Mitchell Wade, the head of the Washington firm MZM, Inc., pleaded guilty “to his role in lavishing more than $1 million in gifts on a California congressman,” according to the Associated Press. That congressman, Duke Cunningham, resigned from Congress after pleading guilty to accepting $2.4 million in bribes from Wade and the San Diego defense contractor Brent Wilkes. Wade’s bribes to Cunningham included purchasing the congressman’s house at a price inflated by $700,000 and buying him a $140,000 yacht, nicknamed the ‘Dukestir’. Wilkes and the other co-conspirators – Thomas Kontogiannis and John T. Michael – have yet to plead in the case.
Continue readingSenators Call for Abramoff Special Prosecutor Over Island Security Report:
Two Senate Democrats, Jeff Bingaman (NM) and Ken Salazar (CO), wrote a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking him to appoint a special prosecutor to “investigate lobbyist Jack Abramoff's activities in two Pacific island territories,” according to the Los Angeles Times. The Senator’s concern revolves around a Justice Department report that highlights security risks posed by immigration from the Northern Marianas Islands and Guam. Abramoff “bragged in a 2001 e-mail to his clients in Saipan that he would use his connections in the attorney general's office to block the anticipated report lest it fuel congressional efforts to place new immigration restrictions on the Northern Marianas.” The letter also asks for the special prosecutor to probe “Abramoff's role in the demotion of Frederick Black, the former acting U.S. attorney for the two Pacific island territories,” who was demoted in the midst of an investigation into Abramoff’s activity.
Continue readingWisconsin Representative Pulled into Illegal Campaigning Probe:
A trial involving illegal campaigning out of the state Capitol in Wisconsin has pulled Representative Mark Green (R-WI) into its orbit, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. The investigation has already snared top Assembly Republicans for using their offices and positions to campaign and raise money, even using taxpayer money for campaign material. Green, who served in the Assembly from 1992 to 1998, denies any wrongdoing despite testimony from former staffers and high-level Republican Assemblymen implicating his Assembly office as running taxpayer funded campaigning.
Continue readingSpecter to Institute New Rules for Staffers:
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) will impose new rules in his office that govern staffer relationships with lobbyists after a USA Today story exposed possible a conflict of interest in earmarks Specter wrote that benefited the lobbyist husband of Specter’s top appropriations aide. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Specter will have his chief of staff or legislative director “identify any situation in which a staffer might have a conflict of interest because of a relationship with advocates of an appropriations request.” He will also have “any company, institution or cause requesting appropriations through Specter's offices would now be required to list the names of everyone who lobbies for it - not just who is representing it with Specter.”
Continue readingAlaska Congressman Wants State to Pay for “Bridge to Nowhere”:
Rep. Don Young (R-AK) is furious that his earmarked “bridge to nowhere” became the object of derision and a symbol of congressional largesse and pork barrel spending, so he is asking the Alaska state government to pay for the two bridges to Ketchikan-Gravina Island and Knik. According to the Anchorage Daily News, Young blames John McCain (R-AZ) for the defeat of his earmarks and states his opposition to a McCain presidential campaign, “I may support Hillary Clinton if he gets the nomination.” Young also said “he has been unfairly pulled into the orbit of the Jack Abramoff scandal,” and denied that he addressed the Marshall Islands Legislature in Bermuda shorts on a trip organized by Abramoff as Islands legislators have claimed in recent reports.
