HORTON: The Case of the Amazing Vanishing Corruption Investigation = ON ABRAMOFF

[L. Coyote]

McCain made this scandal vanish in time for the 2004 election.
That fact deserves frequent revisiting, and promotes further cover-up!

That said, it is really great to see a summation of how this major scandal,
one involving cover-up of visitor logs of the White House and VP, reaching
inside DeLay's Congressional leadership too, has very much been stalled.

I expect "illegal surveillance was used for politicization of justice" is next?

Politicization of the Department of Justice may be traced to this scandal
in addition to torture, illegal surveillance, et.al. I'm still reading....

====================
The Case of the Amazing Vanishing Corruption Investigation
Scott Horton - March 17, 2008 - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002657


While the Bush Administration’s public integrity lawyers are busy staking out a Democratic governor’s rendez-vous with an expensive call-girl, and attempting to shut down the work of a state legislature in order to probe the teaching plans of Alabama legislators who moonlight in junior colleges, the largest corruption scandal in American history has all but disappeared. It’s worth taking a second to ask: Why did the Public Integrity Section completely lose interest in the most important public corruption scandal in the nation’s history?

Back in the administration of Warren G. Harding, of course, there was the Teapot Dome Scandal. It was the biggest political corruption affair until the arrival of Team Bush. But when Bush and Rove occupied the White House, their top retainers started remaking the world of Washington lobbying. “Mr. Republican” from this period was Jack Abramoff, and his sidekick was former Bob Riley legislative assistant Michael Scanlon. Abramoff’s operations entailed extensive dealings with Rove and Bush and with a very large chunk of the Congressional G.O.P. leadership. Indeed, much of it seems to have flowed right out of the office of Tom DeLay.

In 2005, Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein, two of the most astute observers on the Washington scene, called the game for Abramoff and his crew. They had developed the biggest political scam operation in America’s history. ......

[L. Coyote]

1. Hopping along the E-Mail Trail: Springsteen, Abramoff, $16.3 million, "massages, hookers, whatever"

Hopping along the E-Mail Trail: Springsteen, Abramoff, $16.3 million, "massages, hookers, whatever"

Lobbyists: Sports Tickets and Springsteen—The E-Mail Trail
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15081799/site/newsweek

...new e-mails showing that Rove's office had far more extensive conduct with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff than previously acknowledged. The e-mails, obtained by a House committee, show that Rove's executive assistant, Susan Ralston, may have violated a White House ban on accepting gifts...

........Ralston also discussed future business opportunities with Abramoff, such as her plan to help him capitalize on the "rush to get lucrative government contracts" being awarded by the Department of Homeland Security—another possible breach of ethics rules. .........

.......The e-mails show Rove's then chief political deputy, Ken Mehlman, now chairman of the Republican National Committee, had his own repeated contacts with Abramoff—in stark contrast to previous public statements. According to the new records, Abramoff and his associates turned to Mehlman in their bid to obtain $16.3 million in federal funds from the Justice Department to build a jail .........After Justice later approved funding ....another Abramoff associate e-mailed a colleague: "Those guys should get anything they want for the rest of the time they're in office ... Opening Day tickets, Skins v. Giants, oriental massages, hookers, whatever ... " Mehlman denied any wrongdoing..........

From: DEAL OR NO DEAL? Abramoff's and Rove's ex-aide has "useful information" about Abramoff, White House
May-29-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=995236&mesg_id=995236

[L. Coyote]

17. McCain Withheld Controversial Abramoff Email. Did McCain Obstruct Justice?

Did McCain obstruct justice to save the Rs 2006 elections,
and, of course, to pave his own course to the White House?

This is also another scandals's cover-up, that of political prisoner Don Siegelman.
Siegelman would not be in jail (getting beaten) today without McCain's obstruction of justice.

Abramoff was involved in the illegal financing of the Riley's Alabama governor's race.
Affecting the closest of races, narrowly stolen by Riley after a loss.

So, this is also a cover-up of a election theft scandal. Jailing Siegelman covered up
both Riley's illegal financing and the middle of the night alteration of the 2002 election
outcome by a secret, all-Republican illegal recount changing one race enough to alter the outcome.

======= source ======

McCain Withheld Controversial Abramoff Email
Sam Stein - The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/25/mccain-withheld-controver_n_88304.html


On the stump, Sen. John McCain often cites his work tackling the excesses of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff as evidence of his sturdy ethical compass.

A little-known document, however, shows that McCain may have taken steps to protect his Republican colleagues from the scope of his investigation.

In the 2006 Senate report concerning Abramoff's activities, which McCain spearheaded, the Arizona Republican conspicuously left out information detailing how Alabama Gov. Bob Riley was targeted by Abramoff's influence peddling scheme. Riley, a Republican, won election in November 2002, and was reelected in 2006.

In a December 2002 email obtained by the Huffington Post -- which McCain and his staff had access to prior to the issuance of his report -- Abramoff explains to an aide what he would like to see Riley do in return for the "help" he received from Abramoff's tribal clients.

An official with the Mississippi Choctaws "definitely wants Riley to shut down the Poarch Creek operation," Abramoff wrote, "including his announcing that anyone caught gambling there can't qualify for a state contract or something like that."

The note showed not only the reach of Abramoff, but raised questions about Riley's victory in what was the closest gubernatorial election in Alabama history.

[L. Coyote]

18. Oscar winner targets Abramoff, McCain = "Casino Jack and the United States of Money."

Oscar winner targets Abramoff, McCain
Jeffrey Ressner - Feb 26, 2008 - http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8696.html


The filmmaker who won an Academy Award Sunday night for best documentary is next turning his attention to the Jack Abramoff scandal, including GOP presidential candidate John McCain’s role investigating the affair.

Alex Gibney, who made last year's "Taxi to the Dark Side," about the lethal interrogation of an Afghan taxicab driver by American military forces, told Politico his Abramoff film would be coming out later this year. Its tentative title: "Casino Jack and the United States of Money."

McCain "of course" comes up in the film, adds Gibney, who has "put the word out" to the Arizona senator’s presidential campaign for comment. "He certainly plays a role — he ran the hearings, so he's unavoidably involved in the story. Then the questioning extends. Upon further investigation, one looks at his motives and things like that. I don't want to say much more than that, but he is a character in the story."

....

Though he won't reveal who else appears in the film, Gibney got "some people who knew Jack pretty well" to appear on camera. As might be expected, few congressmen or senators cooperated ..............

[L. Coyote]

20. McCain Myth Buster: John McCain and Bob Riley = "... cycle of quid pro quo ..."

McCain Myth Buster: John McCain and Bob Riley
http://www.democrats.org/a/2008/03/mccain_myth_bus_12.php

Today's McCain Myth: John McCain doesn't do political favors for friends.

Though John McCain has repeatedly claimed he took on Jack Abramoff and the Republican culture of corruption, a recent story revealed that McCain covered for his friend, Alabama Governor Bob Riley, who was fighting a tight reelection battle at the time, by refusing to release key evidence that would have linked Riley to the Abramoff scandal. Yesterday, Riley returned the favor by endorsing McCain.

As chair of a committee conducting an investigation on Abramoff, McCain had access to an incriminating email sent just one month after Riley was elected to office detailing what Abramoff wanted Riley to do in return for the contributions Abramoff's tribal clients directed toward his campaign. But instead of including the email in his report on the Abramoff scandal, McCain instead chose to withhold the email, shielding Riley from becoming implicated in the scandal as he was waging a bitter fight to keep his seat, a race that even Karl Rove became involved in.

This cycle of quid pro quo seriously calls McCain's integrity into question and is further evidence that the so-called "maverick" isn't the Washington reformer he claims to be.

..........

[L. Coyote]

21. McCain Received $100,000 From Firm Of Abramoff Notoriety

McCain Received $100,000 From Firm Of Abramoff Notoriety
Sam Stein - The Huffington Post - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/12/mccain-received-100000-_n_86245.html


On the stump, Sen. John McCain has touted his work tackling the excesses of the lobbying industry .... "Ask Jack Abramoff if I'm an insider in Washington," McCain often contends. "You'd probably have to go during visiting hours in the prison ... But how much change did McCain actually effect? And is he all that removed from Washington's special interests?

... the Arizona Republican has accepted more than $100,000 in donations from employees of Greenberg Traurig, the very firm where Abramoff once reigned.

....

All told, McCain has received more than $400,000 from lobbying firms, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. And among his major fundraisers ("bundlers") 59 have been identified as lobbyists by the non-profit organization Public Citizen (http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/indus.asp?id=N00006424&cycle=2008) ......

[L. Coyote]

38. Video = COUNTDOWN: Double Talk Express = McCain sat on Abramoff e-mail, Riley

COUNTDOWN: Double Talk Express = McCain sat on Abramoff e-mail, Riley
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x109317

[L. Coyote]

2. Susan Ralston a "go-between" Abramoff to Rove and his then-deputy, Ken Mehlman

Take note of the timeline. Oct. 12, 2006 was amidst the cover-up by McCain,
et.al., in the election run-up. To what extent was this a "fall-gal" operation,
and to what extent must we now follow the trail deeper into the White House
to the true puppet masters in the crimes?

