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As many as 60 U.S. Congressmen may be implicated in Bribery scandal

by Open-Publishing - Friday 2 December 2005
26 comments

Justice Governments USA

The Abramoff affair: Corruption scandal threatens Republican control of US Congress

Michael Scanlon, a Republican political operative, publicist and former press spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, pled guilty November 21 to conspiring with lobbyist Jack Abramoff to bribe a Republican congressman and cheat several American Indian tribes out of tens of millions of dollars.

Scanlon’s guilty plea-and even more his agreement to cooperate fully with federal prosecutors and testify against former colleagues-has sent a chill through Republican ranks and raised the prospect of numerous indictments, convictions and jail terms for congressmen and congressional staffers as well as Bush administration officials involved in the rampant corruption of official Washington.

By the end of last week, there were press reports that at least four Republican legislators and 17 staffers and former staffers were the targets of the Justice Department investigation into the Abramoff affair. The Wall Street Journal named DeLay, Congressman Robert Ney of Ohio, Congressman John Doolittle of California, and Senator Conrad Burns of Montana as targets, as well as several former Bush administration officials. The Washington Post reported that prosecutors had informed Congressman Ney that he was the subject of a bribery investigation and added that the wives of DeLay and Doolittle had also been linked to Abramoff’s influence-peddling schemes.

The Abramoff affair could have much wider implications. A reporter for BusinessWeek, on a television interview program, said that his Justice Department sources had told him that as many as 60 congressmen could be implicated in the bribery scandal-far more than enough to threaten control over the House of Representatives, where the Republican majority is 231-202, with one independent.

The Associated Press named eight more congressmen and senators who received contributions engineered by Abramoff in return for political favors, four Republicans and four Democrats. The Republicans were congressmen Charles Taylor of North Carolina, J. D. Hayworth of Arizona, Todd Tiahrt of Kansas and Dave Camp of Michigan. The Democrats included three senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota (the senior Democrat on the committee now investigating the Abramoff affair), and Congressman Dale Kildee of Michigan.

Previous press accounts have noted that House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois, a Republican, and the leading Democrat in the Senate, Minority Leader Harry Reid, received substantial campaign contributions from groups directed by Abramoff, most of them Indian tribes seeking congressional favors for their casino gambling operations.

While some of these contributions went to leading Democrats, particularly members of the Indian Affairs committees of both houses, the bulk of the cash went to the Republicans-both because they had the deciding role, as the majority party in both houses, and because Abramoff built his lobbying empire on his longstanding ties to top Republican figures like DeLay, chief Bush political aide Karl Rove, anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition.

When Abramoff was president of the National College Republicans in the mid-1980s, his two top deputies were Norquist and Reed. All three went on to prominent positions in far-right politics. Abramoff turned to lobbying for the Nicaraguan contras and anti-communist terrorist groups in southern Africa, and then, especially after the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, to lobbying for commercial and business interests.

With the installation of the Bush administration, the well-connected Republican lobbyist could virtually name his price for influence-peddling, and he rapidly became a multi-millionaire wheeler-dealer, representing, among other companies, Tyco International and Unisys Corp.

The essential mechanism of Abramoff’s operations, as detailed in press accounts and Senate hearings over the past 18 months, was to plunder the extensive lobbying funds provided by Indian tribes with lucrative gambling operations. Abramoff directed much of these funds to Scanlon, who left DeLay’s office in 2000 to set up a publicity firm in Washington to cash in on his high-level Republican connections. Scanlon then kicked back half the profits secretly to Abramoff.

From 2001 to 2004, according to documents filed in federal court in Washington DC, Abramoff and Scanlon together raked in some $82 million in payments from the Indian tribes. Scanlon himself billed four Indian tribes $53 million during this period, while kicking back $19 million under the table to Abramoff.

The 35-year-old Scanlon, who was still paying off college loans from his congressional staff salary in 1999, became a millionaire overnight, buying several million dollars in beachfront property in Delaware shortly after going into business for himself. Five years later, even after agreeing to $19 million in restitution to the tribes, according to one press account, he still retains significant personal wealth.

Abramoff manipulated the Native American tribes, using his influence with Christian fundamentalist groups opposed to gambling in order to extract what amounted to political protection money. In the most notorious case, Abramoff mobilized the Christian fundamentalists to spike the bid of a smaller Indian tribe to establish a casino that would have undercut the profits of his clients, the Louisiana band of Coushatta Indians.

