WASHINGTON -- Convicted superlobbyist Jack Abramoff influenced White House actions while his firm wooed administration officials over expensive meals and plied them with box tickets to sporting events, according to a House of Representatives committee report released Monday.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said Monday that it had received new White House documents and testimony that confirmed 80 White House contacts with Abramoff and uncovered 70 others despite White House assertions that Abramoff had vastly overblown his administration connections. Abramoff, who's cooperating with federal prosecutors after pleading guilty in an expanding corruption investigation, previously reported that his former firm had more than 400 contacts with White House officials.
The House report obtained photos of Abramoff meeting President Bush on six occasions. Bush has said he doesn't remember Abramoff, and the White House has refused to release the photos. The committee posted low-quality versions of them on its website Monday after receiving them from the White House.
`PERSONAL CONTACT'
''The new documents and testimony show that Mr. Abramoff had personal contact with President Bush, that high-level White House officials held Mr. Abramoff and his associates in high regard and solicited recommendations from Mr. Abramoff on policy matters,'' the committee said. The committee added, however, that it had ''obtained no evidence'' that Abramoff lobbied the president directly. The report's release comes as the criminal investigation into the lobbying scandal appears to be regaining momentum in court
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/story/564399.html
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