==================
White House aide resigns in influence-peddling scandal
By Patrick Martin - 12 October 2006
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/oct2006/rals-o12.shtml

The congressional report found that Ralston had accepted expensive tickets from Abramoff to sports events and concerts on at least nine occasions. In the course of at least 69 documented contacts with Abramoff, she served as a go-between to bring his most urgent requests to the notice of Rove and his then-deputy, Ken Mehlman, now chairman of the Republican National Committee.

The report found that Abramoff and his lobbying associates spent nearly $25,000 on meals and tickets for White House officials, much of this on Ralston. One set of four tickets for a Washington Wizards basketball game cost nearly $1,300.

These sums were expended to gain access. Rove, for example, joined Abramoff in his box at an NCAA college basketball tournament game in 2002, although he reimbursed the lobbyist for the cost of the ticket. Afterwards Abramoff boasted to an associate that Rove “told me anytime we need something just let him know through Susan.”

In October 2001, she relayed a memo to Rove from Abramoff about withholding a Republican political endorsement in the Mariana Islands governor’s race. The following day she e-mailed Abramoff, “You win. KR says no endorsement,” reporting that Rove had agreed.

In another case, Mehlman apparently helped an Abramoff-represented Indian tribe get a $16 million federal grant to build a new jail. Abramoff thanked him with free tickets to a rock concert. .........

==============
from May-30-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=995236&mesg_id=1003557

[L. Coyote]

3. Ralston's attorney: Bradford Berenson, associate counsel under Gonzales at White House

According to one of my IT informants, Sidley Austin was recovering lost e-mails. And, what does your attorney say about you?
Ralston's attorney is Bradford Berenson, associate counsel under Gonzales at White House, partner at Sidley Austin.
Were they recovering the Abramoff-White House e-mails of former Abramoff and White House aide Susan Ralston?
Politicization of justice is covering up a much deeper Corrupt Bastards Club, White House Chapter scandal.

THE cover-up of cover-ups? Connections way back in the timeline link many a scandal, as do the money trails.
Note who worked in what areas. White House counsel specializing in Homeland Security, judiciary, detainees,
Patriot Act defending Ralston? Is the defense for the White House or a client? Or, is the conspiracy continuing?


====================
Bradford A. Berenson is one of the original eight associate counsels during Alberto Gonzales's tenure as White House counsel.

Bradford Berenson Returns to Sidley Austin Brown & Wood After Two Years as Associate Counsel to the President
http://www.sidley.com/news/pub.asp?PubID=17153282003

Represented Executive on Issues from Homeland Security to the USA Patriot Act

.... associate White House counsel under President George W. Bush, ... appointed by the president in January 2001 ... Berenson’s responsibilities included work on judicial selection, executive privilege, and responses to congressional oversight efforts. .... He worked on the USA Patriot Act, the military order authorizing the use of military commissions, detainee policy and anti-terrorism litigation, presidential action against terrorist financing, and the restructuring of the federal government to create a new Department of Homeland Security.

Mr. Berenson ... previously worked on the defense of complex white collar criminal matters... defended criminal cases at every stage of development, from corporate internal investigations and grand jury proceedings through trials, sentencings, and appeals, in areas as diverse as government contracts, environmental crime, health care, and public corruption ...

Berenson ... clerked for... Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court.

[L. Coyote]

5. Bradford A. Berenson defends Bush spying, "the president's executive powers as commander in chief."

Perhaps someone failed to inform the legal staff that "commander-in-chief" applies to the military.
Last I noted, this was a democracy, not a one-person dictatorship!

The illegal surveillance was known to White House legal staff,
and Berenson was not onlyy involved, but out front on the defensive.

=======================================================================
Bradford A. Berenson, Ralston's USA firings lawyer, defends Bush spying.
Ralston and Sampson lawyer, former SCOTUS clerk involved in the Florida recount, and Bush deputy counsel, defends NSA spying.

'78 Law Sought to Close Spy Loophole
By David G. Savage - LA Times - 17 Dec 2005 - http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121705A.shtml

"I wasn't aware of this when I was at the White House, but there was a tremendous sense of urgency to take whatever steps were necessary to detect and disrupt any cells that were out there," said Bradford A. Berenson, a White House lawyer during Bush's first term. "The president was not going to let it be said that he had not used all the powers at his disposal to protect the American people."

This would not be the first time Bush has claimed that his power as commander in chief can override the law. .......

William C. Banks, a widely respected authority on national security law at Syracuse University, said the NSA revelation came as a shock, even given the administration's past assertions of presidential powers. "I was frankly astonished by the story," he said. "My head is spinning."... the president's power as commander in chief "is really limited to situations involving military force - anything needed to repel an attack. I don't think the commander in chief power allows" the warrantless eavesdropping, he said.

Mr. Berenson, the former White House associate counsel, said that in rare cases, the presidents' advisers may decide that an existing law violates the Constitution "by invading the president's executive powers as commander in chief." ........

----------------
From: DIA SPYING: NGIA collecting data, 133 U.S. cities, ID everyone, nationality, political affiliations
May-27-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x983282

[Supersedeas]

4. so noted

[hootinholler]

6. Horton has been on fire this month!

One hard hitting essay after another.

-Hoot

[L. Coyote]

7. A real strain on the series of tubes. This link needs a modem alert = 1263 Blog Posts

Scott Horton — Writer of — 1263 Blog Posts
http://harpers.org/subjects/ScottHorton/WriterOf/BlogEntry

[L. Coyote]

19. Isn't/Wasn't he a McCain supporter? ??

[hootinholler]

22. I have no idea.

I'll take the honesty over ideology every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

-Hoot

[L. Coyote]

8. David H. Safavian, White House Official, Arrested in Abramoff Corruption Probe

Looking for a Hurricane Katrina tie-in. Procurement.
Corruption knows no bounds mixing Rs with USG spending.
Safavian is a longtime friend of lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Abramoff, Ralston, Mehlman, Berenson, Gonzales, Safavian, Reed, Rove, Volz, Ney, Norquist.....
what a White House crew of buddies.
This is a hen house with nothing but foxes protecting a skunk! :rofl:

==================
Bush Official Arrested in Corruption Probe
R. Jeffrey Smith and Susan Schmidt - WA Post - Sept 20, 2005; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091901859.html


The Bush administration's top federal procurement official resigned Friday and was arrested yesterday, accused of lying and obstructing a criminal investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff ... the first criminal complaint filed against a government official in the ongoing corruption probe related to Abramoff ...

Safavian, 38, a White House procurement official involved until last week in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, made repeated false statements to government officials and investigators about a golf trip with Abramoff to Scotland in 2002.

Until his resignation on the day the criminal complaint against him was signed, Safavian was the top administrator at the federal procurement office in the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he set purchasing policy for the entire government.

Accompanying Safavian and Abramoff on the 2002 trip to Scotland ... Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Administration Committee, lobbyist and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed and Neil Volz, a lobbyist with Abramoff at the Washington office of Greenburg Traurig.

Like Abramoff, Safavian is a veteran Washington player. He is a former lobbying partner of anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist and previously worked with Abramoff at another firm.

=================================
David Safavian - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Safavian

........a former chief of staff of the United States General Services Administration (GSA) and convicted criminal ......from Detroit, Michigan
.... In Michigan, he served as an aide to Congressmen Robert William Davis (R-MI) and Bill Schuette (R-MI)...

... a longtime friend of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In the mid-1990s, the two worked at the Washington-based lobbying firm of Preston Gates & Ellis. There they brought in millions to the firm while working on the Mississippi Choctaw tribal account. ...

In 1997, Safavian and Grover Norquist founded a lobbying firm, the Merritt Group, which was renamed Janus-Merritt Strategies (and is sometimes referred to as "Janus Merritt" or simply "Janus"). The tenor of the firm was fiercely ideological. .........

On November 4th, 2003, President George W. Bush announced Safavian's nomination to be the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President.<5>, where he set purchasing policy for the entire government.

On June 20, 2006, Safavian was found guilty by a jury in federal court on four of five felony charges.

[L. Coyote]

27. J. Steven Griles Ordered to Prison, Highest-Ranked Bush Administration Convict

Former Official Ordered to Prison in Abramoff Scandal
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11...

NPR.org, June 27, 2007 · A federal judge on Wednesday doubled the prison sentence of the Interior Department's former number two official, sentencing him to 10 months in prison for lying to Senate investigators about the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and refusing to accept responsibility in court.

J. Steven Griles was the Interior Department's deputy secretary and is the highest administration official sentenced in the probe. Griles had entered a plea agreement with prosecutors in which he agreed to plead guilty to obstructing a congressional investigation in exchange for a 5-month prison sentence.

But at the sentencing hearing, Griles' attorneys appeared to make excuses for their client's false statements to Senate investigators, evoking the judge's wrath and leading her to double his prison time.

"Even now you continue to minimize and try to excuse your conduct," said U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle

Griles admitted to lying to Senate investigators about his relationship with Abramoff, ......


