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1980s - Jack Abramoff was in the College Republicans with Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist.
1986 - After earning law degree, worked for Boardwalk & Associates in Washington, DC as vice president, and was appointed to a Holocaust Memorial Council by Pres. Reagan [1]
Frank Murkowski, then Senator from Alaska, and chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee writea a bill to extend the protection of U.S. labor and minimum-wage laws to the workers in the U.S. territory of the Northern Marianas. Then, and now, they are allowed to use the "Made in the USA" label.
So compelling was the case for change (91 percent of the workforce were immigrants, and were being paid barely half the U.S. minimum hourly wage, were forced to live behind barbed wire in squalid shacks minus plumbing, work 12 hours a day, often seven days a week, etc.), the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Murkowski worker reform bill.
In the meantime, the Northern Marianas hires Jack Abramoff to lobby for them and paid him roughly $9 million to prevent this
As part of Abramoff's lobbying, Tom DeLay took a trip with his family and some staff members there in 1998. (On New Years Eve, there, is where DeLay made the famous comment of Abramoff: "one of my closest and dearest friends."
Abramoff funneled much of the money to his pet charities, including to Rabbi David Lapin for promoting ethics in government, and many DeLay charities.
At least two people who worked on Abramoff's team at Preston Gates wound up with Bush administration jobs: Patrick Pizzella, named an assistant secretary of labor by Bush; and David Safavian, chosen by Bush to oversee federal procurement policy in the Office of Management and Budget. (Safavian has recently been indicted relating to other lobby type problems with Abramoff).
By 2001, DeLay has succesfully stopped Murkowski's bill, and the Islands gained at least $2 million more in federal aid from the administration.
1999-2000 - Internet Gambling Prohibition Act
Ralph Reed and Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition helped Abramoff with a pro-gambling campaign to prevent Internet Gambling from being federally outlawed.(!)
Reed and Sheldon focused on parts of the bill which allowed loopholes for dog, horse racing, and jai-alai. This enabled them to oppose the bill on the basis that it was 'pro-gambling' even though it was a bill to restrict internet gambling (and the bill was otherwise supported by Dobson, Focus on the Family)
Money to Reed was laundered through Norquist's ATR, then through Robin Vanderwall, director of the Faith and Family Alliance, a "shell". Vanderwall was later convicted of soliciting minors via the Internet and is serving a seven-year term in Virginia state prison.
Tony Rudy, Delay's Chief of Staff, funneled inside information on the bill to Abramoff.
Abramoff funneled eLottery money through "Toward Tradition", which employed Rudy's wife
Shandwick Worldwide - hired by Abramoff to get letters opposing IGPA from Jeb Bush.
Florida man, Matthew Blair, told authorities in a plea bargain agreement that he was hired to get letters opposing the bill from Bush and others, but created a forgery when this failed.
Forged letter from Jeb Bush opposing IGPA circulated on House floor, caused confusion
Delay voted down on the bill, helped keep the bill off the floor for the rest of the session through procedural tricks (suspension calendar).
eLottery paid for part of the 2000 Delay Scotland golf trip, Tony Rudy was invited as well.
The bills sponsors gave it another shot by trying to attach it to an appropriations bill.
Reed and Sheldon focused on lobbying 10 conservative representatives in vulnerable districts
The representatives told Delay that their constituents were angry about the bill and did not want it passed; Rudy worked within Delay's office to 'trump up' the concerns (manufactured by Reed and Sheldon) and get Delay, Hastert to tell the caucus not to pursue the bill.
Abramoff later hired Rudy after he left Delay's office.
2000 - Delay Scotland golf trip (Remember that Delay's problems with not reporting this donation was one of the first things that brought Abramoff into the spotlight). Also, the Skyboxes. Need to focus specifically on JA's part in this
2000-2001 - He was part of the 2000 Florida Recount legal effort This is not currently mentioned
In 2001 moved to Greenberg Traurig. and poached some clients.
2000-2005 - He was investigated, indicted, and pled guilty to bank and wire fraud in the SunCruz case. Suncruz purchase deal was done in 2000.
(IIRC)He convinced a bank he was worthy of credit to make the Suncruz purchase by using transfers of lobbying cash ($23m) to represent assets which he did not have.
remove the last sentence and replace with the following three bullet points
He heard from another lawyer at his lawfirm that the owner of Suncruz needed to sell. Abramoff said that the knew of potential buyers. He concealed his own interest from his lawfirm, becuase, without full disclosure, it is unethical for a single lawfirm to represent both a buyer and a seller
He pleaded guilty to committing fraud by producing fraudlent documents that purported to show he came up with a $23m down payment
Although the seller, Boulis, needed to fully divest, Abramoff made a side deal with the Boulis in order to let him keep 10%
Dana Rohrabacher, Tony Rudy (Delay aid) helped him pull off the bank fraud by providing credit references.
Ney helped out with comments in the congressional record, by admonishing the previous owner (Boulis) and praising the purchase.
