The Abramoff scandal investigation

Ya gotta laugh at the audacity.

Top Boehner aide tied to 1996 trip to visit Abramoff client
DAVID HAMMER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A White House aide who was once chief of staff to House Majority Leader John Boehner made plans to take a 1996 trip to the Northern Mariana Islands that was organized by fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff, billing records from Abramoff's firm show.
Barry Jackson, now chief deputy to White House adviser Karl Rove, accepted an invitation to travel to the island of Saipan when he was Boehner's chief of staff, but later decided not to go, White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said Tuesday.
Jackson's involvement in the trip plans runs counter to Boehner's recent claims that his office's contact with Abramoff was incidental and only involved lower-level staff.
The government of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands extended the invitations to Jackson and other high-level GOP House leadership staff while Congress was considering legislation to control immigration and labor practices in the remote Pacific island territory.
Abramoff, the central figure in a wide-ranging Justice Department investigation of influence peddling in Congress, lobbied for the Marianas in Washington. The commonwealth's government was accused of permitting egregiously low wages and poor conditions for immigrants working in sweatshops.
According to bills from Abramoff's former lobbying firm to the Marianas government, Abramoff's staff contacted Boehner's office about island issues at least 10 times in the first four months of 1996. Copies of the billing records were obtained by The Associated Press through open-records requests to the territorial government.
Typically, the contact was made by David Safavian, who later became the Bush administration's chief procurement official in the Office of Management and Budget. Safavian recently was indicted on charges of obstructing investigations of his ties to Abramoff. Safavian was the first administration official indicted in the Abramoff scandal.
On March 15, 1996, two weeks before the Saipan trip, Abramoff's lobbying records show Safavian went over trip plans with Jackson and Mimi Simoneaux, then spokeswoman for Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas. On April 1, the day the congressional aides flew to the Marianas, Safavian called Boehner's office "to ascertain the location of B. Jackson." Abramoff's employee called about Jackson again the following day.
Jackson does not recall why he decided not to make the trip, given that it occurred 10 years ago, Healy said.
Since Boehner started campaigning early this year to replace DeLay as the No. 2-ranked House leader, he has denied having any relationship with Abramoff. Boehner has promised reforms to shake the GOP's Abramoff-related troubles.
When asked about the contacts between his office and Abramoff's, including a dinner Boehner attended in May 1996, Boehner told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday: "Some of his (Abramoff's) underlings worked with some low-level employees of my office. I'm telling you I never met the man."
Boehner spokesman Don Seymour said Tuesday that Boehner now does recall meeting Abramoff once, in "a brief, incidental conversation at a widely attended event that he estimates was about five years ago."
In an e-mail to the AP, Seymour also said Boehner did not intentionally downplay Jackson's role on his staff.
Boehner has declined to give up more than $30,000 he got from Abramoff's Indian tribe clients, saying his own work on tribal issues justifies the contributions. He did not receive any money from the tribes until Abramoff represented them.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid wrote at least four letters helpful to Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff, and the senator's staff regularly had contact with the disgraced lobbyist's team about legislation affecting other clients.

The activities _ detailed in billing records and correspondence obtained by The Associated Press _ are far more extensive than previously disclosed. They occurred over three years as Reid collected nearly $68,000 in donations from Abramoff's firm, lobbying partners and clients.

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Reid also intervened on government matters at least five times in ways helpful to Abramoff's tribal clients, once opposing legislation on the Senate floor and four times sending letters pressing the Bush administration on tribal issues. Reid collected donations around the time of each action.

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And Reid's longtime chief of staff accepted a free trip to Malaysia arranged by a consulting firm connected to Abramoff that recently has gained attention in the influence-peddling investigation that has gripped the Capitol.

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Following a pattern seen with Abramoff and Republicans, Abramoff's Democratic team members often delivered donations to Reid close to key events.

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On March 5, 2002, he sent a letter to the Interior Department pressing the agency to reject a proposed casino by the Jena band of Choctaw Indians in Louisiana. Fellow Nevada Sen. John Ensign, a Republican, also signed.

The Jena's proposed casino would have rivaled one already in operation in Louisiana run by the Coushattas, and Abramoff was lobbying to block the Jena. The day after Reid's letter, the Coushattas wrote a $5,000 check to Reid's Searchlight group at Abramoff's suggestion.

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Ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff is contradicting President Bush's claims that he doesn't know the scandal-scarred wheeler-dealer.
In stunning e-mails to an editor at the Washingtonian magazine, Abramoff claimed that he's met the President "almost a dozen" times and that Bush even invited him to his Texas ranch.

"Perhaps he has forgotten everything, who knows," Abramoff wrote in an e-mail to editor Kim Eisler.

Bush has repeatedly denied knowing Abramoff, who pleaded guilty last month to fraud charges and is cooperating with prosecutors in an influencepeddling scandal rocking Capitol Hill.

The White House has even refused to release up to five photos of the President posing with the crooked power broker.

"I, frankly, don't even remember having my picture taken with the guy," Bush told reporters last month. "I don't know him."

But Abramoff claims that's a bunch of baloney.

"The guy saw me in almost a dozen settings, and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids," Abramoff writes in an e-mail.

Abramoff raised more than $100,000 for Bush's reelection campaign, and claims Bush was so pleased he invited him to his ranch.

"I was invited during the 2004 campaign," he told Eisler.

Despite the e-mails, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, "I think what the President said still stands."

Eisler said the e-mail claims "reflect the feeling of frustration he has not just with Bush but with all these guys claiming they didn't know him."

Abramoff's messages were made public by the American Progress Action Fund, a liberal activist group. Eisler confirmed their accuracy but said he did not intend them to become public.

Abramoff spokesman Andrew Blum declined to comment.

Garza, who is also known by his Indian name, Makateonenodua.com, meaning "black buffalo," is under federal indictment for allegedly embezzling more than $300,000 from his tribe.

Three members of Congress have been linked to efforts by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a former General Services Administration official to secure leases of government property for Abramoff's clients, according to court filings by federal prosecutors on Friday.

The filings in U.S. District Court do not allege any wrongdoing by the elected officials but list them in documents portraying David Safavian, a former GSA chief of staff, as an active adviser to Abramoff, giving the lobbyists tips on how to use members of Congress to navigate the agency's bureaucracy [...]

Two of the elected officials referred to in Friday's filings have been identified in published reports as Reps. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, and Don Young, R-Alaska. According to Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, the two representatives wrote to the GSA in September 2002, urging the agency to give preferential treatment to groups such as Indian tribes when evaluating development proposals for the Old Post Office [...]

Friday's filings by prosecutors refer to a third member of Congress, Rep. Shelly Moore Capito, R-W.Va. Her name appears in e-mails that suggest she was trying to help Abramoff secure a GSA lease for land in Silver Spring for a religious school.

The filings in U.S. District Court do not allege any wrongdoing by the elected officials