[From the diaries by susanhu.]
Updated: Link to new Wapo article: An Extensive Web of Financial Ties
Cross-posted from The 10,000 Things
AP is now reporting “Lobbyist, prosecutors said close to deal” that may be finalized as early as Tuesday.
Yesterday in “The Fast Rise and Steep Fall of Jack Abramoff” the Washington Post reported that Abramoff likened himself Michael Corleone of The Godfather. But it appears this might be a horse of a different color and that prosecutors are making Abramoff an offer he can’t refuse.
Jack Abramoff is up to his eyeballs in scandals and court cases. The wide ranging investigation into his bribing of congressmen may be the least of his problems. The Post also provides an outline of:
Abramoff’s Career
1958
Jack Abramoff is born in Atlantic City. Family moves to California and he grows up in Beverly Hills.
1981
Abramoff graduates from Brandeis University, comes to Washington and runs for national chairman of the College Republicans, where he forges lifelong bonds with Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist and Adam Kidan.
1985
Abramoff and Norquist take charge of Citizens for America, conservative advocacy group created by drugstore magnate Lewis E. Lehrman. They are asked to leave after a dispute about finances.
1986
Abramoff graduates from Georgetown law school, joins brother in film company and goes to Africa to work on “Red Scorpion,” a Cold War thriller released in 1989.
1994
GOP wins control of House for the first time in 40 years. Abramoff joins lobbying firm of Preston Gates & Ellis. He begins lobbying for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and quickly strikes up a political relationship with Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas).
1995
Abramoff signs up the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians as a client, the first casino-rich tribe he solicits.
1997
Abramoff arranges for lawmakers and aides to take trips to the Marianas. On one such trip, DeLay calls the lobbyist “one of my closest and dearest friends.”
1999
Abramoff uses tribal money to hire Ralph Reed to run anti-gambling campaigns in the South to discourage competition for the tribes’ casinos.
2000
Abramoff arranges more lawmaker trips. They include week-long visit to England and Scotland in May with DeLay, his wife and two aides, and a June trip for DeLay aides to golf’s U.S. Open aboard corporate jet belonging to SunCruz Casinos. Abramoff and partners buy SunCruz in the fall.
2001
Abramoff switches lobbying firms to Greenberg Traurig in January. He leases corporate jet to ferry congressional staffers to the Super Bowl in Tampa. He and Michael Scanlon form partnership they call “Gimme Five” to share extraordinary fees charged to tribal clients. In February, the seller of SunCruz, Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis, is shot to death gangland style in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
2002
Abramoff and Scanlon are collecting tens of millions of dollars in fees from Indian tribes. In one case, they quietly work with Ralph Reed to help Texas shut down a tribe’s casino, then persuade the tribe to pay $4.2 million to try to get Congress to reopen it.
2003
Internal audit by the Louisiana Coushatta tribe finds that tribe spent $18 million in one year on lobbyists and lawyers, mostly to Abramoff and Scanlon.
2004
The Washington Post reports in February that Abramoff and Scanlon have received at least $45 million from tribes with casinos. Abramoff quits Greenberg a week later. Shortly thereafter, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) begins investigating Abramoff’s Indian activities.
2005
August:
Abramoff and Kidan are indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges in Florida in connection with their purchase of SunCruz.
September:
Three men, including two associates of Kidan’s, are indicted on murder and conspiracy charges in the killing of former SunCruz owner Boulis.
October:
Former Abramoff associate David H. Safavian, head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the White House Office of Management and Budget, is indicted on charges of lying to federal investigators in the corruption investigation.
November:
Scanlon pleads guilty to conspiring to bribe a congressman and other public officials and agrees to pay back more than $19 million he fraudulently charged Indian tribal clients.
December:
Kidan pleads guilty in the SunCruz case. Both Scanlon and Kidan are expected to testify against Abramoff and will cooperate in the investigation of at least half a dozen lawmakers including Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio).
Ummm… mob hitmen and murder on casino deals? Perhaps Mr. Abramoff and his associates took that whole Corleone thing a little too far.