===================
From: ABRAMOFF Scandal: J. Steven Griles Ordered to Prison, Highest-Ranked Bush Administration Convict
Jun-27-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1198838

[L. Coyote]

30. Abramoff-Scanlon School of Sleaze: Griles, Federici, Safavian, Flanigan, Norton, McCain

Abramoff-Scanlon School of Sleaze
Michael Scherer - Nov. 3, 2005 - http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/11/03/abramoff/index.html


Up-and-coming Republican hacks would do well to watch closely the ongoing Senate investigations of superstar lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his former business partner Michael Scanlon. The power duo stand accused of exploiting Native American tribes to the tune of roughly $66 million, laundering that money into bank accounts they controlled and then using it to buy favors for powerful members of Congress and the executive branch ...

... a long line of scandalous revelations about Abramoff's lobbying operation ... under investigation by two Senate committees and the Justice Department ... Indian Affairs committee is scheduled to hold one more hearing on Abramoff before issuing a report; it still needs to gather testimony from Italia Federici, a close associate of Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Federici is accused of setting up a meeting for Abramoff with Interior Department officials after her nonprofit company, Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, received six-figure donations from Abramoff's clients. Environmentalists charge that Federici's company -- which was founded by Norton -- is a front for big industry polluters. Federici was scheduled to testify Wednesday, but has so far ducked a Senate subpoena. "I believe U.S. marshals will do their duty," McCain said. "She has been unable to be located."

... the former top procurement official in the White House, David Safavian, has been arrested on charges of lying about a trip he took to Scotland with Abramoff. Another former White House official, Timothy Flanigan, recently withdrew his nomination to become deputy attorney general, after it became clear that he would have to testify under oath to the Senate about his relationship with Abramoff ...

On Wednesday, a third former Bush administration official, J. Steven Griles, was asked to account for his relationship with Abramoff, which is detailed in dozens of e-mails obtained by the Senate. Griles claimed that he had never done Abramoff's bidding, despite Abramoff's own boasts that Griles was working on his behalf, and might even consider a job at Greenberg Traurig ...

... Michael Rossetti, a former counsel to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who said Griles had shown a "very keen interest" on one matter where Abramoff had an interest. "Mr. Rossetti has a different memory on that issue than I do," said Griles, who appeared distraught ...

[L. Coyote]

40. The greening of Italia Federici = GOP operative Jack Abramoff gave $500,000

The greening of Italia Federici
By Michael Scherer
To buy influence at the White House, GOP operative Jack Abramoff gave $500,000 in tribal loot to a Gale Norton pal who heads an "environmental" nonprofit.
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/11/18/federici/index.html

Nov 18, 2005 | Italia Federici is a minor Republican player in Washington, the sort of dime-a-dozen functionary who can build a career trading favors in backrooms and producing political campaigns for moneyed interests.....

For the past five years, Federici has limited her public activities to supporting President Bush's environmental plans. She claims that traditional environmentalists, groups like the Sierra Club and Democrats like Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., are dishonest and deceptive. But that is just the public face of Federici. In private, she has played a very different role in Washington, one that has now put her in the middle of one of the largest political ethics scandals in a decade.

On Thursday, she appeared before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to explain under oath her relationship with Jack Abramoff .....She called McCain's investigation a "witch hunt," adding that she believed the senator might hold a grudge because she had opposed a bipartisan bill on air quality that McCain had sponsored.

.....

"That is unbelievable," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who is co-chairman of the committee. ..... "Somehow none of this adds up," he continued. "This committee, in my judgment, has had people testify, and, in my judgment, some of the testimony was fraudulent. We need to find out who, because there are consequences to that."

[flashl]

9. The largest scandal because a possible 300+ members of Congress names are on Abramoff's list. nt

[L. Coyote]

13. from opensecrets.org Abramoff, Jack Political contributions, from Ollie North onward.

Abramoff's first recorded contribution is to Oliver North.
Doesn't that say it all! Here are the check he cut in his own name:

