What is so tragic is how cheaply our legislators can be bought. Give them a couple of thousand, and your clients will reap billions in government benefits.
I love it that Abramoff continues to talk.
Justice Department Official Resigns as Abramoff Probe Heats
Justice Department Official Resigns as Abramoff Probe Heats Up
By Marisa Taylor and David Whitney
McClatchy Newspapers
Friday 27 April 2007
Washington - A senior Justice Department official has resigned after coming under scrutiny in the department's expanding investigation of convicted super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to federal law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case.
Making the situation more awkward for the embattled Justice Department, Robert E. Coughlin II was deputy chief of staff for the criminal division, which is overseeing the department's probe of Abramoff.
Spokesman Bryan Sierra said Coughlin had recused himself from the Abramoff investigation and "played no role in any aspect of the investigation during his tenure in the criminal division."
Coughlin stepped down effective April 6 as investigators in Coughlin's own division ratcheted up their investigation of lobbyist Kevin Ring, Coughlin's longtime friend and a key associate of Abramoff.
Coughlin held two senior staff positions at Justice while Ring was lobbying the department on behalf of Abramoff's clients.
When contacted at his home in Washington, Coughlin said he resigned voluntarily because he was relocating to Texas. "I was not asked to resign," he said in an interview with McClatchy Newspapers. "It's important to me that it's made clear that I left voluntarily."
He said he couldn't comment on the Abramoff investigation or on whether he has a job lined up in Texas. And he declined to say where he was moving to in Texas. He referred all other questions to friend Michael Horowitz.
Horowitz, a criminal defense attorney and former Justice Department official and public corruption prosecutor, didn't respond to questions, including whether he's representing Coughlin. Coughlin also wouldn't say whether he had hired a lawyer.
The law enforcement officials asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the case.
The disclosure of Coughlin's resignation was another blow to a Justice Department already struggling to recover from the controversy over the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. Democrats and a number of Republicans have criticized Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for his handling of the ousters, which critics charge were politically motivated.
Coughlin is at least the second Justice Department official to come under scrutiny in the wide-ranging Abramoff probe, which has implicated five congressmen, a deputy Cabinet secretary, a White House aide and eight others. Sue Ellen Wooldridge, a top environmental prosecutor at the Department of Justice, resigned in January.
Abramoff is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to three counts in the corruption probe and could face up to 11 years in prison.
It was unclear whether Coughlin is a target in the investigation, which would mean that he's under intense scrutiny, or whether he's a subject in the investigation, which would mean that investigators haven't determined whether he committed any wrongdoing. Justice spokesman Sierra declined to respond to any questions about the Abramoff investigation because it is ongoing.
Ring's attorney, Richard Hibey, also has declined comment on the investigation.
Ring was in frequent contact with the Justice Department, according to lobbying records that Abramoff's law firm, Greenburg Traurig, submitted to the Senate. The reports show more than a dozen contacts with the agency between 2000 and 2004, half of them for Indian tribes that Abramoff represented on casino issues. The reports don't disclose whom he talked to.
At the time of Ring's lobbying of the Justice Department, Coughlin was special assistant to the assistant attorney general in the office of legislative affairs and later deputy director of the office of intergovernmental affairs.
In November 2003, he left the department, but returned in the spring or early summer of 2005, Sierra said.
Before he began working for the Justice Department, Coughlin worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee under then-Sen. John Ashcroft from November 1999 to February 2001, according to committee records. Coughlin joined the Justice Department in March 2001 after President Bush tapped Ashcroft to become attorney general.
Sierra refused to release a copy of Coughlin's resume.
According to a Justice Department press release, Coughlin was given an award for fraud prevention by the attorney general on Sept. 12, 2006.
That attorney general, Gonzales, is about as trustworthy as Bush and gang ru(i)nning our country.
Gad. How many corruption or criminality related resignations is that now?
What continues to confuse me is the simple fact that the GOP still has supporters.
Last night, Matthews asked Brownback about the Republican corruption. The latter minimized it, and said that the Democrats are also guilty (pointing to Jefferson's freezer cache). Of course, the Rep corruption is exponentially larger and more serious than the isolated Dem cases.
New Charges Filed in Abramoff Probe
New Charges Filed in Abramoff Probe
By Matt Apuzzo
The Associated Press
Wednesday 06 June 2007
Washington - The head of a Republican environmental advocacy group was charged Wednesday with tax evasion and obstructing a Senate inquiry as part of the Jack Abramoff corruption probe.
Italia Federici was named in a two-count criminal information, a document that normally indicates a guilty plea has been negotiated. A hearing was set for Friday, the Justice Department said.
Federici served as a go-between for Abramoff, the once-powerful lobbyist, and J. Steven Griles, who was deputy interior secretary during President Bush's first term, prosecutors said. Federici introduced the two men, which Griles said gave Abramoff more credibility and allowed him greater access to the department.
After making his entree, Abramoff repeatedly sought Griles' intervention at the Interior Department on behalf of Indian tribal clients.
Federici is accused of lying about her relationship with Griles and Abramoff in testimony before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which in 2005 was investigating Abramoff's dealings with officials in the Interior Department.
Federici's attorney did not return a message seeking comment Wednesday.
In March, Griles became the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the lobbying scandal when he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing justice by lying to the Indian Affairs Committee in 2005.
Federici co-founded the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy with Gale Norton, who went on to become Interior Department secretary, and Grover Norquist, a college friend of Abramoff and a close ally of President Bush.
Prosecutors said Federici supplemented her CREA salary by making ATM withdrawals directly from the organization's bank accounts. She did not pay income tax from 2001-2003 and owes tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes, prosecutors said.
During that period, Abramoff was directing his tribal clients to give $500,000 to CREA. Abramoff is serving time in federal prison for a fraudulent Florida casino deal and is awaiting sentencing in the Washington public corruption case.
He is the government's star witness in a case that has already landed former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, and has ensnared members of the Bush administration and several congressional aides.
Just a thought: Bush is now creating the largest embassy in Baghdad (costing over one billion), and it's only a guess, but I would guess most of that construction millions went to republicans - contractors and workers. I'll also bet that after the project is completed, that place will be filled with republicans if the new president and congress have enough votes to influence the "results."
I'm just wondering where all this money is coming from within the federal budget? Even with a democratic majority, there seems to be no question about a) why so large an embassy?, b) what is the current and future cost for this embassy?, and c) who's managing all this (corruption)?
Isn't our occupation supposed to be temporary?
The embassy is projected to cost $562 M, and will have a staff of about 1,000. Further, we will build four permanent bases in Iraq.
The embassy will be built in the Green Zone and, obviously, be very vulnerable to mortars, rockets, etc.
Is this mindlesss, or what?
Sen. Stevens's problems may be taking the heat off of Rep. Jefferson.
I wonder whether Stevens hid his money in the permafrost.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/08/us/08alaska.html?hp
