Disgraced super lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced yesterday to 70 months in prison for obtaining fraudulent loans in his purchase of Sun Cruz Casinos. His partner Adam Kidan received the same sentence, but is still under investigation for his role in the murder of former Sun Cruz owner and rival Gus Boulis. The Washington Post notes that, “His prison time could be reduced further if he provides substantial assistance to corruption investigators, and both prosecutors and defense attorneys said he has been helpful so far.” One of the congressmen the Justice Department is investigating in connection with the Abramoff case, Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), stated that he will not accept a plea deal and, through his lawyer, announced that he has, “recently been seeking to persuade prosecutors not to bring charges in Washington or Florida. An agreement Ney signed last fall that waived the five-year statute of limitations on possible charges in Florida will expire in late April.”
Continue readingAbramoff Sentenced:
The Associated Press is reporting that Jack Abramoff was sentenced to the minimum of 5 years and 10 months in prison for fraud charges related to his 2000 purchase of the SunCruz casino line.
How Abramoff Bought a Think-tank:
The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, was used as a conduit for money that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff stole from his clients. The president of NCPPR Amy Ridenour was called before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to testify about the money that was funneled through her organization and the infamous congressional golfing junket to Scotland that bore her think tank’s name. According to Slate, “not all the money Abramoff directed from his clients to NCPPR—which ran to the millions—was transferred to third parties. Some of it remained at NCPPR. We don't know how much, but apparently it was enough to make Abramoff address Ridenour less like a grantee and more like an employee.” As the e-mails show, Ridenour was happy to write letters to the editor, press releases, and even op-eds in support of Abramoff’s clients Pitney-Bowes and the government of the Northern Marianas Islands.
Continue readingMore News:
- The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Jack Abramoff will be sentenced today in a Florida court.
- The Washington Post follows up on the report issued by the Minority Office of the House Committee on Government Reform on contracting abuses by the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root. According to the Post, “Pentagon auditors have challenged $45 million worth of company costs, out of $365 million in charges that were reviewed. … In one case, the government's contracting officials reported that KBR attempted to inflate its cost estimates by paying a supplier more than it was due. In another, KBR cut its cost estimates in half after it was pressed on its true expenses. In a third, KBR billed for work performed by the Iraqi oil ministry.”
- The Government Accountability Office released a report warning that, “Incentives for oil and gas companies that drill in the Gulf of Mexico will cost the federal government at least $20 billion over the next 25 years,” according to the New York Times. The government could also lose “$80 billion in revenue … over the same period if oil and gas companies won a new lawsuit that seeks a further reduction in their royalty payments.” The GAO notes that “the Interior Department, which runs the offshore leasing program, had never carried out a ‘robust’ cost-benefit analysis of the original program or of incentives added in the last five years.”
- Raw Story reports that a biography of Jack Abramoff prepared by his lawyers as a plea for leniency states that the lobbyist is ashamed of the profanity used in a 1980s anti-communist movie he produced titled “Red Scorpion.” Abramoff, however, is not ashamed of making the movie in South African-occupied Namibia or from using money and assistance provided by the apartheid regime of South Africa. Cast and crew members also allege that many of them were never paid for their work.
- The Cincinnati Post reports that, “A federal appeals court Tuesday ordered a Washington congressman [Rep. Jim McDermott (D)] to pay West Chester Republican John Boehner $700,000 for leaking an illegally taped phone conversation between Boehner and then-Speaker Newt Gingrich.”
- The head of the Environmental Protection Agency was the featured speaker at a Colorado fundraiser for Rep. Rick O’Donnell (R-CO). The Denver Post reports that, “The guests included representatives from El Paso Natural Gas, the Colorado Mining Association and the Colorado Petroleum Association. El Paso and member companies of the two associations have activities that come under federal environmental regulations.”
- The revolving door continues to spin as TNR’s The Plank reports that former Senator Howard Baker, who, until last year, was our ambassador to Japan, has registered to lobby for “Toshiba Corporation on ‘Consultations with eh [sic] appropriate members of the Executive and Legislative branches of the federal government, and the applicable agencies on CFIUS and antitrust matters, all related to Toshiba Corporation's acquisition of Westinghouse Electric Company.’”
- The Hill reports that House Republicans have vowed to pass campaign finance laws restricting donations to 527-organizations.
Abramoff Associates Write Pleas to Judge:
Friends and associates of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff sent more than 250 pleas for leniency to the Florida judge set to sentence Abramoff tomorrow. The Los Angeles Times reports that only one congressman, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), wrote to ask the judge to spare Abramoff: “Jack was a selfless patriot for most of the time I knew him.” Rohrabacher, in an interview, said, “I think when he is being punished for the things he did that were wrong, some of the things that he did that were right and admirable in the past should be taken into consideration.” The letters included stories of Abramoff throwing “a wedding party for a friend's daughter who was recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis” and his giving away free meals as “personal, rather than political, favors.” Abramoff is facing 70 to 87 months in prison as a result of his use of fraudulent loans to purchase the Sun Cruz Casino boat line.
Continue readingAnother Congressman with a Sweetheart Real Estate Deal:
Rep. Jim Ryun (R-KS) received a sweetheart real estate deal when he purchased the “safe house” owned by the Tom DeLay (R-TX) and Abramoff connected U.S. Family Network, according to TPM Muckraker’s Paul Kiel. The house located in Capitol Hill was purchased by the U.S. Family Network for $429,000 in 1999. It was sold in 2000 to Ryun for $410,000, a $19,000 loss for the USFN. Zillow.com, a real estate search engine, lists the current tax assessed value of the house at $660,850. Kiel writes, “Naomi Seligman of CREW told TPMmuckraker.com that Ryun's house deal should prompt a House Ethics Committee investigation. ‘Who else in America has lost money on a real estate transaction except [Cunningham contractor felon] Mitchell Wade?’” The U.S. Family Network is currently under investigation for illegal activities related to the investigation of Jack Abramoff.