Results: 		228 records		
Amount		Date		Recipient
$1,000 		3/29/2000		Abraham, Spencer
$1,000 		10/9/2000		Abraham, Spencer
$250 		9/28/1996		Aderholt, Robert
$1,000 		5/13/1998		Alby, Barbara
$1,000 		4/28/2000		Allen, George
$2,500 		10/19/2001		American Liberty PAC
$500 		8/2/1995		Americans for a Republican Majority
$5,000 		1/14/1997		Americans for a Republican Majority
$2,000 		2/12/1999		Americans for a Republican Majority
$5,000 		4/25/2002		Americans for a Republican Majority
$5,000 		2/27/2003		Americans for a Republican Majority
$5,000 		11/20/2003		Americans for a Republican Majority
($5,000)	2/17/2004		Americans for a Republican Majority
$250 		10/9/1996		Armey, Dick
$1,000 		6/22/1999		Ashcroft, John
$1,000 		6/10/2002		Battle Born PAC
$1,500 		3/17/2003		Bond, Christopher S 'Kit'
$500 		6/26/1998		Bordonaro, Molly H
$1,000 		12/24/1997		Bordonaro, Tom
$1,000 		2/2/1998		Bordonaro, Tom
$1,000 		5/8/1998		Brooks, Susan
$500 		9/30/1996		Brownback, Sam
$1,000 		11/3/2003		Bunning, Jim
$1,000 		9/20/1996		Burton, Dan
$1,000 		6/24/1997		Burton, Dan
$1,000 		6/22/1999		Burton, Dan
$1,000 		5/2/2000		Burton, Dan
$1,000 		6/30/1999		Bush, George W
$2,000 		6/23/2003		Bush, George W
$1,000 		3/13/2003		Cannon, Chris
$1,000 		12/2/2003		Cannon, Chris
($2,000)	3/31/2006		Cannon, Chris
$1,000 		5/17/2000		Cantor, Eric
$1,000 		5/8/2001		Cantor, Eric
$1,000 		7/29/2002		Cantor, Eric
$2,000 		3/19/2003		Cantor, Eric
$1,000 		11/2/2002		Chambliss, Saxby
$1,000 		9/24/1996		Chenoweth, Helen
$1,000 		4/11/1997		Chenoweth, Helen
$250 		10/8/1996		Christensen, Jon
$250 		9/27/1996		Chrysler, Dick
$250 		9/29/1996		Coburn, Tom
$1,000 		12/4/2001		Cochran, Thad
$1,000 		6/29/2002		Cornyn, John
$250 		9/27/1996		Cox, Christopher
$1,000 		9/24/1996		Crane, Philip M
$1,000 		2/19/1998		Crane, Philip M
$250 		9/30/1996		Cremeans, Frank A
$250 		9/30/1996		Cubin, Barbara
$500 		3/31/2000		Davis, Tom
$1,000 		10/2/1995		DeLay, Tom
$1,000 		10/2/1995		DeLay, Tom
$1,000 		1/22/1997		DeLay, Tom
$1,000 		1/27/1997		DeLay, Tom
$1,000 		2/23/1999		DeLay, Tom
$1,000 		2/23/1999		DeLay, Tom
$1,000 		2/23/1999		DeLay, Tom
$1,000 		2/23/1999		DeLay, Tom
($1,000)	3/20/1999		DeLay, Tom
($1,000)	3/20/1999		DeLay, Tom
$1,000 		1/12/2001		DeLay, Tom
$1,000 		3/6/2003		DeLay, Tom
$1,000 		6/10/2002		Dole, Elizabeth
$1,000 		10/3/1999		Doolittle, John T
$1,000 		5/29/2000		Doolittle, John T
$1,000 		5/23/2001		Doolittle, John T
$1,000 		12/28/2001		Doolittle, John T
$1,000 		9/17/1996		Dunn, Jennifer
$500 		2/12/1999		Ehrlich, Bob
$500 		2/2/2000		Emerson, Mark
$1,000 		9/12/1996		English, Phil
$1,000 		2/6/2003		Ensign, John
$1,000 		3/14/2003		Ensign, John
$2,000 		3/14/2003		Ensign, John
$1,000 		7/9/1999		Enzi, Mike
$500 		11/10/1997		Faircloth, Lauch
$1,000 		6/30/1998		Faircloth, Lauch
$1,000 		11/26/2001		Ferguson, Mike
$5,000 		6/16/2003		First Freedoms Fund
$1,000 		3/22/2000		Flotron, Francis E
$1,000 		5/25/2001		Forbes, J Randy
$5,000 		2/22/2001		Friends of the Big Sky
$2,500 		10/20/2000		Fund for a Free Market America
$1,000 		9/19/1996		Funderburk, David
$500 		6/28/1999		Gerow, Charles R
$500 		10/29/2002		Gingrey, Phil
$1,000 		3/31/2000		Gormley, William L
$1,000 		6/30/1995		Gramm, Phil
$1,000 		6/26/2002		Grant, Carolyn W
$1,000 		3/29/2003		Grassley, Chuck
$1,000 		3/29/2003		Grassley, Chuck
$250 		10/3/1996		Gutknecht, Gil
$500 		11/7/1997		Hastings, Richard "Doc"
$5,000 		7/18/2003		Hawkeye PAC
$250 		9/30/1996		Hayworth, J D
$1,000 		6/8/1998		Hayworth, J D
$250 		9/30/1996		Hill, Rick
$250 		9/25/1996		Hilleary, Van
$1,000 		10/20/1997		Hilleary, Van
$500 		6/7/1999		Hilleary, Van
$1,000 		3/27/1998		Hofmeister, Gary A
$1,000 		3/21/2002		Hutchinson, Tim
$1,000 		3/21/2002		Hutchinson, Tim
$1,000 		9/15/2000		Hutchison, Claude B Jr
$1,000 		2/21/2002		Inhofe, James M
$2,000 		10/18/2003		Isakson, Johnny
$1,000 		2/3/2003		Istook, Ernest J
$250 		4/22/2002		Janklow, Bill
$250 		9/29/1996		Jones, Walter B Jr
$1,000 		3/8/1999		Jones, Walter B Jr
$1,000 		10/15/2002		Kaloi, Kimo
$2,500 		6/16/2003		Keep Our Majority PAC
$1,000 		1/24/2001		Keller, Ric
$1,000 		8/31/2001		Kingston, Jack
$250 		10/3/1996		Largent, Steve
$1,000 		8/20/1998		Latham, Tom
$250 		11/3/1999		Lazio, Rick A
$2,000 		4/23/2003		Leadership PAC 2004
$500 		9/30/1996		Lefever, Tim
$1,000 		6/22/2001		LoBiondo, Frank A
($1,000)	8/17/2005		LoBiondo, Frank A
$1,000 		9/30/2000		McCollum, Bill
$250 		12/7/1995		Metcalf, Jack
$250 		9/30/1996		Mitnick, John
$1,000 		9/14/1998		Monday Morning PAC
$1,000 		9/14/1998		Monday Morning PAC
$1,000 		10/18/2002		Morella, Connie
$500 		9/30/1996		Nethercutt, George
$1,000 		9/30/2003		Nethercutt, George R Jr
$5,000 		7/17/2001		New Jersey Republican State Cmte
$250 		9/28/1996		Ney, Bob
$1,000 		6/30/2000		Ney, Bob
$1,000 		3/19/2001		Ney, Bob
$5,000 		11/2/1998		North Carolina Republican Executive Cmte
$1,000 		5/12/1994		North, Oliver
$1,000 		4/30/2003		Ose, Doug
$500 		10/18/2001		Otter, C L 'Butch'
$500 		9/30/2002		Otter, C L 'Butch'
$250 		9/30/1996		Paul, Ron
$250 		9/25/1996		Perry, Brent
$500 		8/11/1998		Phillips, Howard
$1,000 		2/8/1996		Pickering, Charles "Chip" Jr
$500 		6/14/1999		Pickering, Charles "Chip" Jr
$1,000 		12/6/2001		Pickering, Charles "Chip" Jr
$1,000 		10/24/2002		Pickering, Charles "Chip" Jr
$500 		9/1/1998		Pirozzi, Elia Vincent
$500 		6/14/1999		Pirozzi, Elia Vincent
$894 		6/19/2000		Pitts, Joe
$2,000 		1/22/2003		Pombo, Richard
$500 		9/12/1996		Pombo, Richard W
$5,000 		4/22/1997		Preston, Gates et al
$500 		3/1/1999		Preston, Gates et al
$1,000 		7/31/2001		Regula, Ralph
$1,000 		4/21/2000		Rehberg, Denny
$1,000 		4/9/2001		Rehberg, Denny
$5,000 		6/1/1999		Rely on Your Beliefs
$1,500 		2/25/2000		Rely on Your Beliefs
$1,000 		10/24/2001		Rely on Your Beliefs
$1,000 		3/18/2003		Rely on Your Beliefs
$5,000 		1/31/2003		Republican Majority Fund
$1,000 		5/29/1998		Rhodes, Arthur D
$5,000 		9/29/2003		Rich PAC
$500 		5/17/2000		Riley, Bob
$500 		3/26/1996		Rohrabacher, Dana
$1,000 		9/20/1996		Rohrabacher, Dana
$1,000 		10/20/1997		Rohrabacher, Dana
$1,000 		2/15/1999		Rohrabacher, Dana
$1,000 		5/24/1999		Rohrabacher, Dana
$1,000 		11/1/1999		Rohrabacher, Dana
$1,000 		2/25/2000		Rohrabacher, Dana
($1,000)	4/11/2000		Rohrabacher, Dana
($1,000)	4/11/2000		Rohrabacher, Dana
$1,000 		3/13/2003		Rohrabacher, Dana
($5,500)	1/6/2006		Rohrabacher, Dana
$500 		6/13/2000		Royce, Ed
$949 		6/19/2000		Ryan, Paul
$250 		10/7/1996		Ryun, Jim
($1,000)	12/7/2004		Saxton, Jim
$1,000 		7/15/1997		Scarborough, Joe
$5,000 		6/25/2002		Senate Victory Fund
$2,000 		5/2/2003		Senate Victory Fund
$1,000 		2/7/2003		Shelby, Richard C
($1,000)	1/3/2006		Shelby, Richard C
$250 		4/30/2001		Simmons, Rob
$250 		5/22/2002		Simmons, Rob
$750 		5/22/2002		Simmons, Rob
$1,000 		10/22/2002		Simpson, Mike
$920 		5/12/2000		Smith, Bob
$1,000 		2/28/2001		Smith, Bob
$1,000 		2/28/2001		Smith, Bob
($920)		5/12/2001		Smith, Bob
($1,920)	6/8/2002		Smith, Bob
($920)		6/8/2002		Smith, Bob
$1,000 		6/29/2002		Smith, Bob
($1,000)	11/9/2002		Smith, Bob
$1,000 		11/9/2002		Smith, Bob
$250 		10/25/1995		Smith, Gordon
$1,000 		5/11/2001		Smith, Gordon H
$1,000 		3/22/2002		Smith, Gordon H
($1,000)	5/3/2002		Smith, Gordon H
$1,000 		5/3/2002		Smith, Gordon H
$250 		9/30/1996		Snowbarger, Vince
$2,000 		3/29/2003		Specter, Arlen
$1,000 		9/30/2002		Stevens, Ted
$500 		10/23/1996		Stockman, Steve
$250 		9/24/1996		Sununu, John E
$1,000 		12/8/1997		Susan B Anthony List
$1,000 		6/10/2002		Talent, James M
$1,000 		6/12/2002		Talent, James M
($2,000)	8/8/2005		Talent, James M
$1,000 		9/17/1996		Tate, Randy
$250 		9/27/1999		Taylor, Charles H
$2,000 		4/11/2003		Taylor, Charles H
$250 		9/30/1996		Teague, Edward B
$1,000 		2/28/1999		Team PAC
$1,000 		11/25/2002		Terrell, Suzanne
$1,000 		11/25/2002		Terrell, Suzanne
$1,000 		11/25/2002		Terrell, Suzanne
$1,000 		6/10/2002		Thune, John
$3,000 		2/9/1999		United States Family PAC
$250 		9/27/1996		Watts, J C
$1,000 		5/21/2003		Weldon, Curt
$500 		5/2/2000		Weller, Jerry
$250 		9/12/1996		Wicker, Roger
$1,000 		3/30/2002		Wilson, Heather
$250 		9/30/1996		Wittig, Suzanne Dear
$985 		9/1/1999		Young Jewish Leadership PAC
$500 		3/25/2002		Young, Tom

[L. Coyote]

10. Hopping along the Money Trail, The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail

The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail
Nonprofit Group Linked to Lawmaker Was Funded Mostly by Clients of Lobbyist
R. Jeffrey Smith - WA Post - Dec 31, 2005; Page A01 - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/30/AR2005123001480.html


The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.

During its five-year existence, the U.S. Family Network raised $2.5 million but kept its donor list secret. The list, obtained by The Washington Post, shows that $1 million of its revenue came in a single 1998 check from a now-defunct London law firm whose former partners would not identify the money's origins.

.........The former president of the U.S. Family Network said Buckham told him that Russians contributed $1 million to the group in 1998 specifically to influence DeLay's vote on legislation the International Monetary Fund needed to finance a bailout of the collapsing Russian economy. .....

.....half a million dollars was donated to the U.S. Family Network by the owners of textile companies in the Mariana Islands in the Pacific, according to the tax records. The textile owners -- with Abramoff's help -- solicited and received DeLay's public commitment to block legislation that would boost their labor costs, according to Abramoff associates, one of the owners and a DeLay speech in 1997. ......

........Although established as a nonprofit organization, it paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees to Buckham and his lobbying firm, Alexander Strategy Group. ............

.......LONG TRAIL w/ LOTS OF MONEY .........

[L. Coyote]

37. "Happy Birthday" to Delay, Abramoff, Buckhams, Tan, golfing and a cockfight in the Marianas

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/25/AR2006032501166_4.html

....

Tan aide ... Benigno Fitial ... sang "Happy Birthday" to DeLay in the whip's office. He sent Buckham an e-mail after the trip expressing appreciation for his support and recalling Buckham's explanation that one of his roles was to "stop legislation from getting on the floor of the House." ... Tan's network of companies had written five checks of $10,000 each to USFN, and Buckham's wife had claimed $10,000 in "commissions" on these .... the first of 23 payments by Tan's companies to the group, which eventually totaled $650,000.

