Lobbyist linked to Abramoff case resigns from law firm (Kevin Ring)

[seafan]

Source: AP

By: ERICA WERNER
April 16, 2007


WASHINGTON -- A lobbyist tied to the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal has resigned from the law firm where he worked, company officials said Monday.
Kevin Ring worked with Abramoff until early 2005 and previously was an aide to California GOP Rep. John Doolittle, whose ties to the convicted GOP lobbyist are under investigation in the ongoing corruption probe.

Ring resigned effective last Friday from Barnes & Thornburg LLP, said managing partner Alan A. Levin. Ring joined Barnes & Thornburg after leaving Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig LLP.
Barnes & Thornburg is based in Indianapolis and has offices throughout the Midwest and in Washington. Ring worked in the Washington office and focused on legislative issues.

Levin declined to comment on why Ring resigned. Ring's attorney, Richard Hibey, said Ring resigned of his own accord.

"He is being responsive to whatever is going on," Hibey said. He would not comment on whether Ring is cooperating with the Abramoff investigation.

In 2005, Ring exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when he was brought before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee investigating the Abramoff scandal.

Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/04/17/news/politics/14_33_524_16_07.txt

[napi21]

1. Hmmm...Barnes & Thronburg. Is that the same Thornburg who was

Governor of Pennsylvania?

[flyarm]

2. whoa...this struck me ..loud and clear...

"He is being responsive to whatever is going on," Hibey said. He would not comment on whether Ring is cooperating with the Abramoff investigation.

In 2005, Ring exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when he was brought before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee investigating the Abramoff scandal.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...CAROL LAM ANYONE???????????

FLY

[DCKit]

3. Maybe KKKarl's plan all along was just to confuse the issues with an army of the guilty? n/t

[seafan]

4. More details (Looks like Ring may now be *a target* in Abramoff investigation.)

From McClatchy:

April 16, 2007

Ring's departure raises questions about whether Doolittle's former legislative director has become a Justice Department target in the investigation into the Abramoff lobbying scandal, to which Doolittle also has been linked.
Doolittle's office refused to say Monday whether the Republican congressman also was being drawn deeper into the investigation.

"In light of the uncertainty with Mr. Ring's situation, the congressman's attorney has advised him to provide no further comment on this investigation," said Richard Robinson, the congressman's chief of staff.
Robinson said that any questions about the Abramoff probe must now be directed to David Barger, a prominent criminal defense attorney in suburban Virginia whom Doolittle retained a year ago. Barger wasn't available for comment late Monday afternoon.
If there was anything improper in Doolittle's dealings with Abramoff, Ring would be in a position to know about it. He typically served as a liaison with Doolittle for several Abramoff clients.

.....

Richard Streeter, a managing partner at Barnes & Thornburg's Washington office, said Ring resigned Friday without notice.
"It was a surprise," Streeter said, declining further public comment.
Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra also declined comment. Ring's attorney, Richard Hibey, didn't return phone calls to his office.

.....

Ring became a prominent symbol in the Abramoff scandal at a 2005 Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing, when he and another former Abramoff associate refused to answer questions from the committee's chairman, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Ring invoked his Fifth Amendment constitutional right against self-incrimination when grilled about what he knew of the Abramoff firm's lobbying for Indian tribes. McCain quizzed Ring about billing tribes for work unrelated to their interests, since he managed some of those clients.

Ring also was Abramoff's client manager for the firm's lobbying account with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The firm was hired to lobby against congressional efforts to change the territory's labor and immigration policies, which critics charged were turning Saipan into a sweatshop for Asian-owned garment factories.

Doolittle was a major congressional supporter of the commonwealth and had taken steps to help Abramoff secure the lucrative lobbying contract beginning in 1999. Ring met regularly with Doolittle and his staff to lobby for the commonwealth, including efforts to win congressional funding or to plan strategy to defeat the reform legislation. During this period, Abramoff personally contributed $14,000 to Doolittle and his political action committee, with the last check written as the lobbying contract ended on Dec. 31, 2001.

[hootinholler]

6. CNMI background USA Black

Here.

In Guam, a US territory in the Pacific, investigators were looking into Abramoff's secret arrangement with Superior Court officials to lobby against a court reform bill then pending in Congress. The legislation, since approved, gave the Guam Supreme Court authority over the Superior Court.