As these graphics and the various reports show as many as 20 congressmen and their staffs could be implicated in various parts of the Abramoff crime family. His two primary associates have already turned and Abramoff appears to be next. 20 Congressmen and their staffs. That amounts to one twentieth of the House of Representatives. Is your Representative involved? Have they taken money from one of Abramoff’s firms, Greenberg, Traurig, et al, Preston, Gates, et al, or been involved in legislating for one of their clients?
And, of course, at the top of the food chain (or is that bottom of the human chain) we use the likes of Republican heavy hitters Tom Delay (wait a minute… isn’t he already indicted on other charges), Ralph Reed (wait a minute… casino’s, murder, bribery and mr. family values?), John Doolittle (wait a minute… isn’t he involved in the Cunningham scandal – whoops looks like someone is tracking his involvement here as well), and Grover Norquist (how’s that bathtub drowning thing going anyhow), and Speaker of the House, second in line to the Presidency, Dennis Hastert.
The list of Republican corruption goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and….
(oh… and for those republican talking points about equal involvement of Democrats and republicans in this… “The Abramoff scandal is an entirely GOP owned and operated affair”.
besides the scathing criticisms, is this:
attaturk
… the Order of Presidential Succession do we have to impeach and/or convict in order to find an honest President?
BushCo changed that one too. Chertoff/DHS is 6th in the line now.
God save us all!
I’m afraid BushCo dropped him/her to 12th when they raised Chertoff up to 6th.
Chertoff’s the one with keys to all of the detention camps too.
I’ve been watching this network’s revelation for aout a year and a half now…fascinating. There is so much more involved that it all can’t be included easily in one place.
On C-Span during hearings, it was mentioned that he or Scanlon offered some clients the use of their powerful, comprehensive database software tools that the GOP-Rove-Norquist-DeLay and others used to target voters. I think Rove made his living in the direct mail marketing of campaigns. That connection could also be how Ashcroft was brought into the fold.
NPR : From Direct Mail to ‘America’s Right Turn’
Thanks for the link. These guys were beyond dedicated.
All I can say is man oh man this country is broken. Can it be fixed? It is going to take a very long time to weed all these criminals out. Years I say! Outstanding diary.
If we can get convictions on some of these scandals it’ll be a good start.
But I agree with you completely that the republicans have broken things so badly in this country that it is going to take several Democratic administrations and years worth of progressive activist pushing in order to set things on the right path again.
Peace,
Andrew
Ah, Andrew.
It will surely take years of progressive activism to get things on the right track. As for Democratic administrations, I’m not at all sure that a “D” after one’s name is a guarantee of integrity.
This whole mess also seems to me to scream of the need for campaign finance reform.
You are right of course. A “D” does not guarentee integrity or honesty. But with more and more citizen involvement in determining who the candidates are…
… and I am in total agreement with Gov Dean that voting is the minimum requirement for involvement in our democracy…
… in guiding their campaigns, in keeping a watchful eye over them, we stand a better chance of getting a better class of people running the government.
Abramoff knows much about the inner workings of the K-Street/GOP money machine. If this machine is taken out I ponder where the GOP will get the funds, in the amounts they have become accustomed, to run their campaigns.
Further, the funders are looking at being dragged into court as well.
Things just get more darn interesting as the temporal continuum vectors along. 🙂
.
≈ Cross-posted from Urizon’s earlier diary — Has Abramoff Been Flipped? ≈
Rhode – Wurmser – Larry Franklin – AIPAC – Abramoff
DOJ investigation into Abramoff’s involvement in dealings through Guam ended in 2002. Jack Abramoff is linked to Susan Ralston and his friend Grover Norquist.
Grover G. Norquist
In story about Susan Ralston, it becomes clear permission to meet Karl Rove or a request for his involvement, is made possible only after consult with Grover Norquist – see diary Susan Ralston.
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼▼▼ READ MY DIARY
.
By R. Jeffrey Smith – Washington Post Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (WaPo) Dec. 31 — The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.
During its five-year existence, the U.S. Family Network raised $2.5 million but kept its donor list secret. The list, obtained by The Washington Post, shows that $1 million of its revenue came in a single 1998 check from a now-defunct London law firm whose former partners would not identify the money’s origins.