Later in 1997, Wendy Buckham claimed another $10,000 in commissions on Tan's checks, and in 1998, the couple's jointly owned consulting firm took another $20,000 in commissions explicitly attributed to the Tan donations ... Many other "commissions" collected by the couple....

DeLay saw Tan ... a December 1997 trip arranged with the help of Abramoff and his lobby firm. After brunching with Tan on his first full day, followed by a round of golf with Tan and others, DeLay attended a dinner in his honor sponsored by Tan's holding company at the local Pacific Islands Club.

DeLay ... called Abramoff "one of my closest and dearest friends," according to a copy. DeLay also reminded Tan and his colleagues of his earlier promise that no wage and immigration legislation would be passed.

.....

No Marianas immigration or wage reform legislation passed Congress. Aides to Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), a key sponsor, say that Senate-passed legislation was never taken up by any House committee.

[Rex]

11. My greatest hope is that evey dirty rat that participated in the fall of America

every dishonest corporate suit, every unethical lobbyist (there has to be at least one good one), every Congress or Executive or Judicial critter that helped our economy into freefall, every middle man that made money off of; war, famine, injustice, death, other peoples misery, pays with their livelihood for the damage done.

Yeah I said it, pays with their livelihood. If they die, then they won't get to experience how we working stiffs feel. To easy of a way out. Let them work 9 to 5 at Jack in the Box. Death is to nice for them.

Ultimately, they deserve nothing but scorn and spit.

[L. Coyote]

12. Abramoff and Rove Linked to Prosecution of Don Siegelman and Campaign Finances

Rove Linked to Prosecution of Ex-Alabama Governor
By ADAM ZAGORIN - Jun. 01, 2007 - http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1627427,00.html?xid=rss-nation

WASHINGTON - In the rough and tumble of Alabama politics, the scramble for power is often a blood sport. At the moment, the state's former Democratic governor, Don Siegelman, stands convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges and faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. Siegelman has long claimed that his prosecution was driven by politically motivated, Republican-appointed U.S. attorneys.

Now Karl Rove, the President's top political strategist, has been implicated in the controversy. A long time Republican lawyer in Alabama swears she heard a top G.O.P. operative in the state say that Rove "had spoken with the Department of Justice" about "pursuing" Siegelman, with help from two of Alabama's U.S. attorneys. ..............

========================
Gambling, GOP Politics Intertwine
Casino Payments Seen as Influential
Michael Kranish - June 3, 2005 - Boston Globe - http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0603-08.htm

WASHINGTON -- George W. Bush gave the nation's gambling industry plenty of reason to fear his presidency. .... He wooed religious conservatives by boasting in a presidential debate about his ''strong antigambling record."

But as president, Bush has not spoken out against gambling. .... as Republican lobbyists and activist groups collected tens of millions of dollars from Indian tribes seeking to preserve their casinos. Now those payments are the focus of Senate and Justice Department investigations.

... White House ... annual sessions over a four-year period that were arranged by antitax crusader Grover Norquist ... After Bush dropped his antigambling rhetoric, lobbyists touted their access, and fund-raising from Indian tribes grew exponentially.

...Norquist('s) ... organization received $1.5 million from tribes and fought a tax on Indian casinos; lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a top Bush fund-raiser who earned millions of dollars in fees as a consultant to gaming tribes; and Ralph Reed ... allegedly used some money from Indian gaming tribes to fund his efforts to close down rival casinos and lotteries

.........Bush worked closely with religious conservatives, especially Reed....

..... Tiguas poured tens of thousands of dollars into the campaign of the Democrat running against Bush in 1998 .... Bush redoubled his earlier efforts to shut down the Tigua casino. ... special appropriation ... for the state's attorney general, John Cornyn, now a US senator, to take legal action against the tribe.....

Abramoff, who helped arrange for the rival tribes to give the money to Reed's group, turned around and offered his services to the Tiguas -- for $4.2 million in fees split between himself and a partner

..... Abramoff and his partner in Indian gaming consulting would receive more than $60 million in fees from six different tribes seeking to advance their gambling interests ... Abramoff also told the tribes to give money ... the tribes gave $3 million, two-thirds of it to Republicans

.... Abramoff and Norquist .. worked (for) ... candidate ... following year, Abramoff and Norquist came to Washington together to lead the Republican Party's national effort to recruit college students. Reed soon joined ...


In 1999, Don Siegelman, the Democratic governor of Alabama, proposed a lottery that would have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into public schools and even provided free college education for most Alabama high school graduates.

Reed, rallying religious conservatives, set out to try to defeat it ... quickly raised $1.15 million .... money came from Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform. Norquist ... got the funds from an Indian gaming tribe ...At the time Reed raised the money, he was working for Abramoff ... and Abramoff represented the Mississippi tribe.

Siegelman ..."'I don't know how they can sleep at night taking money from the Indian casinos to deny Alabama schoolchildren...."

.... Abramoff, meanwhile, appears to be the central focus ....Bush has not spoken on the matter.

==============
From: Abramoff and Kark Rove Linked to Prosecution of Ex-Alabama Governor and Campaign Finances
Jun-01-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1023111

[L. Coyote]

14. Indictment names imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff

Indictment names imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff
March 14th, 2008 5:07 AM HST - AP - http://www.kpua.net/news.php?id=14186

HAGATNA, Guam (AP) _ Imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff has been added as a defendant in an indictment against former Superior Court of Guam Administrative Director Tony Sanchez.
The ten-count indictment accuses Sanchez of funneling $324,000 to Abramoff and his company, Greenberg Traurig LLP, for lobbying activities before Congress.
Sanchez allegedly retained Abramoff in 2002 to lobby against a measure to place the Superior Court under the authority of the Guam Supreme Court.
As a U.S territory, Guam is under the jurisdiction of the Interior Department.

==============
Abramoff's former law firm comments on new indictment
by Mindy Aguon, KUAM News - March 13, 2008 - http://www.kuam.com/news/26861.aspx


Claiming to be one of many victims of former powerhouse lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the now convicted felon's former employer, the Greenberg Traurig law firm, has responded to criminal charges handed down in an indictment earlier this week. ...

Greenberg Traurig was named in the indictment along with Abramoff and former Superior Court of Guam administrative director Tony Sanchez. They are accused of improperly using more than $300,000 from the Superior Court for lobbying services, as well as various expenses of Greenberg Traurig employees, including political assistance, research on Open Skies, travel, golf trips, and numerous dinners at Abramoff's restaurant, Signatures.

[L. Coyote]

15. Sanchez, Abramoff, law firm named in second superseding indictment

Sanchez, Abramoff, law firm named in second superseding indictment
Mindy Aguon, KUAM News - March 12, 2008 - http://www.kuam.com/news/26861.aspx

At this time last year KUAM News brought you the in-depth report "The Abramoff Connection: Guam's Paper Trail and the Hiring of Jack Abramoff" (http://www.kuam.com/news/21235.aspx). In the expose we uncovered a multitude of non-judicial related activities the Superior Court paid for under the guise of a lobbyist contract. And now the Office of the Guam Attorney General has filed new charges not only against a former government official, but the former powerhouse lobbyist and his former law firm.

Despite facing numerous criminal charges, California attorney Howard Hills has been cooperating with local authorities when it comes to his involvement with the Superior Court of Guam. Prosecutor Lewis Littlepage confirmed Hills, "Has been cooperating with us fully, and it's because of his efforts that we've been able to uncover a lot of the information that we have used."

In May 2002 then-Superior Court administrator Tony Sanchez employed Hills and Abramoff to lobby .....

In a superseding indictment obtained on Tuesday, a Superior Court grand jury not only included additional charges against Sanchez for ordering the more than thirty $9,000 payments totaling $324,000 to circumvent procurement and supplement management policy and procedures of the Judicial Branch, but Abramoff and his former law firm, Greenberg Traurig.

The charges include unlawful influence, theft of property held in trust, misapplication of entrusted funds, theft by deception and conspiracy.

......... much more ........

[troubleinwinter]

16. You must not worry about this!

They are digging!

[L. Coyote]

23. Bill Moyers: DeLay, Abramoff, and The Public Trust

DeLay, Abramoff, and The Public Trust
Bill Moyers - February 28, 2006 - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-moyers/delay-abramoff-and-the-_b_16534.html


Back in the first Gilded Age, Boies Penrose was a United States senator from Pennsylvania who had been put and kept in office by the railroad tycoons and oil barons. He assured the moguls: "I believe in the division of labor. You send us to Congress; we pass laws under which you make money... and out of your profits you further contribute to our campaign funds to send us back again to pass more laws to enable you to make more money."

Gilded Ages - then and now - have one thing in common: Audacious and shameless people for whom the very idea of the public trust is a cynical joke.....
You see the breach clearly with Tom DeLay. As he became the king of campaign fundraising ....

