forward to this year. More and more of the shit that the Republicans have gotten away with in the last decade will finally come to the surface and we can vote these assholes out.

Psssst, when it comes to stuff like this, the Democrats do it just as much. It has nothing to do with political affiliation, it just comes with being in power.

I'm looking forward to this year. More and more of the shit that the Republicans have gotten away with in the last decade will finally come to the surface and we can vote these assholes out.

Abramoff deals, Congress quakes
In pleading guilty, the lobbyist agrees to help prosecutors nab others.

link

By Linda Feldmann and Gail Russell Chaddock | Staff writers of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON - Washington's long-awaited "A-bomb" has gone off.

Super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's guilty plea Tuesday to three felony counts sets the stage for the biggest congressional scandal perhaps in decades, certainly since the Republicans took over Congress 10 years ago, pledging clean government.

In exchange for his guilty pleas, in both the Washington case and a separate Florida case in which he was indicted last year, Mr. Abramoff will cooperate with federal prosecutors investigating members of Congress, Capitol Hill aides, and other lobbyists. Political players with ties to Abramoff and his network, who knew the lobbyist was preparing to cut a deal, have been sweating for months. Now they're sweating harder.

Though members of both parties are involved, analysts expect Republicans - who control both houses of Congress - to bear the brunt of the political fallout. Abramoff, who has close ties to former House majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas, allegedly funneled campaign donations to lawmakers, who were treated to lavish trips and meals, in exchange for official acts.

"It could end some careers," says Jennifer Duffy, an analyst at the non- partisan Cook Political report.

Stanley Brand, a Washington defense lawyer and former Democratic counsel to the House, predicts at least six members of Congress and at least as many staff will be convicted by the end of the year.

Besides Representative DeLay, who is already under indictment in Texas, other members who are already battling allegations over their associations with Abramoff include Sen. Conrad Burns (R) of Montana, Rep. Bob Ney (R) of Ohio, and Rep. John Doolittle (R) of California.

Federal campaign records show that about 220 members of Congress received some $1.7 million in political contributions from Abramoff and his associates and clients, including American Indian tribes, between 2001 and 2004. According to Bloomberg news service, 201 of those members are still in Congress; Republicans received 64 percent of that money.

Since the whiff of scandal began to emerge around Abramoff, members have been rushing to return his contributions or donate the money to charity. But not everyone who ever took Abramoff-related money or perks is guilty of wrongdoing.

"It's not enough to take a campaign contribution," says Mr. Brand. "What's criminal is accepting the contribution in return for an express agreement to perform an official act. Beyond campaign contributions, one can't accept bribes or gratuities of any kind in return for official acts." Members of the executive branch may also be implicated in the investigation, he says.

"The line between a bribe and a legal contribution is very thin, but it is that line that keeps you out of jail," says Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. "The critical element is whether there was an understanding or agreement to take specific action in return for the money."

Abramoff joins former associate Michael Scanlon, former press secretary to DeLay, as a witness for the prosecution. Mr. Scanlon reached a plea deal last year, which raised the stakes for Abramoff. The Department of Justice says the two men defrauded Indian tribes they represented out of tens of millions of dollars.

In exchange for the guilty plea and cooperation, Abramoff would probably get a reduced prison sentence. In the Washington case, he faces a maximum of 10 years; in the Florida case, in which he is pleading guilty to fraud and conspiracy in the purchase of a casino cruise line, he could get as many as seven years.

"Up until now, I've said it will involve just a few members," says Mr. Noble. "But if they've reached a plea agreement with Abramoff, it means he's turned over people higher than him, and they must have some pretty strong evidence."

The explosion of the Abramoff scandal also represents bad news for the White House, just as President Bush is preparing for his Jan. 31 State of the Union speech - an effort to build on the momentum he started last month, after a stumbling first year to his second term.

All of Washington is looking ahead to next November's midterm elections, and whether Congress's low approval ratings and Republican woes in particular can grow big enough to swing control of one or both houses of Congress to the Democrats. Polls show that so far, the Democrats' charge that Republicans have created a "culture of corruption" has not seeped into public consciousness. But, analysts say, the 2006 campaign has not started in earnest, and it's too soon to say how the public is perceiving the corruption message.

