The Republicans say liberals are “criminalizing
conservatives.” There is no doubt Abramoff is both a conservative and a criminal. Now his “victims” cry they were duped — what’s that
about “the party of personal responsibility”? Reminds me of Krusty the Klown crying that he didn’t want to lend his name to cheap
products but “they dumped a truck full of money in my driveway. What was I supposed to do?!” mjh
The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Lawmakers
pressured Interior while taking donations from Abramoff tribes By John Solomon, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — While
Congress investigated Jack Abramoff’s efforts to win influence inside government, its members held a secret: Nearly three dozen
lawmakers pressed to block a Louisiana Indian casino while collecting large donations from the lobbyist and his tribal clients.
Many, including leaders in both parties, intervened with letters to Interior Secretary Gale Norton within days of receiving money
from tribes represented by Abramoff or using the lobbyist’s restaurant for fundraising, an Associated Press review of campaign reports,
IRS records and congressional correspondence found.
Lawmakers said their intervention had nothing to do with Abramoff and that
the timing of donations was a coincidence. They said they wrote letters because they opposed the expansion of tribal gaming,
even though they continued to accept donations from casino-running tribes.
Many of the lawmakers involved lived far from
Louisiana and had no constituent interest in the casino dispute.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., held a fundraiser
at Abramoff’s Signatures restaurant in Washington on June 3, 2003, that collected at least $21,500 for Hastert’s Keep Our Majority
political action committee from the lobbyist’s firm and tribal clients.
Seven days later, Hastert wrote Norton urging her to
reject the Jena tribe of Choctaw Indians’ request for a new casino. Hastert’s three top House deputies also signed the letter. …
In the midst of the congressional letter-writing campaign, the Bush administration rejected the Jena’s casino on technical
grounds. …
The Coushattas wrote two checks to Rep. Tom DeLay’s groups in 2001 and 2002, shortly before the GOP leader
wrote Norton. But the tribe was asked by Abramoff to take back the checks and route the money to other GOP groups. In
all, DeLay received at least $57,000 in Abramoff and tribal donations between 2001 and 2004. [mjh: this is known as
“money laundering”]
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Donations From Abramoff’s Tribal Clients Probed – Los Angeles Times By Mary Curtius, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — The
head of a Republican environmental organization clashed repeatedly today with senators who accused her of trying to use her friendship
with an Interior Department official to further the business interests of super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s tribal clients.
Italia
Federici, president of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, told an incredulous Senate Indian Affairs
Committee that she believed Abramoff’s tribal clients donated $500,000 over a three-year period to her organization
because they were generous, not because they hoped she would help them thwart the efforts of competing tribes to open
casinos. …
Echoing other Abramoff associates who have testified before the committee in hearings that began more than a year
ago, Federici insisted that she had been duped by the lobbyist.
“I had no reason in 2002 to believe that Mr. Abramoff was anything
other than a truthful, friendly, charismatic, well-liked and well-respected Republican advocate in Washington,” Federici
said.
When she found out that Abramoff had funded the anti-casino campaign, Federici said, “I felt tremendously manipulated.”
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Exhibits
released to the public as part of the Oversight Hearing on Lobbying Practices.