DeLay was a man on the move and on the take. But he needed help to sustain the cash flow. He found it in a fellow right wing ideologue named Jack Abramoff. Abramoff personifies the Republican money machine of which DeLay with the blessing of the House leadership was the major domo.
Just last month Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to bribe public officials, a spectacular fall for a man whose rise to power began 25 years ago with his election as Chairman of the College Republicans. Despite its innocuous name, the organization became a political attack machine for the Far Right and a launching pad for younger conservatives on the make. "Our job," Abramoff, then 22 years old, wrote after his first visit to the Reagan White House, "is to remove liberals from power permanently student newspaper and radio stations, student governments, and academia." Karl Rove had once held the same job as chairman. So did Grover Norquist, who ran Abramoff's campaign. A youthful $200-a-month intern named Ralph Reed was at their side. These were the rising young stars of the conservative movement who came to town to lead a revolution and stayed to run a racket.

Abramoff made his name, so to speak, representing Indian tribes with gambling interests. As his partner he hired a DeLay crony named Michael Scanlon. ....

[L. Coyote]

24. President Bush and Jack Abramoff meetings " reportedly have been frequent"

The Justice Department’s On-Going ‘State Secrets’ Charade
Scott Horton - Dec 2, 2007 - http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/12/hbc-90001814


When is information a “state secret” and thus completely exempt from disclosure in legal process, even if its exclusion will produce a manifest injustice? In previous episodes, we have gotten an array of different answers. For instance, we learned that when the Government engages in criminal violations of the FISA statute conspiring with telecommunications companies in the process, with the result that the communications of American citizens are subject to unlawful warrantless surveillance—this is a “state secret.” And likewise, when the Government picks up an innocent man, wrongfully confines him and deprives him of access to counsel and due process, then transports him overseas for the purposes of having him tortured—again a series of criminal acts—this is also a “state secret.” And today we get yet a further installment in what the Bush Justice Department considers to be a “state secret.” It appears that when a convicted felon at the heart of what Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann have labeled the “biggest corruption scandal in American history” pays hundreds of visits to the White House, meeting with the President, the Vice President, and the President’s senior political advisor, and potentially involving them directly or indirectly in his criminal schemes, this, too, is a “state secret” and thus cannot be divulged.

I think we’re detecting a pattern here. “State secrets” it seems has nothing to do with signals intelligence, military planning or armaments—the things traditionally associated with state secrets. No, when the Bush Justice Department uses the term, it means something else: it refers to information which, if disclosed, would be politically embarrassing to the Republican Party, and as to which no other privilege is available. The “state secrets” privilege has literally emerged as the Bush Administration’s new get-out-of-jail-free card.

The AP’s Pete Yost reports:

The Bush Administration is laying out a new secrecy defense in an effort to end a court battle about the White House visits of now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff. (Secrecy Invoked on Abramoff Lawsuits - http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jqNPqvQT05DQyiW1KlCSU0XQpPBgD8T8SKGG0)

.....

White House responses to inquiries up to this point have furnished specific evidence of intentional evasion–what in other circumstances (as for instance when it is enforcing rather than subverting the law) the Justice Department would call “obstruction of justice.” For instance, Vice President Cheney gave specific guidance to the Secret Service to destroy records of visits to his office and to stop the practice of recording future visits. President Bush made a number of statements refusing to give a specific account of his meetings with Abramoff, which reportedly have been frequent.

.... MUST READ ....

==============
From: President Bush and Jack Abramoff meetings " reportedly have been frequent"
Dec-02-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2392986

http://images.dailykos.com.nyud.net:8080/images/user/1237/Abramoff.jpg

[L. Coyote]

25. Abramoff and his lobbying team logged nearly 200 contacts with the new administration

Controversial lobbyist had close contact with Bush team
5/6/2005 - http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-05-06-abramoff-bush_x.htm


WASHINGTON (AP) — In President Bush's first 10 months, GOP fundraiser Jack Abramoff and his lobbying team logged nearly 200 contacts with the new administration as they pressed for friendly hires at federal agencies and sought to keep the Northern Mariana Islands exempt from the minimum wage and other laws, records show.

The meetings between Abramoff's lobbying team and the administration ranged from Attorney General John Ashcroft to policy advisers in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, according to his lobbying firm billing records.

Abramoff, a $100,000-plus fundraiser for Bush ........

[L. Coyote]

41. Abramoff's "rock star" = Ken Mehlman, Abramoff's go-to guy in the White House.

Abramoff's "rock star"
An e-mail trail suggests that current Republican National Committee head Ken Mehlman was lobbyist Jack Abramoff's go-to guy in the White House.
By Mark Benjamin - Oct. 16, 2006 - http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/10/16/mehlman_abramoff/index.html?source=search&aim=/news/feature


Ken Mehlman, head of the Republican Party, insists he doesn't have a Jack Abramoff problem. "Everything I did was above board and consistent with the rules," Mehlman told reporters .... the Republican National Committee chairman likes to insinuate that Jack Abramoff never made much of an impression on him at all. He might have met with Abramoff or his lieutenants, Mehlman conceded to Fox News recently, but "I don't recall the specifics or the meetings."

But maybe Ken Mehlman does have an Abramoff problem. On Sept. 29, the very day the Foleygate scandal broke and sucked up most of the media oxygen, the House Committee on Government Reform released a bipartisan report on the contacts between the White House and Abramoff. The 91-page report lists 17 different Abramoff lobbying efforts directed at the White House Office of Political Affairs when Mehlman was that office's director from 2001 to 2003. But the most revealing story about Mehlman is told by the hundreds of pages of e-mails in the appendices of the report.

The e-mails show that Mehlman was not only familiar with Abramoff, but might have been his go-to man within the White House. "Everyone would appreciate it if you would contact Ken only and not others here at the WH," reads one message to Abramoff from Bush advisor Karl Rove's assistant Susan Ralston, "because they just forward it to him anyway." And a comparison of the timing of specific e-mails with the timing of specific checks written by Abramoff clients suggests what Abramoff was expected to deliver in return.

More than once, Abramoff asks for a favor, Mehlman fulfills the request, and then one of Abramoff's wealthy Indian tribe clients sends a political donation to a GOP .................

[L. Coyote]

42. The $15,000 scheme by NH Rs to jam Democrats' get-out-the-vote.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/10/16/mehlman_abramoff/index1.html

...... Kathy Sullivan, chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, thinks Abramoff may have arranged for the $10,000 New Hampshire check to help get that Guam quote from Mehlman. "Somebody must have said to Abramoff, 'Can you get the money from the tribes to New Hampshire?'" Sullivan explained. "It would have made sense that it was Mehlman."

She also believes that the Choctaw money may have helped fund a $15,000 scheme by New Hampshire Republicans to jam Democrats' get-out-the-vote telephone lines on Election Day. Three Republican operatives have already been found guilty of criminal charges related to the phone-jamming scheme. Sununu, Mehlman's candidate, beat Shaheen by 20,000 votes.

Ken Mehlman declined to be interviewed .... e-mail traffic seems to show that Mehlman was in contact with Team Abramoff not just about policy, but also about personnel. E-mails indicate Mehlman may have played a role in getting a veteran government employee fired. ......

[L. Coyote]

29. JURIST: Bush administration invoking secrecy defense to avoid Abramoff files release

Bush administration invoking secrecy defense to avoid Abramoff files release
Eric Firkel - Dec 02, 2007 - http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/12/bush-administration-invoking-secrecy.php


The Bush administration is invoking a secrecy defense known as Glomarization http://www.usdoj.gov/oip/foia_updates/Vol_VII_1/page3.htm to avoid disclosing hundreds of documents concerning White House visits by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff (JURIST news archive http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/jurist_search.php?q=abramoff ), according to AP citing court papers filed Friday. The administration is relying on a 1976 US Supreme Court ruling in Phillippi v. CIA, a case which arose in the context of inquiries concerning an alleged CIA connection with the Glomar Explorer, Howard Hughes' submarine retrieval ship. Phillippi established the right of government agencies to flatly deny the existence of records pertaining to investigations, if acknowledging the existence of the records would, in itself, reveal exempt information. The Department of Justice claims in the Abramoff case that releasing the requested information would reveal sensitive information about Secret Service's protective function. The administration's denial comes despite a promise last year to produce all records concerning Abramoff.

In October, US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) called on the White House to disclose hundreds of documents relating to Abramoff. Abramoff pleaded guilty (JURIST report http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/10/us-house-panel-demands-white-house-turn.php ) in January 2006 to two conspiracy and fraud charges......

[L. Coyote]

31. Bush administration cowers behind 'national security' to cover ties to Jack Abramoff

William H. Seewald: Bush administration cowers behind 'national security' to cover ties to Jack Abramoff
http://www.amarillo.com/stories/120707/opi_9127474.shtml


Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't (co)exist. - Harry S. Truman

The Bush administration continues stonewalling investigations of corruption or illegal activities by asserting either the hackneyed "executive privilege," or that final refuge of all would-be despots, "national security."

Accordingly, the Bushies are pushing the most strained assertions of secrecy in the ongoing investigation of imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Who can forget that wire photo of Jack in black trench coat, with black fedora snapped down over furtive glance, looking every bit the Hollywood-scripted Mafioso? Many a crime boss only could envy the depth of his political connections or the chutzpah of Jack's extortion schemes. ......