In 2002, Abramoff was retained by the Superior Court in what was an unusual arrangement for a public agency. The Los Angeles Times reported in May that Abramoff was paid with a series of $9,000 checks funneled through a Laguna Beach, Calif., lawyer to disguise the lobbyist's role working for the Guam court. No separate contract was authorized for Abramoff's work.
...

The transactions were the target of a grand jury subpoena issued Nov. 18, 2002, according to the subpoena. It demanded that Anthony Sanchez, administrative director of the Guam Superior Court, turn over all records involving the lobbying contract, including bills and payments.

A day later, the chief prosecutor, US Attorney Frederick A. Black, who had launched the investigation, was demoted. A White House news release announced that Bush was replacing Black.

[maddezmom]

5. K&R

and bookmarked :thumbsup:

[maddezmom]

7. looks like someone is talking

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2812517

[phoebe]

8. FYI - this ties in to this DU thread -

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2809066&mesg_id=2809066


thanks for the information on this thread

[seafan]

10. Thanks, phoebe. I cross-posted this thread over there.

It's gettin' interesting, ain't it?

[phoebe]

12. it most certainly is- the corruption is v. widespread - the more we learn the more

questions we have..

[phoebe]

9. Jessica (Incitto) Boulanger ties to the AG scandal

Jessica Boulanger (Jessica Incitto), a former staffer for former House Majority Leader Thomas D. DeLay (R-Texas), is Press Secretary to House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Missouri). She is married to Todd A. Boulanger, a member of "Team Abramoff". <1>

Jessica Boulanger "took a leave of absence beginning in the summer of 2005 to work as spokesperson for Progress for America." "Boulanger will focus almost exclusively on the Supreme Court fight, providing added heft to the group's burgeoning media operation." <2><3>

she also ties into the Medicare issue...

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?hint=3&DR_ID=18996

However, back to Progress for America..

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Progress_for_America

snip

As the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform bill began working its way toward its eventual passage in Congress in 2002, long-time Republican strategists were already scheming how to get around the law’s ban on soft-money contributions. They found an answer in Progress for America (PFA).

PFA was registered as a 501c4 group in February 2001 by Tony Feather, a political director of the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign and partner at DCI Group as well as at the affiliated telemarketing and fundraising firm of Feather Larson Synhorst-DCI (FLS-DCI). Feather set up PFA as a “grassroots organization that mobilizes the public to contact their members of Congress about pending legislation and to write local newspapers to publicize the White House’s agenda,” the Center for Public Integrity wrote in 2002. During the first part of the George W. Bush administration, it led campaigns to support tax cuts, conservative judicial appointments and energy legislation.

snip

Progress for America and its Voter Fund reveal only as much as legally required about their leadership and membership. The group’s directors, advisors and chairs are not listed on their websites. But the Washington Post has identified a few of the groups’ principal figures. In addition to FLS-DCI’s Tom Synhorst, who is reported to have served as a key strategic adviser to PFA, other figures include James C. Cicconi, AT&T General Counsel; C. Boyden Gray, a prominent figure in many conservative groups, including Citizens for a Sound Economy (now called Freedom Works); and Marilyn Ware, chairman of American Water in Pennsylvania and a Bush Pioneer (meaning that she personally raised at least $100,000 for his campaign).

snip

In May 2005, PFA began running ads targeted at pressuring Republicans Senators into supporting a ban on Senate filibusters for judicial nominations. Associated Press reported that PFA would spend $350,000 on "radio ads on Christian stations" and $1.5 million on television ads to be run in Alaska, Arkansas, Maine, North Dakota, Nebraska and Rhode Island as well as nationally.<8> PFA coordinated their campaign with the Christian conservative group Focus on the Family and the Judicial Confirmation Network.<9><10>

In June 2005, The Hill reported that PFA intended to "spend at least $18 million on the expected fight to replace William Rehnquist, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court." PFA's campaign would include "national cable-news and broadcast-television ads in targeted states. The group will also coordinate grassroots organizers and public-relations specialists in 18 states, including states represented by centrist Republican senators such as Arizona, Maine and Oregon" The Hill wrote. The groups will also use phone-bank and direct-mail in its campaign. "Before Senate confirmation of Owen and Brown, PFA claims to have helped generate nearly 80,000 telephone calls supporting their nominations," The Hill reported. PFA will work closely with the Judicial Confirmation Network and the Committee for Justice on the campaign.<11>

On June 22, 2005, PFA issued a press release announcing a $700,000 campaign in anticipation of a Supreme Court Justice vacancy during the Court's summer break. The campaign included buys on big newspapers' internet sites, and a roll-out of a new website: Up or Down Vote.


