Usa, lobby
NYT,
060929
Dal rapporto bipartisan del congresso USA: Abramoff e Rove
ebbero 82 contatti
PHILIP SHENON
Il noto lobbista Abramoff e la sua squadra hanno avuto 485
contatti con i funzionari della Casa Bianca nel 2001-2004; compresi 82 contatti
diretti con il capo per la strategia politica del presidente americano, Rove, e
anche con Mehlman, al tempo stratega politico della Casa Bianca ed attualmente
presidente della Commissione nazionale repubblicana.
Ad es., dopo una campagna particolarmente aggressiva di
lobby nel 2002 e 2002, Abramoff è riuscito ad ottenere decisioni per la
distribuzione di milioni di $ dalle casse federali a tribù indiane…, es. $16,3
mn. per la costruzione di un carcere per una tribù indiana del Mississippi, nonostante
l’opposizione del dipartimento Giustizia.
Nel 2002 Abramoff ha chiesto e ottenuto dalla Casa
Bianca che non appoggiasse più un candidato repubblicano a governatore nelle
Isole Marianne del Nord (Pacifico occidentale) dove Abramoff aveva clienti, e
appoggiava un altro candidato.
NYT, 060929
Abramoff
and Rove Had 82 Contacts, Report Says
By PHILIP SHENON
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 — A
bipartisan Congressional report documents hundreds of contacts between White
House officials and the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff[1] and his partners, including at least 10 direct contacts between Mr.
Abramoff and Karl Rove,
the president’s chief political strategist.
The House Government Reform Committee report,
based on e-mail messages and other records subpoenaed from Mr. Abramoff’s
lobbying firm, found 485
contacts between Mr. Abramoff’s lobbying team and White House officials from
2001 to 2004, including 82 with Mr. Rove’s office.
The
lobbyists spent almost $25,000 in meals and drinks for
the White House officials and provided them with tickets to numerous sporting events and concerts,
according to the report, scheduled for release Friday.
The authors of the report said it was
generally unclear from available records whether the aides reimbursed Mr.
Abramoff for the meals or tickets. Ethics rules bar White House officials from accepting lobbyists’ gifts
worth more than $20.
A White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said
Thursday that while White House officials had not seen the report, earlier
evidence showed that Mr. Abramoff had exaggerated his ties to the
administration and was “ineffective in terms of getting government officials to
take actions.”
Ms. Perino added, “It’s a real shame that so
many of his clients were taken advantage of, lied to and ripped off.”
The report describes several instances in
which Mr. Abramoff, who
pleaded guilty in January to conspiring to bribe public officials,
failed to get the action he desired from the White House, and described his
overall record in lobbying the White House as “mixed.”
– But it also suggests that Mr. Abramoff’s lobbying resulted in Bush administration actions that
benefited Abramoff clients, including decisions to distribute millions of dollars
in federal money to Indian tribes with large gambling operations.
After
an especially aggressive lobbying campaign in 2001 and 2002 involving 73 contacts with White House officials, Mr. Abramoff claimed credit for an
administration decision to release $16.3 million to a Mississippi tribe for jail construction
despite opposition from the Justice Department, the report found.
A copy of the bipartisan report was provided
to The New York Times by Congressional officials who were granted anonymity
because the document had not been released publicly.
– Mr. Rove has
described Mr. Abramoff as a “casual acquaintance,” but
the records obtained by the House committee show that Mr. Rove and his aides
sought Mr. Abramoff’s help in obtaining seats at sporting events, and that Mr.
Rove sat with Mr. Abramoff in the lobbyist’s box seats for an N.C.A.A. basketball
playoff game in 2002.
After that game, Mr. Abramoff described Mr.
Rove in an e-mail message to a colleague: “He’s a great guy. Told me anytime we need
something just let him know through Susan.” The message was referring to Susan
Ralson, Mr. Abramoff’s former secretary, who joined the White House in
February 2001 as Mr. Rove’s executive assistant.
Ms.
Ralston, who did not return phone calls seeking comment
Thursday, was lobbied scores of times by Mr. Abramoff and his partners, the
report found, and was
instrumental in passing messages between Mr. Abramoff and senior officials at
the White House, including Mr. Rove and Ken Mehlman.
Mr.
Mehlman, now chairman of the Republican National Committee, was then a senior White House political strategist. A national committee
spokeswoman, Tracey Schmitt, said Thursday that in Mr. Mehlman’s White House
job, “it was not unusual” that he “would be in contact with supporters who had
interest in administration policy.”
– In October 2001, the report said, Mr. Abramoff asked the White House
to withhold an endorsement from a Republican candidate for governor of the Northern Marianas Islands,
an American commonwealth in the western Pacific where Mr. Abramoff had clients;
Mr. Abramoff was backing another candidate.
On Oct. 31, 2001, the report said, Ms. Ralson sent an e-mail message to
Mr. Abramoff that read: “You win 🙂 KR said no endorsement.”
In March 2002, the report said, Mr. Abramoff
contacted Ms. Ralson to offer tickets to Mr. Rove and his family for use of a
skybox during the N.C.A.A. tournament at the MCI
Center in Washington.
“Hi Susan,” Mr. Abramoff wrote in an e-mail
message.” I just saw Karl and mentioned the N.C.A.A. opportunity, which he was
really jazzed about. If he wants to join us in the Pollin box, please let me
know as soon as you can.”