Continue readingU.S. Family Netwrork
Want to know what the U.S. Family Network spent its money on? The Washington Post has an illustrative graphic on their site that is a must-see.
Weekend Round-up:
- Ed Buckham, the former chief of staff and religious advisor to former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), collected over $1 million through a non-profit group created while he was still under DeLay’s employ. (Washington Post) TPM Muckraker has been following Buckham’s money trail for some time. Check out their three parts series here, here, and here.
- The founder of “compassionate conservatism” Marvin Olasky is assailing former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed over his connections and dealings with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. (Washington Post)
- Robert Novak claims that Jack Abramoff is clearing DeLay from charges of corruption in his talks with investigators. Of course, the steady stream of stories like the Washington Post Ed Buckham story indicates that Abramoff is not the only corrupting influence on Capitol Hill. (Townhall.com)
- Laura Rozen notes that the wife of the mysterious Thommas Kontogiannis – one of the alleged bribers in the Duke Cunningham corruption case – gave “$18,000 to eighteen vulnerable Republican US House candidates” in 2004. Rozen writes, “These are not her local candidates, or broad nationally known candidates. Who was directing these payments to these obscure, vulnerable national Republican candidates? Who gave the Kontogiannis the Republican House play map? These payments suggest a degree of connection to someone far more central to the GOP House machine than even Cunningham.” (War and Piece)
More News:
- Will Bunch reports in the Philadelphia Daily News, “A faith-based Philadelphia group at the center of a flap over whether tax-exempt religious groups are aiding the re-election campaign of U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum has won more than $250,000 in federal grant money pushed for by Santorum over the last three years.” The group, the Urban Family Council, participated in a training session held by the ad-hoc group Pennsylvania Pastors Network, “which pushed a church-based get-out-the-vote drive for November.” Santorum addressed the meeting by video and spoke about stopping same-sex marriage raising questions about the political purposes of the tax-exempt group.
- The New York Times reports on the auction of jailed ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham’s goods. The auction netted $94,625 or, “about two-thirds of the $150,000 that the military contractors who gave the items to Mr. Cunningham as bribes reportedly paid for them.” TPM Muckraker has the full list of items and what they sold for in their document collection. The San Diego Union-Tribune has the pictures of the auction that even includes bidding paddles with the face of Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert glued on.
- Adam Kidan and Jack Abramoff will be subpoenaed by the defense in the Gus Boulis murder case, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. In 2001, Boulis was ambushed and slain in his car following a bitter, months-long sale of his SunCruz casino lines to Kidan and Abramoff. Anthony Moscatiello and two associates, hired to provide security for the casino boat line, were indicted in Boulis’ murder last year. Moscatiello was hired by Kidan and Kidan “has not been eliminated as a suspect in the murder case”.
- The Washington Post looks deeper into the activities of MZM and Duke Cunningham as the Pentagon prepares to look for earmarks that Cunningham may have written for MZM:
"…prosecutors said that in fiscal 2003 legislation, the congressman, who was a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, set aside, or earmarked, $6.3 million for work to be done ‘to benefit’ the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), created in 2002. …
In 2004, three MZM employees served as staff consultants to the presidential commission investigating prewar Iraq intelligence, which was run by federal Judge Laurence H. Silberman and former senator Charles S. Robb (D-Va.). One of the three was retired Lt. Gen. James C. King, who then was a senior vice president of MZM for national security. King, who before joining MZM had been director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, played a consultant's role in the establishment of CIFA in 2002 before MZM received its first contracts from that agency.
The Silberman-Robb commission report in 2005 recommended that CIFA play a bigger role in the government's counterterrorism activities.”
Silberman denies that King and the other two MZM employees played any role in recommending a bigger role for CIFA.
- MSNBC reports that Abramoff associate David Safavian is headed to court today for a pretrial hearing.
- The Christian Science Monitor provides yet another story that ethics reform is stalling in Congress. Norm Ornstein says, “Some members are pulling the blanket over their heads and hoping the storm will pass. For others, there is also a genuine belief that if you just jump in a spasm of reaction, you could do some things detrimental to a good deliberative process.”
In Blog Daylight:
-
Wonkette reports on Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas’ (R-CA) expensive private travel. Thomas took a trip to Beaver Creek, CO for an AEI forum that cost, in travel expenses alone, $27,233. I know that the airlines are going bankrupt but who knew that they were charging the price of a car for a round-trip flight to Beaver Creek. Thomas also took a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland on the dime of the Ripon Educational Fund (a Republican organization that is run by lobbyists) that cost $18,702, which included an “Edinburgh Military tattoo”. Are tattoos included in the proposed gift and meal ban?
-
Think Progress reports that John McCain’s (R-AZ) attempt to attach 527-reform legislation to the lobbying and ethics reform bill would wind complicating and potentially killing off the reform bill: “Even pro-reform activists, who endorse tough new restrictions on 527 organizations, have testified that the 527 debate should be handled separately. They argue that dragging in 527-related provisions would complicate and undermine the lobbying reform effort."
Josh Marshall is counting the number of politicians seeing their careers ending due to the Abramoff scandal: “So far I've got Ralph Reed, Conrad Burns, Katherine Harris and Bob Ney. Tom DeLay is another obvious contender. But that's muddled by the fact that his own independent crimes appear to have brought him down first. Who am I not thinking of?”
59063
