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From one Mississippi tribe, the government charged, an Abramoff associate took in nearly $15 million, of which Abramoff got a $6.4 million kickback. From a nearby Louisiana tribe, an Abramoff associate got $30.5 million, of which he kicked back $11.5 million to Abramoff. The numbers are astounding, and, even more astounding, sometimes they bought the tribes nothing at all.
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In 2000, Abramoff arranged another trip for DeLay, his wife, and several congressional staff members, allegedly through the nonprofit National Center for Public Policy Research, as in the Russia trip. But DeLay’s airfare to London and Scotland was charged to Abramoff’s American Express card. While in Europe, the guests played golf at St. Andrews and attended the musical The Lion King. “House ethics rules bar lawmakers from accepting travel and related expenses from registered lobbyists.” “Multiple sources, including DeLay’s then-chief of staff Susan Hirschmann, have confirmed that DeLay’s congressional office was in direct contact with Preston Gates [Abramoff’s lobbying firm] about the trip itinerary before DeLay’s departure, to work out details of his travel.” Washington Post, 4/24/05 thinkprogress
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It has received financial backing from chemical and mining interests, leading some environmentalists to brand it a front for industrial polluters.
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Italia Federici said she had been manipulated by Abramoff. She acknowledged that the lobbyist had arranged for the tribes to donate to her group, the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy. Because he was a friend and donor, she said, she went along with his requests -- "once every other week, once a month" -- to contact (deputy interior secretary J. Steven) Griles.
Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and the ranking Democrat, Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (N.D.), cast Federici as a paid conduit for Abramoff's influence-peddling with the department.
"It looks to me like you got paid for things that had nothing to do whatever with your organization," Dorgan said. "It looks to me like you were working for Mr. Abramoff and you were getting paid by Indian tribes to do it."
"Unfortunately, she is critical to me."
That's how former lobbyist Jack Abramoff once summed up his relationship with Italia Federici, the president of a Republican environmental group. He told colleagues that although Federici's help was expensive, it was important. Over three years, he directed Indian tribes he represented to contribute about $500,000 to her group.
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Grover Norquist founder of Americans for Tax Reform, who wants to "starve government" until it can be "drowned in a bathtub," is also a highly paid lobbyist who (with recently-arrested lawyer David Safavian founded a lobbying firm, the Merritt Group, later renamed Janus-Merritt Strategies. He was also founder, with Gale Norton (Bush's Secretary of the Interior until March '06), of Council of Republican Environmental Advocacy, (advocating the lifting of environmental restraints on businesses).
The "Wednesday Meeting" of Norquist's Leave Us Alone Coalition has become an important hub of conservative political organizing. George W. Bush began sending a representative to the Wednesday Meeting even before he formally announced his candidacy for president in 1999. "Now a White House aide attends each week," reported USA Today in June 2001. "Vice President Cheney sends his own representative. So do GOP congressional leaders, right-leaning think tanks, conservative advocacy groups and some like-minded K Street lobbyists. The meeting has been valuable to the White House because it is the political equivalent of one-stop shopping. By making a single pitch, the administration can generate pressure on members of Congress, calls to radio talk shows, and political buzz from dozens of grassroots organizations. It also enables the White House to hear conservatives vent in private — and to respond — before complaints fester"
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Abramoff gave over $127,000 to Republican candidates and committees between 2001 and 2004, and nothing to Democrats, federal records show. At the same time, his Indian clients were the only ones among the top 10 tribal donors in the U.S. to donate more money to Republicans than Democrats. [Bloomberg, 12/21/05]
210 current lawmakers received contributions from Abramoff, his partners and his Indian tribe clients or SunCruz Casinos since 1999 according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. [LA Times, 12/22/05]
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Although published reports suggest that Mr. Abramoff sought to place Ms. Ralston with Mr. Rove after the 2000 election to gain easy access to him, her colleagues said that was not the case.
''Karl was looking for the most competent person around and stole her,'' said Grover Norquist, the Republican activist who heads the group Americans for Tax Reform and is an ally of both Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Rove. source: NYTimes archives
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The Capital Athletic Foundation's Web site portrays youths at play... Its text solicits donations for what it describes as "needy and deserving" sportsmanship programs.
In its first four years of operation, the charity has collected nearly $6 million... But tax and spending records of the Capital Athletic Foundation obtained by The Washington Post show that less than 1 percent of its revenue has been spent on sports-related programs for youths.
Instead, the documents show that Jack Abramoff, one of Washington's high-powered Republican lobbyists, has repeatedly channeled money from corporate clients into the foundation and spent the overwhelming portion of its money on pet projects having little to do with the advertised sportsmanship programs, including political causes, a short-lived religious school and an overseas golf trip.
The foundation's brief history -- now the subject of a federal investigation -- charts how Abramoff attached himself to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and, in so doing, became a magnet for large sums of money from business interests. It also demonstrates how easily large amounts of such cash flowed through a nonprofit advocacy group to support the interests of a director.
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In a scheme the duo termed “gimme-five,” Abramoff advised tribes in Mississippi, Louisiana and Michigan to hire Scanlon’s company, Capital Campaign Strategies LLC, for grass-roots public relations work while hiding the fact that Abramoff would receive half the profits. The purpose of the scheme, the prosecutors allege, was to “enrich themselves by obtaining substantial funds from their clients through fraud and concealment and through obtaining benefits for their clients through corrupt means. Prosecutors detailed the alleged fraud perpetrated on four tribes, contending that Scanlon billed the four tribes $53 million and then kicked back $19 million to Abramoff.” [Washington Post, 11/19/05]
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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 (GrassRoots Interactive) 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 [small Maryland consulting firm run by Abramoff] 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]
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On Dec. 3, 2003, Aeneas Enterprises opened for business in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, and judging by its bank records, the small consulting company with no listed telephone number was an instant success. Within a month, its records show, Aeneas had taken in $2.3 million from a single client.
Aeneas is under scrutiny by the Justice Department and Congressional investigators. Its founder, Robert Abramoff, a lawyer and sometime Hollywood movie producer, is the brother of Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist at the center of a Washington influence-peddling scandal involving several members of Congress.
The company's records show that the $2.3 million was received from another consulting firm, GrassRoots Interactive of Silver Spring, Md., which was established by Jack Abramoff and where he directed some of his huge lobbying fees. NYTimes, 4/09/06
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http://zfacts.com/p/243.html | 01/18/12 07:19 GMT
Modified: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 04:48:55 GMT
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