"This will crowd out a lot of the news about the new Bush agenda," says Paul Light, a political scientist at New York University. "He'll be going up to the Hill to present his agenda, and meanwhile you have six, 12, 20 members desperately trying to return money to Abramoff, and another bunch wondering how they will look in an orange jump suit."

If the Bush White House tries to minimize the scandal, "it feeds the view that Bush doesn't take ethics seriously," says Professor Light. Last year, a top White House aide, I. Lewis Libby, was indicted in the scandal surrounding the public revelation of a CIA agent's identity.

For Congress as an institution, the Abramoff scandal reinforces prevailing attitudes that are already set in stone, says Light, who has studied the issue of trust in politics. "The American public has become inured to congressional scandals, and as long as members are bringing home enough pork, they basically say, a pox on both their houses."

I'm beginning to think Abramoff's going to take a lot more people down with him than Tom DeLay.

Abramoff raised at least $100,000 for the Bush-Cheney '04 re-election campaign, earning the honorary title "pioneer" from the campaign. But the campaign is giving up only $6,000 that came directly from Abramoff, his wife and one of the Indian tribes that he worked to win influence for in Washington. The money is being donated to the American Heart Association.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Wednesday that Bush does not know Abramoff personally, although it's possible that the two met at holiday receptions. Abramoff attended three Hanukkah receptions at the Bush White House, the spokesman said.

McClellan later said he thinks that Abramoff had been to the White House a "very few times" besides the Hanukkah receptions. He said he was checking into other visits that Abramoff made since Bush has been president.

I'm looking forward to this year. More and more of the shit that the Republicans have gotten away with in the last decade will finally come to the surface and we can vote these assholes out.

has there been any word how they're going to catch these guys?

It's always seemed to me that it was common knowledge that lobbyists give money to politicians to influence them, othewise why else would they do it?

How are they going to show quid pro quo? A donation of $4,000 and then him voting for something you're pushing for can be explained away fairly easily.

Giving Away Abramoff's Money
By Arianna Huffington, AlterNet. Posted January 5, 2006.

Politicians donating Abramoff's dirty money to charity are doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.

The widening scandal has proven to be a boon for charitable causes everywhere.

Politicians from both sides of the aisle -- ol' Jack was definitely an equal-opportunity influence buyer -- are desperately trying to wash his stink off by donating at least some of the money he doled out to them to charity.

President Bush has given $6,000 Abramoff-connected dollars to the American Heart Association -- perhaps in anticipation of the epidemic of politicians with chest pains should Abramoff start to sing.

No word on what the president plans to do with the rest of the well-over $100,000 Pioneer Abramoff raised for Bush's re-election run.

Others feeling the need to pass along their ill-gotten gains to charity -- and hopefully distance themselves from the scandal -- include Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, Roy Blunt, Rick Santorum, Elizabeth Dole, and Hilary Clinton. In all, some five dozen politicians have suddenly decided that Jack Abramoff's money is no longer acceptable -- including those like Sam Brownback and Conrad Burns who saw the writing on the wall and gave back Jack's jack even before he pleaded guilty. Upstanding.

Among the charities benefiting from this sudden burst of what, at least in Washington, passes for scruples are the Salvation Army ($12,500 from Sen. Kit Bond), Wyoming tornado victims ($8,000 from Rep. Craig Thomas), Boys and Girls Club of Greater Fort Worth ($2,000 from Rep. Kay Granger), Great Southwest Council of the Boy Scouts of America ($1,000 from Rep. Heather Wilson), St. Jude's Hospital ($2,000 from Rep. John Sweeney), USO Operation Phone Home ($949 from Rep. Paul Ryan), and the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society ($2,000 from Sen. John Thune).

Read the complete list of those doing the Abramoff two-step here. It's a damning portrait of pols doing the right thing for all the wrong reasons.

Find more Arianna at the Huffington Post.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., $2,000 to charity.