..........

Not surprisingly, the Bushies' primary objective has remained obscuring Dubya's ties to Abramoff. The administration agreed last year to produce all responsive records about Jack's White House visits "without redactions or claims of exemption." But the court battle continues on Abramoff's ties and the reach of his activities.

After Abramoff pleaded guilty, Bush double-talked, "I can't say I didn't ever meet" Abramoff. But then in a news conference that same month, Dubya averred, "I don't know him."

..............

[L. Coyote]

32. TIME: When George Met Jack

When George Met Jack
Jan. 22, 2006 By ADAM ZAGORIN, MIKE ALLEN - http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1151784,00.html


As details poured out about the illegal and unseemly activities of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, White House officials sought to portray the scandal as a Capitol Hill affair with little relevance to them. Peppered for days with questions about Abramoff's visits to the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan said the now disgraced lobbyist had attended two huge holiday receptions and a few "staff-level meetings" that were not worth describing further. "The President does not know him, nor does the President recall ever meeting him," McClellan said.

The President's memory may soon be unhappily refreshed. TIME has seen five photographs of Abramoff and the President that suggest a level of contact between them that Bush's aides have downplayed. While TIME's source refused to provide the pictures for publication, they are likely to see the light of day eventually because celebrity tabloids are on the prowl for them. And that has been a fear of the Bush team's for the past several months: that a picture of the President with the admitted felon could become the iconic image of direct presidential involvement in a burgeoning corruption scandal ..........

Michael Scanlon, who is Abramoff's former partner and has pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe a Congressman, in 2001 told the New Times of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that Abramoff had "a relationship" with the President. "He doesn't have a bat phone or anything, but if he wanted an appointment, he would have one," Scanlon said. ....

[L. Coyote]

33. BUSH RECEIVED MORE THAN $100,000 FROM ABRAMOFF: Abramoff was a “Pioneer”

President George W. Bush does not remember his own "Pioneers" or the $100,000 they chip in?
http://thinkprogress.org/abramoff#bush

=====================
CONTRIBUTIONS — BUSH RECEIVED MORE THAN $100,000 FROM ABRAMOFF: Abramoff was a “Pioneer” in the Bush 2004 reelection campaign. Bush has returned $6,000. (AP, 1/4/06 = news.yahoo.com/....)

MARIANA ISLANDS — BUSH SUPPORTED ABRAMOFF CLIENT INTERESTS, RECEIVED DONATIONS: Abramoff was hired by the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association and the Northern Mariana Islands to “stop legislation aimed at cracking down on sweatshops and sex shops in the American territory.” In 1997, “Abramoff charged the Marianas for getting then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush to write a letter expressing support for the Pacific territory’s school choice proposal, his billing records show. … Abramoff and his wife each gave $5,000 to Bush’s 2000 recount fund and the maximum $1,000 to his 2000 campaign. By mid-2003, Abramoff had raised at least $100,000 for Bush’s re-election campaign, becoming one of Bush’s famed ‘pioneers.’ … Money also flowed from the Marianas to Bush’s re-election campaign: It took in at least $36,000 from island donors, much of it from members of the Tan family, whose clothing factories were a routine stop for lawmakers and their aides visiting the islands on Abramoff-organized trips.” (ABC, 4/6/05 http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/print?id=647725 ; AP, 5/7/05 http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-05-06-abramoff-bush_x.htm)

GUAM — BUSH REMOVES FEDERAL PROSECUTOR INVESTIGATING ABRAMOFF: In 2002, Abramoff was the target of a grand jury investigation in Guam. On November 18, 2002, U.S. Atty. Frederick A. Black issued a grand jury subpoena issued seeking records involving a highly unusual contract between Abramoff and the Superior Court in Guam. Apparently, Superior Court officials in Guam paid Abramoff over $324,000 — funneled through a Laguna Beach attorney Howard Hills — to lobby against a bill in Congress that gave the Guam Supreme Court authority over the Superior Court. The Los Angeles Times reported this August that the day after Black issued the subpoena, “President Bush removed the supervising federal prosecutor and the inquiry ended soon after.” Black had “served as acting U.S. attorney for Guam and the Northern Mariana islands since 1991.” He was replaced by Leonardo Rapadas, the man that the Guam Republican Party recommended to Karl Rove be given the job. (Los Angeles Times, 8/7/05 http://citizensforethics.org/press/pressclip.php?view=541)

GABON — ABRAMOFF ARRANGED MEETING WITH BUSH FOR A FEE: Abramoff “asked for $9 million in 2003 from the president of a West African nation to arrange a meeting with President Bush and directed his fees to a Maryland company now under federal scrutiny, according to newly disclosed documents.” On July 28, 2003, Abramoff wrote to Gabon’s president, Omar Bongo, “Without advance resources, I have been cautiously working to obtain a visit for the president to Washington to see President Bush.” “In a draft agreement with Gabon dated Aug. 7, 2003, Mr. Abramoff and his associates asked that $9 million in lobbying fees be paid through wire transfers - three of them, each for $3 million - to GrassRoots instead of the Washington offices of Greenberg Traurig. … The agreement promised a ‘public relations effort related to promoting Gabon and securing a visit for President Bongo with the president of the United States.’” On May 26, 2004, Bongo met with Bush. (New York Times, 11/10/05 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1110-04.htm )

[L. Coyote]

43. Bush picks Abramoff prosecutor Noel Hillman for federal judgeship.

Bush picks Abramoff prosecutor for federal judgeship
Democrats wonder about the timing of president's move
Philip Shenon, Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times - January 27, 2006 - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/27/MNGCNGU1J01.DTL

Washington -- The investigation into Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Republican lobbyist, took a provocative new turn Thursday when the Justice Department said the chief prosecutor in the inquiry would step down next week because he had been nominated to a federal judgeship by President Bush.

The prosecutor, Noel Hillman, is chief of the department's Office of Public Integrity, and the move ends his involvement in an investigation that has reached into the administration as well as into the top ranks of the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill.

Democrats swiftly questioned the move's timing and called for a special prosecutor as Bush faced a barrage of questions about why he would not make public "grip and grin" photographs of himself with Abramoff. ...
The White House, which announced Bush's selection of Hillman in a routine e-mail message Wednesday afternoon that included 15 other nominations to judgeships and federal jobs, dismissed the calls for a special prosecutor.

"It's nothing but pure politics," said Scott McClellan, the White House secretary. "The Justice Department is holding Mr. Abramoff to account, and the career Justice prosecutors are continuing to fully investigate the matter."

.....

Colleagues at the Justice Department say Hillman has been involved in day-to-day management of the Abramoff investigation since it began almost two years ago.

[L. Coyote]

44. Bush's Blatant Attempt to Obstruct and End the Abramoff Investigation

Bush's Blatant Attempt to Obstruct and End the Abramoff Investigation
by Martin Garbus - January 29, 2006 - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-garbus/bushs-blatant-attempt-to_b_14700.html


At some point, it all becomes unbelievable.

President George W. Bush has not made many moves more unethical than offering Noel L. Hillman, the Abramoff prosecutor, a federal judgeship. Hillman has apparently been talking with Bush's representatives since last year, and on last Thursday, he publicly announced he was accepting the appointment.

Let me make this perfectly clear. At the same time that Mr. Hillman was conducting a grand jury and submitting evidence aimed at Bush's allies and perhaps Bush himself, he was meeting with Bush, who was, in effect, offering him a bribe.

Mr. Hillman, Bush is saying, leave the job, let me put someone else in your stead, someone I want. Forget, says Mr. Bush, that you have been in charge of the investigation for two years, that you have been involved on a day-to-day basis, and that your leaving seriously impedes the investigation.

All this had been kept quiet until Thursday, January 26, 2006. Neither the Bush administration nor Mr. Hillman thought it appropriate to let anyone know what was going on until the deal was done. Secrecy, the modus operandi of this administration, kept the information from the public.

President Richard Nixon was the last one who tried something like this, but he didn't get away with it. .................

[L. Coyote]

26. Sen. Trent Lott wrote Sec. Norton to “seriously urge” she reject the Jena casino.

This escaped discussion during Trent Lott's would-be resignation
There is a lot of detail on this page. Here is the Lott part:
Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) = http://thinkprogress.org/abramoff#lott

CONTRIBUTIONS — LOTT RECEIVED $92,000 FROM ABRAMOFF, HIS PARTNERS, AND HIS CLIENTS:
Lott received $92,000 in Abramoff-related donations between 2001 and 2004.

COUSHATTA CAMPAIGN — LOTT RECEIVED MONEY FOR WRITING LETTER: One of Abramoff’s tribal clients, the Coushattas, “opposed a plan by the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians to open a casino at a non-reservation site, expected at the time to be outside Shreveport, La., not far from a casino owned by the Coushattas.” On March 1, 2002, Lott wrote Norton to “seriously urge” she reject the Jena casino. “Lott received $10,000 in donations from Abramoff’s tribal clients just before the letter and $55,000 soon after.”

==============
From: REDUX?? The Legend of Trent Lott and the Weblogs. Considering media and the spin of the day.