Two former associates of Edwin A. Buckham, the congressman’s former chief of staff and the organizer of the U.S. Family Network, said Buckham told them the funds came from Russian oil and gas executives. Abramoff had been working closely with two such Russian energy executives on their Washington agenda, and the lobbyist and Buckham had helped organize a 1997 Moscow visit by DeLay (R-Tex.).
The former president of the U.S. Family Network said Buckham told him that Russians contributed $1 million to the group in 1998 specifically to influence DeLay’s vote on legislation the International Monetary Fund needed to finance a bailout of the collapsing Russian economy.
Political Scandal for 2006 ::
Jack Abramoff with lawyer before Congress,
an example for many Republicans in the coming year.
A spokesman for DeLay, who is fighting in a Texas state court unrelated charges of illegal fundraising, denied that the contributions influenced the former House majority leader’s political activities. The Russian energy executives who worked with Abramoff denied yesterday knowing anything about the million-dollar London transaction described in tax documents.
Whatever the real motive for the contribution of $1 million — a sum not prohibited by law but extraordinary for a small, nonprofit group — the steady stream of corporate payments detailed on the donor list makes it clear that Abramoff’s long-standing alliance with DeLay was sealed by a much more extensive web of financial ties than previously known.
Records and interviews also illuminate the mixture of influence and illusion that surrounded the U.S. Family Network. Despite the group’s avowed purpose, records show it did little to promote conservative ideas through grass-roots advocacy. The money it raised came from businesses with no demonstrated interest in the conservative “moral fitness” agenda that was the group’s professed aim.
● Alexander Strategy Group – Edwin A. Buckham
● ENRON – Tom DeLay and Phil Gramm
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼▼▼ READ MY DIARY ▼
.
Nonprofit Group – U.S. Family Network – Linked to Tom DeLay Was Funded Mostly by Clients of Lobbyist Abramoff
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼▼▼ READ MY DIARY ▼
Great diary, and great WaPo article chronicling Abramoff’s dealings with his criminal conspirators.
I’d like to see them all serving time in the same cell block so they can continue betraying each other more easily.
Thanks for the great work, Andrew. This is truly fascinating (in a very ugly sort of way).
I’m hesitant to admit this, but here goes. (Please be kind) Based on your link to the contribution recipients, I don’t understand how the Democrats are distanced from this more so than the Republicans.
As far as succession. . . yikes. (Brings to mind the dumpster diving that resulted in Denny “Best of the Worst” Hastert as Speaker)
Thanks again – well done!
Dengre, in their diary over at Daily Kos: There are ZERO Democrats who took Abramoff money researched this particular angle far more than I have.
What I see is a Norquist-Abramoff-Delay run project, a completely Republican owned and run project. Money went to Republicans mainly but to some key Democrats as well. Some money was legitimate and some was bribery. There are a lot of Republicans that were involved in this scam. There are likely Republicans that received money that weren’t actually involved. There might be a Democrat or two actually knowingly involved. We’ll see about that last part. If they were they should go down too.
The bottom line though is that this was a completely Republican owned and run operation for the benefit of the Republican machine.
Thank you for taking the time to explain this in more detail, Andrew.
Surprisingly, I did read Dengre’s diary on Kos (through your link) but apparently it must have been too early on a Saturday for me to notice things like . . . I dunno . . . details.
Thanks again, and have yourself a great weekend.
Good night!
Guess ya’ll saw this WaPo graphic, ironically entitled “How Abramoff Spread the Wealth.”
Look at where it came from!! The vast majority, $4.7 million, came from “Indian tribes.” No wonder his biggest payback was to the chairman of the Senate Interior appropriations committee.
Yeah… imagine that… white guys stealing from Native Americans. Who ever heard of such a thing.
I just e-mail your diary to a bunch of my friends. I hope they take time to read the whole WaPo story.
a great deal of credit for the extensive work their people have done on this…
Abramoff Lobbying Questioned
I knock traditional news reporting in this country as much as everyone else but when they decide to go to town they still have it in them to do a great job. They should be congratulated and encouraged to do more of the same.