The Coushattas hired Abramoff and Scanlon to shut down a casino run by the Jena band, another Louisiana tribe, at Livingston, Texas, on the Texas-Louisiana border. At Abramoff’s direction, the Coushattas funneled money to various Republican political action committees and conservative groups, including two campaign committees run by DeLay, ARMPAC and TRMPAC.

Abramoff and Scanlon used Ralph Reed as their contact with Christian right groups and also contacted John Cornyn, then the Texas attorney general, now a US Senator, seeking legal action to block the Jena casino. Reed organized a group of 50 pastors to meet with Cornyn. He subsequently told Abramoff in an e-mail, “We have also choreographed Cornyn’s response. The AG will state that the law is clear... and pledge to take swift action to enforce the law.” The ministers were reportedly unaware that their moral outrage at gambling was being used to aid one gambling interest against another.

Even more brazen was the effort of Abramoff and Scanlon to funnel millions of dollars through Reed for a campaign to shut down the El Paso, Texas casino run by the Tigua tribe. After the casino was shut down, Abramoff and Scanlon induced the Tiguas to hire them to wage a campaign to allow the casino’s reopening. Although the Tiguas paid out millions, however, this effort failed.

Abramoff and Scanlon discussed their devious operations in language of unvarnished cynicism, as revealed in e-mail exchanges made public by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. In one memo to Abramoff, Scanlon wrote, referring to the Christian fundamentalists: “The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees. Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them.”

This could serve as a crude but nonetheless telling summary of the entire political strategy of the Bush administration: mobilize the “wackos” while keeping everyone else in the dark.

While there has been substantial media publicity over Abramoff’s gulling of the Indian tribes, the Republican lobbyist has been indicted so far only in an unrelated case of business swindling in south Florida, when he and an associate took control of SunCruz, a cruise line that offered gambling tours, using allegedly fraudulent financial information and bad checks.

With Scanlon’s testimony, however, an indictment for swindling the Indian tribes could be forthcoming shortly. The most recent Wall Street Journal and Washington Post accounts reveal that the Justice Department task force looking into the influence-peddling cases has grown to 35-40 people, suggesting that multiple high-level criminal cases could be brought.

Particularly ominous, from the standpoint of targeted congressmen, is the prospect that criminal bribery charges could be brought over campaign contributions, even though the cash did not go directly into the congressmen’s pockets, but to finance their reelection efforts. The whole purpose of the elaborate Federal Election Commission ritual has been to legalize the escalating financial subsidies from corporate interests to legislators.

One of Abramoff’s favorite tactics was to hire the wives of congressional staffers or of the congressmen themselves, providing what amounted to a direct payoff under the cover of employment. One Abramoff-linked company, Alexander Strategy Group, run by former DeLay staffers Edwin Buckham and Tony Rudy, hired Christine DeLay, the congressman’s wife, “to determine the favorite charity of every member of Congress,” according to a Washington Post account. This not terribly complex job-presumably 435 phone calls would have sufficed-resulted in payments to Christine DeLay of $3,200 to $3,400 a month for three years, for a total of $115,000. The DeLays’ family lawyer, Richard Cullen, told the Post, “It wasn’t like she did this 9 to 5, but it was an ongoing project. This was something that she found to be very interesting, very challenging and very worthwhile.”

As the criminal information published by the Justice Department in connection with Scanlon’s guilty plea states, the contributions to the congressional campaign funds as well as personal gifts, such as Super Bowl tickets, vacation trips, and expensive restaurant meals, were “in exchange for a series of official acts.” These included passing legislation, agreeing to put statements into the Congressional Record, contacting federal officials to influence decisions, meeting with Abramoff’s clients, and awarding contracts for improvements in congressional office buildings.

While the Republican lobbyist has so far only been indicted in the Florida case, and has not yet been convicted of any crime, the details flooding out into the media demonstrate the extraordinarily corrupt alliance of Christian fundamentalists, Jewish ultra-Zionists, anti-tax zealots and rabid neo-conservative ideologues in the service of corporate America.

The scandal-the word is unavoidable but inadequate, since it is here describing the rule, not the exception, in today’s Washington-reaches into the highest rungs of the Republican Party leadership and the Bush administration. DeLay, forced to step down as House Majority Leader after his indictment on an unrelated political corruption case in Texas, is the first top-level casualty. He once described Abramoff as “one of my closest and dearest friends.”

A mid-level White House official, David Safavian, chief procurement officer at the Executive Office and previously chief of staff at the General Services Administration, was indicted last month on charges that he lied to federal investigators about a junket he took with Abramoff, Reed and Congressman Ney to Scotland.