SUBJECT: Is the Press missing the real story behind Trent Lott's resignation?
The lead story is what a "senior Republican" leaked to the press. ....

Nov-26-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2349017

[L. Coyote]

28. Abramoff Scandal Nets Rep. Don Young (R-AK) Aide = Mark Zachares plea bargain

Abramoff Scandal Nets Rep. Don Young (R-AK) Aide = Mark Zachares plea bargain
Former Aide to GOP Rep To Plead Guilty
By Paul Kiel - April 23, 2007 - http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003083.php


Yet another shoe drops in the Jack Abramoff investigation. A former aide to Rep. Don Young (R-AK), Mark Zachares, looks set to plead guilty to corruption charges.

The Justice Department filed a criminal information today on Zachares, laying out the facts to which he'll be pleading guilty. You can read it here (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/zachares/?resultpage=1& ). A plea hearing has been scheduled for tomorrow.

According to the document, Zachares and Abramoff had what they called their "two year plan": Zacheres would work for Abramoff on the inside, taking advantage of his congressional position to throw business Abramoff's way, and eventually, when Zachares left Congress, Abramoff would reward him. .....

[donkeyotay]

34. Interesting choice in names

Mystery firm linked to US lobbyist scandal
ZachColeman
Saturday, January 21, 2006

snip>

Among the likely subjects of interest here is a previously unknown company called Rose Garden Holdings. In May 2002, Abramoff notified the US Senate that Rose Garden had hired him and Greenberg Traurig, his firm at the time, to represent Rose Garden's "interests before federal agencies and US Congress."

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=12&art_id=10441&sid=6326812&con_type=3

[L. Coyote]

35. Abramoff's multimillion-dollar sham charity, the U.S. Family Network

"According to an investigation published by The Washington Post three weeks ago, records obtained by the newspaper reveal that Saipan garment makers, including Tan, contributed US$500,000 to an organization called the US Family Network between 1996 and 2001."
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=12&art_id=10441&sid=6326812&con_type=3

===========
The Man Who Knows Too Much
By Justin Rood - April 2, 2006 - http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/000249.php

... the guilty plea by ex-DeLay aide Tony Rudy is bad news for a man named Ed Buckham. Buckham's fall -- and what he could tell prosecutors -- would be even worse news for a lot of other people, including many elected officials ....

Recall that shady house deal Paul reported on between Rep. Jim Ryun (R-KS) and Abramoff's multimillion-dollar sham charity, the U.S. Family Network? ABC News says Buckham facilitated it. And the Houston Chronicle this morning gives new details on how Buckham, who was both a private lobbyist and head of DeLay's ARMPAC, converted the majority leader's political donors into lobbying clients -- or was it the other way around?

I can never remember. Good thing prosecutors have a thousand emails from Rep. Tom DeLay's (R-TX) office to help them keep track, Newsweek tells us.

What other balls did Buckham have in the air? In addition to running the U.S. Family Network, DeLay's ARMPAC and Alexander Strategy Group, he lobbied for Brent Wilkes, a major figure in the Cunningham bribery scandal; he "employed" DeLay's wife Christine and Rep. John Doolittle's (R-CA) wife, Julie, in arrangements widely recognized to be channels to pump money to the husbands; and he had a funny habit of being around when DeLay was helping out Abramoff's Choctaw's clients, or DeLay met with Abramoff's shady Russian oil pals. Will he sing like a canary when the heat comes down?

===========
Former DeLay Aide Enriched By Nonprofit
Bulk of Group's Funds Tied to Abramoff
R. Jeffrey Smith - March 26, 2006; Page A01 - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/25/AR2006032501166.html

A top adviser to former House Whip Tom DeLay received more than a third of all the money collected by the U.S. Family Network, a nonprofit organization the adviser created to promote a pro-family political agenda in Congress, according to the group's accounting records.

DeLay's former chief of staff, Edwin A. Buckham, who helped create the group while still in DeLay's employ, and his wife, Wendy, were the principal beneficiaries of the group's $3.02 million in revenue, collecting payments totaling $1,022,729 during a five-year period ending in 2001, public and private records show.

The group's revenue was drawn mostly from clients of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to its records. From an FBI subpoena for the records, it can be inferred that the bureau is exploring whether there were links between the payments and favorable legislative treatment of Abramoff's clients by DeLay's office.

.........

[L. Coyote]

36. $$ 7.17 M $$, Opposing Minimum Wages, Abramoff, and the Culture of Corruption

The Culture of Corruption carried water to prevent a minimum wage in Marianas.
"The Marianas government paid Abramoff a total of $7.17 million..."

===============
Former DeLay Aide Enriched By Nonprofit
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/25/AR2006032501166_3.html


.... Abramoff was under contract with the Marianas government to lobby against congressional legislation to impede the free flow of immigrant labor to the islands from China and elsewhere in Asia, and impose a minimum hourly wage exceeding the island's standard rate of $3.05.

To U.S. immigration officials and other critics, maintaining the Marianas' exemptions from these rules amounted to providing legal protection for sweatshops. But textile manufacturers, who dominated the islands' politics and profited heavily from paying immigrant workers less than required on the mainland, ardently opposed the legislation. The Marianas government paid Abramoff a total of $7.17 million in lobbying fees from 1996 to 2001, according to an audit there.

Abramoff focused on DeLay's office in his lobbying effort, billing the Marianas for 187 contacts in 1996 and 1997, including 104 conversations with Buckham and 16 direct meetings with DeLay, according to Abramoff's billing records. Buckham affirmed in a 1995 interview withNational Journal that Abramoff "is someone on our side. . . . He has access to DeLay."

........ 23 payments by Tan's companies to the group, which eventually totaled $650,000 .....

[L. Coyote]

39. Law Firm Greenberg Traurig Tied to Abramoff Scandal = an indictment

Lobbying Firm Tied to Abramoff Scandal
By Shawn Zeller, CQ Staff - http://cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=weeklyreport-000002691710


Unlike its most infamous former employee, Jack Abramoff — who’s at a federal prison camp in western Maryland after pleading guilty in 2006 to fraud and conspiring to bribe public officials — the law firm Greenberg Traurig has escaped any criminal charges for failing to stop Abramoff’s lobbying excesses.

That is, until now. This month a grand jury in Guam handed up an indictment accusing the firm of conspiring with Abramoff, its principal Washington rainmaker earlier in the decade, and former Guam Superior Court administrator Anthony P. Sanchez to steal court funds in order to finance a lobbying campaign against a bill in Congress to reorganize the Pacific territory’s court system.

The legislation, which would have transferred control of the territorial trial court to Guam’s Supreme Court, never made it to the House floor in 2002, when Abramoff was lobbying against it. It became law two years later, after Abramoff’s contract had expired.

In 2005, Guam public auditor Doris Flores Brooks determined that Abramoff and Sanchez had circumvented the territory’s competitiveA--A-bidding procedures by funneling $324,000 in Abramoff lobbying fees through California lawyer Howard Hills in $9,000 increments. Guam requires competitive bidding for any contract in excess of $10,000. ...

......

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

45. Two words: "Hatch Act".

That's all.

[L. Coyote]

46. Bill to Reform Northern Marianas Moves to Senate

Bill to Reform Northern Marianas Moves to Senate
By Paul Kiel - April 1, 2008 - http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/bill_to_reform_northern_marian.php

Unbelievably, there's still some unfinished business from the Jack Abramoff years. From ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=4567036&page=1

A bill to reform the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) immigration system will be introduced on the Senate Floor today, addressing more than a decade of mounting concerns about the exploitation of workers, sex trafficking and porous borders and years of political maneuvering by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

.....

If you're wondering where Abramoff is these days, he's still serving out his sentence for defrauding investors in his purchase of a fleet of gambling boats, but has yet to be sentenced for his bribes to lawmakers. That's because he's still cooperating with prosecutors, who've repeatedly requested a delay for his sentencing since he's got more to give (as Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) and Tom DeLay know full well).

[L. Coyote]

47. Did lost e-mail enhance Riley's McCain endorsement?

Did lost e-mail enhance Riley's McCain endorsement?
Alabama Viewpoint Bob Martin - http://www.southalabamian.com/news/2008/0320/Editorials/016.html

Unless Arizona Sen. John McCain is caught hiding more emails about the Jack Abramoff scam to rip off American Indians, has one of his temper tantrums at the presidential television debates, is caught in another Keating-Five scandal, or in one of those two unmentionable moments destined to derail any candidate, I make him the oddson favorite to win Alabama in November.

Last week, after over a year, several news organizations obtained an e-mail under a Freedom of Information Act request further linking Gov. Bob Riley to Abramoff and Michael Scanlon, the masterminds of the shakedown of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and other tribes in Louisiana.

It was an e-mail that surfaced in the investigation by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee when McCain was its chairman. A footnote in the released report about Abramoff and former Riley congressional aide Scanlon's scam they called "GimmeFive," publicly connected Riley to the receipt of Indian gambling campaign contributions in 2002. The footnote noted that testimony had alleged that Mississippi gambling interests had spent $13 million to get Riley elected

................. It has taken over a year to get it, after McCain suppressed it from the public eye, but here it is:.........