Ms. Ralston replied: “Karl is interested in
Fri. and Sun. 3 tickets for his family?”
Mr. Abramoff responded: “Done. Does he want to
go Friday night or Friday afternoon or both?” The report said that Mr. Rove
offered to pay for the tickets, prompting Mr. Abramoff to propose that Mr. Rove
pay $50 per ticket “payable to me personally.”
The report cited numerous e-mail messages in
which Mr. Abramoff referred to Mr. Rove and his visits to Signatures, a Washington restaurant
owned by Mr. Abramoff.
On learning in July 2002 that Mr. Rove planned
to dine at Signatures with a party of 8 to 10 people, Mr. Abramoff wrote to a
colleague: “I want him to be given a very nice bottle of wine and have Joseph
whisper in his ear (only he should hear) that Abramoff wanted him to have this
wine on the house.” In another e-mail message, Mr. Abramoff directed his
restaurant staff to “please put Karl Rove in his usual table.”
Ms. Perino, the White House spokeswoman, said
the offer of a free bottle of wine was actually proof of how little acquainted
Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Rove were because “Karl doesn’t drink alcohol.”
Disclosure of the report’s findings came as a
federal judge in Miami
agreed on Thursday to delay Mr. Abramoff’s imprisonment, but not for as long as
the Justice Department wanted.
In court papers this week, the department
asked that Mr. Abramoff, who has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison,
not have to surrender for three months because of the need for his continued
cooperation in the influence-peddling investigation in Washington that is said to involve several
members of Congress.
But the judge, Paul C. Huck, agreed to allow
Mr. Abramoff to remain free only until Nov. 15, saying “there comes a time when
people have to pay the piper.” Mr. Abramoff pleaded guilty in Miami
as part of an agreement with the Justice Department in which he confessed to
corruption charges in Washington, and to fraud
charges in Florida
involving his purchase of a casino-boat fleet there.
New York Times
[1] Jack A. Abramoff (born
February 28, 1958) is an American political lobbyist, a political activist and
businessman who is a central figure in a series of high-profile political
scandals. Abramoff himself pled guilty on January 3, 2006, to three criminal
felony counts in a Washington,
D.C., federal court related to
the defrauding of American Indian tribes and corruption of public officials. [1]
The following day, on January 4th, he pled guilty to two criminal felony counts
in a Miami
federal court related to fraudulent dealings with SunCruz Casinos. [2] On March
29, 2006, he was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison — the minimum
allowed per the plea bargain — and ordered then to pay restitution of more than
$21 million. Abramoff is currently free in order to testify in a related investigation
involving the Florida
gang-style murder of SunCruz Casinos owner Konstantinos Boulis and to continue
cooperation with investigations related to federal lobbying and related
activities. Abramoff was a top lobbyist for the Preston Gates & Ellis and
Greenberg Traurig firms (see Team Abramoff) and a director of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a
conservative think tank, and Toward Tradition, a religious right organization,
during his criminal enterprise. He was College Republican National Committee
National Chairman from 1981 to 1985. He was a founding member of the
International Freedom Foundation, an "anti-communist think tank"
which operated from 1986 to 1993.
"Team
Abramoff" is the team of lobbyists assembled by Jack Abramoff when he
worked at Greenberg Traurig, primarily of former aides to prominent
Congressional politicians. Their work is embroiled in the Jack Abramoff Indian
lobbying scandal and the monetary influence of Jack Abramoff.
On
January 8, 2001, Abramoff left Preston Gates & Ellis to join the Government
Relations division of the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, which once described
him as "directly involved in the Republican party and conservative
movement leadership structures" and "one of the leading fund raisers
for the party and its congressional candidates." With the move to
Greenberg Traurig Abramoff took as much as $6 million dollars worth of client
"work" from his old firm, including the Marianas Islands
account. When asked in an interview why he moved to Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff
replied "they have a dominant presence … This move is an excellent
opportunity for me and my clients with the new Administration." [1]
At
Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff assembled a "dream team" made up of
lobbyists with past jobs working for congressional leaders. This team included
Tony Rudy, whom Abramoff had worked extensively with during the Marianas and eLottery lobbying while Rudy was serving as
Chief of Staff to Tom Delay. Abramoff had hired Rudy while he was still at
Preston Gates, and brought him and six other staff lobbyists over to Greenberg
Traurig. The hiring of Rudy was one of the first instances in a pattern by
which Abramoff would directly hire aides of representatives he was actively
lobbying.
Team
Abramoff members Rudy and Neil Volz, Bob Ney’s former chief of staff, were
later named as unindicted coconspirators in Abramoff’s guilty plea in the
Indian lobbying scandal. In addition, Kevin Ring, Jon van Horne, Michael Smith
and Stephanie Leger received secret side payments from Abramoff counter to
Greenberg Traurig policy and were asked to resign. Van Horne received $20,000
from the Coushatta Tribe via Capitol Campaign Strategies. Smith also received a
$20,000 payoff from CCS. Shana Tesler’s husband Samuel Hook received $20,000
from Abramoff for serving as the titular head of Abramoff entities such as Eshkol Academy
and Grassroots Interactive.
Rudy
pleaded guilty to conspiracy for corruption and fraud on March 31, 2006. Volz
pleaded guilty to conspiracy for corruption and fraud on May 8, 2006.