There may well be further White House reverberations. According to documents released November 9, Abramoff sought a $9 million payment from the West African nation of Gabon to arrange a meeting with President Bush. Abramoff asked for the money to be paid through wire transfers to a company he controlled privately, rather than to the lobbying firm of Greenberg Traurig, where he was then employed. President Omar Bongo met with Bush in the Oval Office 10 months later, but there has as yet been no confirmation that he either made the payment to Abramoff or received the invitation in return. White House officials denied any connection, claiming that the Bongo visit was “part of the president’s outreach to the continent of Africa.”

Forum posts

  • Thank you for this excellent detailed article on this important subject. Unfortunately, the big media is not covering this story adequately. Also all coverage of this story seems to leave out the fact that Mohamed Atta made several visits to Abromoff’s gambling casino ship in Florida. I do not believe justice will be fully served. My once great United States of America has a government that is thoroughly corrupt through and through, from the top to the bottom local governments.

    • The Abramoff octopus has its tentacles everywhere in GW’s house, this is nothing new just business as usual, only that with the internet and truth-seekers, more exposure is available. It is unbelievable to see all that is occurring in this country in this century. What is even more sickening is how naive and ignorant the majority of the so-called citizens of this nation are (not that all are citizens since illegal immigration and legal aliens serve as a great loophole to allow for uninformed and uncaring residents to exist in the first place). This is definitely not a democracy. Who will judge these horrible criminals? Their own? And we the people who pay our asses off in taxes to watch these lame fools exist is even more pathetic. I only hope and pray that the law of karma plays out. And as far as killing domestic enemies is concerned, well that is as American as Apple Pie. I guess it makes sense since to a certain degree this nation was built on mass murder. Yeah, and why isn’t the media talking about ATTA’s involvement—well, why would they. It would be disastrous for the egos of the deluded Americans to learn that its own government and their dear leader was the creator of 911 and disastrous for the guilty when tried in an international court for all the crimes committed against humanity.

    • All I can say, it is about time the corrupt Congress Critters are being exposed for the Criminals they are. I say bring on the charges and get the creeps out of office, and let’s elect patriots who will do the job that has to be done to get our country back to a Constitutional and representative gov. under the New Frontier Coalition that we formed to do this task by getting all decent third parties to get rid of the ego’s and stand as one to support only one candidate from all parties. Join us at: www.newfrontiercoalition.com Virginia Brooks, Editor of the NFC News, and steering committee member. Email me and I will send you a copy via e-mail of our latest issue of the NFC News issue on Sovereignty...

    • I am a legal alien and am insulted by your remarks. I spend at least three hours a day keeping up with all that is going on in my adopted country. I have actively participated in non-partisan organizations which are trying to keep democracy in our country by assuring that the votes at elections are counted properly. I speak out-to my detriment-and continually try to keep my neighbors informed of the important issues at hand. I talk in line-ups at the grocery cashier stands, I financially have and still support progressive causes. I read newspapers evey day from all over the world. I do all of this and more because I love the ideal of what is America and I believe it can come about.

    • You shouldn’t take it so personally for you missed the point. Last I knew Legal Aliens couldn’t even vote. But that’s besides the point since real and just elections don’t exist here in America either, they are fraudulent. I am glad you are informed, keep on blogging on the blogosphere and spread the truth. You don’t need to read all the papers around the world, you just need to be selective and sift through the bs. Bring your ego down a notch. Peace.

  • With the laws that have been passed in the last 20 years, it is not suprising that we have a corrupt Congress. The LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL. The men and women in government are from well to do families and their god is MONEY. They care not what the people want or what is best for every man, woman and child. How do they sleep at night? They will knock at the door and I will know them not. Most of those who hold positions in government, America, Europe, Middle East, etc. are controlled by an evil force. Do away with the wealthy in government and the people will have a better chance of a GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE AND BY THE PEOPLE.

    THE LOVE OF MONEY = EVIL

    • You obviously have never read any material by Ayn Rand. The root of America’s evil is the loss of objectivity or its ability to rationalize. We the people are used to having something for nothing. Now, as America’s dollar is not worth a "Continental" (America’s fiat currency during the civil war), the ability to rationalize becomes strong again in order to survive. You and I, who read Bellaciao, will do better than most in the next great depression.

      One way to get ahead is to buy precious metals. Silver and gold are still a good buy. Yes there will be corrections but we will have real money (intrinsic value) when the depression hits. No need to get into why precious metals are better than paper money, just realize that it is. Start planning now and rationalize.

