GOP Leaders Seek Distance From
Abramoff
Washington Post
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 4, 2006; A10
With a House Republican committee chairman implicated in the criminal case
and the highest echelons of the Republican Party increasingly vulnerable to
charges, GOP leaders moved yesterday to distance themselves from disgraced
lobbyist Jack Abramoff and prepare to combat a growing corruption scandal.
Hours after Abramoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and tax
evasion charges, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) announced that he
will donate to charity the tens of thousands of dollars that he has received
from Abramoff's Indian tribe clients. Top Republican strategists pushed GOP
leaders to embrace legislation to curb the influence of lobbyists.
And former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) called on House Republicans
to elect a new majority leader to permanently replace Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.),
Abramoff's most powerful ally in Washington, who faces a trial on unrelated
criminal charges of violating Texas campaign laws.
"Unequivocally, the House Republicans need to select a new majority leader
in late January or early February," said Gingrich, who cited revelations in The
Washington Post that a public advocacy group organized by DeLay associates had
been largely financed by Russian energy interests.
The plea agreement signed by Abramoff yesterday implicates only one
lawmaker, Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), but it indicates that future revelations
would ensnare other public officials. The agreement refers broadly to trips,
campaign contributions and entertainment offered to public officials "in
exchange for agreements that the public officials would use their official
positions and influence" for Abramoff's benefit. That suggests there were
specific quid pro quos that could yield additional charges of bribery and
public corruption.
Ney, the chairman of the House Administration Committee, which oversees the
operations of the House, is never referenced by name, although Ney's spokesman
confirmed that Ney is the "Representative #1" repeatedly mentioned in court
documents outlining Abramoff's wrongdoing. The court documents depict
"Representative #1" as accepting lavish gifts of travel, meals, entertainment
and campaign contributions, then awarding congressional contracts to Abramoff's
clients, inserting a statement of support in the Congressional Record, and even
obtaining a travel visa for a relative of one of Abramoff's clients while in
Russia on official business.
Ney spokesman Brian Walsh denied the charges, saying any official actions
Ney had taken were based on "the merits and facts of the situation and not
because of any improper influence from Jack Abramoff or anybody else."
"At the time I dealt with Jack Abramoff, I obviously did not know, and had
no way of knowing, the self-serving and fraudulent nature of Abramoff's
activities," Ney said in a statement.
Republican strategists expressed some relief that the damage could be
limited. Carl Forti, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional
Committee, said that if Abramoff's revelations ensnare only one lawmaker and
some unknown staff members, Democrats will have little chance of sparking a
political revolt when voters go to the polls in November to elect a new
Congress.
But now that Abramoff has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange
for a lighter prison sentence, he could provide testimony highly damaging to
other high-level lawmakers. DeLay is not mentioned, but court documents do
single out his former deputy chief of staff, Tony C. Rudy. The documents detail
10 monthly payments totaling $50,000 that went to the wife of an aide
identified as "Staffer A." In exchange, that aide, identified elsewhere as
Rudy, helped torpedo Internet gambling legislation and a postal-rate increase,
according to Abramoff's plea agreement.
Moreover, numerous references to Abramoff-financed trips to Scotland and the
Northern Mariana Islands raised anew questions about DeLay's own trips to both
locations with Abramoff.
Dick DeGuerin, an attorney for DeLay, said he is not concerned about the
Abramoff investigation. DeLay has offered to cooperate with the Justice
Department probe and has not been called in, he said.
"If Jack Abramoff tells the truth, what he'll do is clear the air, and
everyone will see there's no connection between Jack Abramoff's money-dealing
and Tom DeLay," DeGuerin said.
Yesterday, Travis County prosecutor Ronnie Earle, who has been overseeing
the probe into illegal corporate donations in Texas, tried to find that
connection by sending subpoenas to Abramoff's two former employers in
Washington, seeking documents and any correspondence involving DeLay and
certain contributions by Abramoff clients.
The subpoenas are based on evidence that the law firm Preston Gates Ellis
LLP and several Abramoff clients, including the Mississippi Band of Choctaw
Indians, made donations to Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action
committee organized by DeLay and his associates. That committee has been
indicted on charges of illegally using corporate funds, and Earle now appears
to be seeking information on what the donors expected to get in return for
their payments.
Even before the plea agreement was unveiled, the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee had circulated a 1997 quote from DeLay hailing Abramoff as
"one of my closest and dearest friends."
"Tom DeLay was majority leader of the House of Representatives," said DCCC
Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), "and Tom DeLay said Jack Abramoff was his best
friend, nobody else."
But Democrats could be ensnared by the Abramoff case, as well. The lobbyist
oversaw at the law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP a team of two dozen lobbyists
that included many Democrats. The biggest beneficiaries of campaign
contributions directed by the Abramoff team included such high-ranking
Democrats as then-Sen. Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.), Senate Minority Leader Harry
M. Reid (Nev.) and Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (R.I.), a former head of the House
Democrats' campaign committee.
Some key Republican strategists have complained that GOP leaders have been
slow in responding to a scandal that has been unfolding for months and in
holding internal elections to permanently replace DeLay in the House
leadership.
With Abramoff's plea, that may change. In November, The Post detailed a
fundraiser held by Hastert at one of Abramoff's restaurants that netted from
the lobbyist's law firm and tribal clients at least $21,500 for the speaker's
political action committee. Since then, numerous lawmakers from both parties
have returned such donations, but only yesterday did Hastert join the line.
"While these contributions were legal, he believes that it is appropriate to
donate the money to charity," said Ron Bonjean, Hastert's spokesman.
Staff writers Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and R. Jeffrey Smith contributed to this
report.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
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