If this doesn't tie into the AG scandal - then don't know what does..

[phoebe]

13. now about the ....Committee for Justice

the stated aim of this organization is "promoting constitutional judicial nominees".

http://www.committeeforjustice.org/

they have some very informative articles up

running the CFJ

Members of the Committee


Ms. M. Diane Allbaugh
Of Counsel, Barbour Griffith & Rogers, Inc.

Mr. Stan Anderson
Partner, McDermott Will & Emery

Ms. Lillian BeVier
Research Professor, University of Virginia School of Law

The Honorable Jennifer C. Braceras
Senior Fellow, Independent Women's Forum

The Honorable John Engler
Former Governor of the State of Michigan

Mr. Lanny Griffith
Chief Operating Officer, Barbour Griffith & Rogers, Inc.

Ms. Judith R. Hope
Partner, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker

The Honorable Frank Keating
President and CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers

The Honorable Connie Mack
Senior Policy Advisor, Shaw Pittman


The Honorable Edwin Williamson
Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell

Board of Directors

Mr. Edward M. Rogers
Vice Chairman, Barbour Griffith & Rogers, Inc.

The Honorable Edwin Williamson
Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell

Executive Director

Curt Levey

After graduating Harvard Law School with honors and clerking for the U.S. Court of Appeals, Mr. Levey served as Director of Legal & Public Affairs at the Center for Individual Rights, where he worked on landmark Supreme Court cases involving affirmative action and federalism. Most recently, Mr. Levey headed the Title IX policy group at the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights. He also serves on the executive committee of the Federalist Society's civil rights practice group.

Mr. Levey's op-eds have appeared in leading national and legal publications. He has been a guest on more than one hundred radio and television programs, and he has spoken about the law to dozens of live audiences, including ones at the nation's top law schools.

Mr. Levey also has an M.S. and B.A. in computer science from Brown University. He worked in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) before attending law school and invented a new type of AI technology, for which he wrote a successful patent application.



M. Diane Allbaugh married to Joe Allbaugh - got their own lobbying company
http://www.allbaugh.us/biography.php

snip

As the former Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Mr. Allbaugh managed 2,500 employees and an annual budget of $3 billion. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, Mr. Allbaugh coordinated the federal government's $8.8 billion response and recovery effort. He was also a founding member of the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council.

Prior to his presidential appointment, Mr. Allbaugh was the National Campaign Manager for Bush-Cheney 2000, Inc. where he successfully organized and managed a $192 million presidential campaign. Before that, Mr. Allbaugh served as Chief of Staff to then-Governor Bush in Texas.


Lillian BeVier
nominated to Fourth Court of Appeals by GHW Bush and nominated to replace Sandra Day O'Connor by GW Bush

so we get the idea here - more Bush cronyism - politics as usual..

[phoebe]

14. and the Judicial Confirmation Network

http://judicialnetwork.com/contents/about/marx/

Gary Marx
Executive Director

The executive director of the Judicial Confirmation Network (JCN) is Gary Marx. Gary came to the JCN following a stint as a coalitions organizer for the Bush-Cheney 04 national campaign. Before joining the Bush-Cheney team, Gary served as Development Director and lobbyist for The Family Foundation of Virginia. Gary is also president of Principium Consulting a public policy and public affairs consulting firm.

Wendy E. Long
Counsel

Wendy Long is legal counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network. Until March 2005, she was a litigation partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Wendy was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and to Judge Ralph Winter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. She is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law, cum laude and Order of the Coif, where she was articles editor of the Northwestern University Law Review, and of Dartmouth College. She previously served as a press secretary in the U.S. Senate, for former U.S. Senator Bill Armstrong (R-Colo.) and former U.S. Senator Gordon Humphrey (R-N.H.).

[gratuitous]

11. Ring was an aide to Doolittle, and the FBI just raided Doolittle's home

But I'm sure there's no connections among any of these points. Let's all watch Alberto tap dance through a mine field while trying to thread a sewing machine needle.