      C.

  • The US media is controlled top down by the people represented by folks like Casino Jack Abramoff.

    Check out www.iamthewitness.com for more info.

  • Great summary, overall, but you left out what, to me, is one of the key items in this long, sordid story: the fact that a MOB-STYLE killing ended the difficult business negotiations between former deLay aide Scanlon and Gus Boulis. Boulis was gunned down by two men on a Florida freeway.

    The suspects in this shooting? Guys that Scanlon had previously given hundreds of thousands of dollars to for CATERING!

    Here’s a good primer:

    http://madcowprod.com/11162005.html

    N

    • Correction:

      It was former DeLay aide ADAM KIDAN that made the payment. The murder victim, BTW, was previously denounced on the floor of the US House of Representatives by none other than Republican Rep. Bob Ney; this was one of the favors listed in the indictment of Scanlon.

      – N

  • What an exellent report in this subject,while these group have being cutting of programs for the poor,they themselves are living like kings. We can see that these group are corrupted.

    • Where are OUR Leaders FOR DEmocracy Hiding ?
      How many more innocents have to die so this money-hungry...power grabbing regime is indicted and ’Hung out to dry ? What is Our Prosecutor P.Fitzgerald waiting FOR ? Why doesnt the Indictments start Appearing ? Have These 60 +  Who are envolved with Bribery and TAKES under[ And over ] the table not yet  Raised enough Money to Pay off all the Needy Criminal System Judges So they will NOT GO TO Prison where they all Belong ? Is All Of OUR Public Servants ( Who are Paid Quite Handsomely Anyway,  ) Guilty of further theivery from the American Citizens ?   Dont these crooks realize that when they all Voted themselves a yearly raise in Pay of over twenty thousand dollars a year... that they have Totally turned the Working-class Poor Against them ? ( Those who are Lucky enough to still have their Lousy Minimum-wage Job to Feed Their Families ON ) JUST THAT RAISE Alone, they Gave to themselves (Very Sneakily done too, I might ADD ! ) Would feed, in a sense ,TWO Families Of at least Six in the Family, A YEAR ! HOW DO THEY Think People "OUT HERE IN THE REAL World... Manages to EXist on Less than 11,000.00----or less, a year ? " What about all the poor folks who cant even find a Job at all ? And Dont try to tell me "There are Plenty of Jobs out there, people just dont want to work ! " What a Total LIE that is that our Conservative-compassionate leader ..is Spouting every time he gets in front of a camera...Along with his Favorite Theme < " This Governing is HARD Work'...And     "WE" Must Stay the course !!!  For  Heavens sake, people...WAKE UP ! These ’agents’ we have in our Congress were Chosen and Voted into office..to REpresent US..THE Citizensof Our Country..And we are Paying their Salaries to DO So. But What are they Doing ? They are Getting Richer Every Day they Crawl out of bed and Head for That  Honored SEAT in CONGRESS . Doing What ?  Hunting up more methods to Gain MORE Wealth before they are Found out And Escorted OUT ??  Where ARE All the Angry, Fed-up People  Who should BE Busy TRying to Get rid of these chancres that are getting more Obvious Every DAy ?  Please, Do GET Angry enough to at least Speak up..And Say that you are FED up..And Dont want to Take it Any more! Then Let your "Congress and that greedy Regime in our White HOUSE Know That Their Days ARE Numbered ! LET them all Know that you are ’out here’ and you are Well-aware of Their actions...nd their INactions on your behalf. Don`t let me be just one of Too Few who will SPEAK UP..And take Action. FOR OUR Sakes and our Children, LET’s vote them OUT Thank you for taking note ! VEDAGF

  • Corruption has crept into every nook & cranny of this country.

  • ...they all have their heads stuck so far up where the don’t shine, that why waste good energy chasing bad...send them to ’Gitmo!!!

    • Yes, whatever. This is wishful thinking at its best.

      You have no power and no will to even begin this kind of excersize. The people who are in control have strong will power and they can create the reality that you see and live. You on the other hand have a keyboard and a moment’s worth of understanding and anger.

      But by suggesting that they should be put into ’Gitmo’, you are as classless a human as those you purport to dispise. Why to go.

  • The Destruction Of The American Federal System
    Who Should We Blame?