Continue readingBlogging Corruption:
Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall delves into the connections between Rep. Don Young (R-AK) and Jack Abramoff. Marshall posts an email from Young to Abramoff’s deputy asking to use a skybox for an Orioles-Yankees game and a Caps-Penguins game. Marshall writes, “So Young asked Abramoff's deputy to ask Abramoff if he could use Jack's skyboxes to hold his fundraisers. But Young doesn't know Jack Abramoff from Adam.” … Also at TPM, Paul Kiel has some questions about the Russian-Abramoff-DeLay connection. Kiel determines that Naftasib executives Marina Nevskaya and Alexander Koulakovsky spent $3,617,238 on three different Republican lobbying firms from 1997 to 2004. “So what were Nevskaya and Koulakovsky looking to buy?” … Mike Tomasky at TAPPED continues the story of Sen. Rick Santorum’s (R-PA) shady mortgage first reported by Will Bunch in the American Prospect and the Philadelphia Daily News. … Brad Smith, of Redstate.org, lets Campaign for Competitive Politics’ Steve Hoersting attack Democracy 21 for proposing an independent Office of Public Integrity. Hoersting spends most of his time throwing harpoons at Larry Noble for his “independent” work at the FEC before declaring, “Installing an independent Office of Public Integrity in the halls of Congress has all of the foresight and feasibility of bringing a pet alligator into your home.” … At local Oklahoma blog Okie Funk the ethics problems of Rep. Ernie Istook (R-OK), from his use of Abramoff’s skybox to a possible FEC investigation, are discussed. … David Sirota links to a Business Week article to help explain “why sunlight was necessary to improve national security” after the revelation that Duke Cunningham could have placed earmarks into the top-secret intelligence budget. … Tapscott’s Copy Desk links to a Pork Buster’s comparison of paperwork required for earmarks versus paperwork for things that don’t cost millions of dollars. Guess which application required the smallest amount of paperwork: food stamps, signing up to be a boy scout, or getting an earmark from Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski?
Continue readingSubpoenas Issued for Abramoff-Russian Ties:
Investigators issued a subpoena to an associate of Jack Abramoff for all documents related to activities with “any department, ministry, or office holder or agent of the Russian government.” The Boston Globe reports that the subpoenas look to shine a light on the business dealings of, and possible congressional bribery by, Abramoff client Naftasib, a Russian energy giant and a “major supplier to the Russian military.” Investigators believe that Naftasib, run by Alexander Koulakovsky and Marina Nevskaya, paid Abramoff and his associates $2.1 million for lobbying services through a Dutch shell company, Voor Huisen. Of particular interest is a trip to Russia that Abramoff took with then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) arranged by Naftasib executives and the $1 million dollars Naftasib donated to U.S. Family Network, “a shell operation for Abramoff” run by former DeLay chief of staff Ed Buckham.
Continue readingEthics Complaint Filed Against Santorum:
Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) filed an ethics complaint in the Senate Ethics Committee against Sen. Rick Santorum for receiving a loan from a private bank, whose “policy is to lend money only to its "affluent" investors, which the senator is not.” According to the Philadelphia Daily News, CREW “alleges that the mortgage from Philadelphia Trust Co. is a gift in violation of Senate Rule 35, which says that senators can receive loans or other banking services only on terms ‘generally available to the public.’”
Continue readingIn Money-Raising Season, Stevens Seeks out Lobbyists:
In the middle of the reform push in Washington, where lawmakers are banning staff from accepting meals and treats from lobbyists and leadership PACs are releasing their lobbyist treasurers, President Pro Tempore of the Senate Ted Stevens (R-AK) is set to hold a lavish lobbyist fundraiser at the headquarters of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) for his leadership PAC. Of the 44 members of the host committee, one is not a lobbyist. Sen. John Ensign recently held his own fundraiser for his re-election campaign at the NRSC headquarters. As Robert Novak writes in the Arizona National Ledger, “This is money-raising season, with a lobbyist-run event nearly every day.”
Continue readingRepublican Senator Considers Public Financing:
Senator George Voinovich (R-OH), the Ethics Committee chairman, is considering proposals for the public financing of elections, according to The Hill newspaper. The proposals are set to come from the joint efforts of Democratic Senators Chris Dodd (CT) and Dick Durbin (IL). Voinovich stated, “Maybe it is the answer. Too much of our time is spent raising money, time spent campaigning, time buying TV ads. When everyone’s out there trying to raise money, dialing for dollars ... until we deal with this issue you’re going to continue to have problems.” Durbin believes that “the heart of the lobbying reform question is still money.” Voinovich and Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), Ethics Committee ranking member, also released last week correspondence from the Justice Department asking the Committee not to investigate Senators tied to Jack Abramoff.
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