    This article tells it all.

    http://rense.com/general69/desst.htm

    • America is on it’s way out, the "LODGE" has used us up. Spit us out. We can now hang up the signs that say the US is ’Closed Due To Ignorance Of The People’. No one wanted to hear the truth before it was too late. Now it is too late. We have no Constitution unless you consider the tratorous ’Patriot Act’ a constitutional document. We’re all criminals under that.

    • The Illuminati and their CFR spawn have been consistent in breeding for us the political prostitutes that we deserve. Foolishly thinking that we have a meaningful choice, we line up outside of one bordello or the other in order to get "serviced" and to pay our dues. We are permitted to choose a fresh smelling Bush with a Mona Lisa smile, or a cavorting Clinton...farting in our faces.....it matters little to the Illuminati. Both of their VD infested working girls do their little bit in taking our money and our dignity while producing for their masters a herd of stupefied little jackasses.

    • Until some unspeakable day of reckoning.....Haww Hee Hawww...

    • Correction: The ’System’ is now known as: The Just Us System! Who is too blame? The answer is simple: We The SHEEPle are to blame! We are sheared 24/7 and We SHEEPle continue to remain SILENT & UNINVOLVED while polishing our national theme: LET’S NOT BUCK THE SYSTEM!

      Well SHEEPle, How’s that working for you?

      By the way; We are NOT a democracy and never have been! Jefferson said a democracy is the most vile Form of government. We are (supposed to be) a Constitutional Republic.... but We the SHEEPle have never heard of that, and surely have never read (studied) our Constitution FOR (NOT ’of’) The United States!

      Wake-Up America! We are about to pay a price we cannot afford via a just, but tearfully angry God!

      How shall We The SHEEPle punish these criminals? Oh! I almost forgot our about the punishment we always render (sic).... To Wit: COMPLETE SILENCE!!!!!

    • Very good! ....a just, but tearfully angry God!

      How shall God punish these SHEEPle? Oh! We shouldn’t forgot about our most favored Chinese business partners with their growing military power who may have a surprise in store for the Illuminati. To Wit: COMPLETE ANNIHILATION of the USA and including the majority of those illuminated spawn of Satan !!!!!

  • THE ONLY WAY TO STOP THIS FROM GOING ON IS TO NOT ALLOW ANY AND ALL OF THESE ’’lobbyist FROM HAVING A FREE ROYAL POWER. DO NOT LET THEM IN ANY GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS WALKING AROUND WITH 9X10 ENVELOPES PACKED WITH 100 DOLLARS BILLS. LOCK THEM ALL OUT FOREVER AND i’M SURE THE PEOPLE THEY REPRESENT WILL GET THE MESSAGE AND SO WILL BIG BROTHER. HOW SAY YOU??????

  • I place 100% of the blame for this going as far as it has on the MEDIA. If they had not helped to cover this up at the very least then this would never have reached such heights. P

  • Justice for all and special privilge for none would cure all this!
    Tom belvin

  • It is funny reading this article and the comments, in a very cynical way. For many years I have argued that Gemany got Hitler to lead them because that was where they, the germans, as a people were headed. It is the same here in America. In Bush and the boys, we have only gotten the sum total of our history. Yes I am Indian (derived from In Dios) and have a fairly good grasp of true american history. Want a peek? Here’s one for you. It starts with a question.
    How is it that George the first, that being Washington, and his men survived Valley Forge? I will give you a minute to come up with the real answer. Yeah try to Google this one.
    (playing music from Jepordy)
    Here is the answer. A man by the name Shenandoah, an Onadaga, brought Washington and the boys, corn and venison and blankets. Washington told Shenandoah that the land he lived on would forever be Onadaga. Well as soon as the revolution was over, george the 1st, told his boys, "remember those peach orchards in upstate New York?" They are yours. So much for not being able to tell a lie.
    Now we come to george the 3rd. The only thing he has done wrong is get caught. Oh wait, we can’t catch him, that would humiliate us.
    One final thought. I made this prediction after shrub was awarded the presidency by the SC in 2000. George W. Bush, will commit suicide while in office. He will not be able to handle the humiliation that is headed his way.

  • Well, My name is James C. Fredrick A vertian of the Korean War and in the Viet Nam. My question is Can l get in to see Senter John Mc Cain concrening my Young Son Living in Tucson AZ. Just recently my Son Secerty Badge was pulled from him getting on the Base to do his 26 Years on Air Frames Work. I need to helpy son get His Secrety bade back to work around Military Air Plaines.... And help from you would deeply Appreciated.. James C, Fredrick USMC REtired Yuma AZ Local address 1935-W- 19th Place Yuma AZ85364 Thanks so much for your help.