Delay may have helped out by giving Boulis a flag which had flown over Capitol, and one of Abramoff's financiers for the purchase came to a skybox fundraiser for Delay.
We need to put the full details on Boulis's murder at the Suncruz article, not here. Abramoff has not yet been implicated in the murder, only his associate Adam Kidan.
2001-2006 - He lobbied Congress and the administration on behalf of Native American tribes, some of which he has plead guilty to defrauding.
Abramoff TribeScam outline:
Around 2001, Abramoff went in search of a lobbying client who was naive and had a lot of money to spend. Abramoff found the LA Coushattas, whose casino was in debt. ($30mil) Abramoff gained the Coushattas trust, Coushatta needed help with LA people who wanted to shut them down. Some of the Coushatta expressed doubts against trusting JA, JA exploited the intra-tribal (and inter-tribal) politics to discredit 'dissidents'. Excellent perspective from the tribehere.
In October 2001, JA convinced the Coushatta that TX legislature was going to allow indian gambling. Exploited tribal fears of Tigua and AL Coushatta casinos in Texas, stealing their revenue from gamblers commuting from TX. This was the initial 'Phantom Menace' pitch to get the Coushatta to dish out $3.5mil in the first six months, to lobby against something which wasn't going to happen anyways.
In January 2002, Jena Choctaw submitted compact to get approval for a casino (in LA). [3] Abramoff had Reed and Dobson do the first 'anti-gambling' crusade, resulting in first Jena shutdown. (Reed got $4mil altogether) Abramoff funneled cash to Federal level (Dept. of Interior, indirectly through CREA ($225K), Gale Norton's former PAC, now run by Italia Federici to get access to Griles and Norton in Interior) and cash to Senators and Representatives to write letters to Interior to stop Jena. Abramoff was on first-name basis with Griles, Griles arranged meetings between Coushatta and MS Choctaw chiefs (MS Choctaw also an Abramoff client, also opposed Jena) and Norton. Meetings occurred at CREA functions as well as officially, at Interior. Vitter wrote letters to Interior, got 26 other house members to sign. Reed promoted Vitter in postcard campaign, who later won LA Senate race. Senators Breaux, Lott, Cochran send letters to Interior.
February 2002 - Abramoff knows through Reed that the Tigua casino is about to get shut down by Cornyn. Abramoff and Scanlon make a move to take on Tigua as clients. Abramoff gets the Tigua to pay for Ney's scotland golf trip. (w/Safavian, Reed, Abramoff)
March 6, 2002 - After all the letters have been written, Coushatta cut the checks to 61 members of Congress. Also, one check on the list makes the CREA->Norton link implicit: "Council for Republican Advocacy (Norton)."
March 7, 2002 - DoI rejects Jena compact. After rejection, Jena hired their own lobbyists (Patton-Boggs) and tried again, this time with tacit support of Billy Tauzin and Breaux.
March 2002 - LA Rep. McCrery's chief of staff, Bob Brooks (who later went on a Scotland golf trip with Abramoff) writes up legislation to block Jena.
Apr 17, 2002: a press release "JUDICIAL WATCH TO INVESTIGATE INFLUENCE PEDDLING AT BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS AND INTERIOR DEPARTMENT: Quid Pro Quo Of Campaign Contributions From Indian Gambling Revenues In Exchange For Meetings And Political Favors? Time Magazine Implicates Number 2 Official At BIA In Influence Peddling Scheme" at http://www.judicialwatch.org/1734.shtml - Note that it cites an April 11, 2002 article from Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine of April 22, 2002.
June 2002 - Strongly worded, Abramoff-written letter to Norton opposing Jena is signed and sent by Delay, Hastert, and Blunt. Griles tries hard to influence Norton within Interior. He is challenged by Michael Rosetti, Counsel at Interior, 'who did not want Norton's decision process on the Jenas influenced by "outside people".' Vitter tries to urge Interior to block Jena via language in Appropriations report.
December 2002 - Norton eventually allows Jena compact, but the tribe ultimately gets shot down by LA gov. Kathleen Babineaux-Blanco, who does not want any expansion of gambling.
November 2, 2003: Julia Robb at the Alexandria Daily Town Talk reported that people within the Saginaw Chippewa and LA Coushatta tribes were criticizing tribal leaders (like Chief Poncho) for spending multi-millions on lobbyists, so that was likely when the house of cards started falling (Chief Poncho had recently been voted out of the tribal council). More notes to follow.
November 2003: According to the first SIAC hearing transcripts, the Saginaw Chippewa first confronted Abramoff and asked if he had a side 'agreement' with Scanlon [4]
February 22, 2004: Schmidt, Susan “A Jackpot From Indian Gaming Tribes - Lobbying, PR Firms Paid $45 Million Over 3 Years”, The Washington Post. The avalanche of articles that follow are at DisInfopedia.
March 2004: The FBI also started an investigation [5] allegedly based on the fact that Scanlon's ex-fiancee tipped them off to his illicit activities as payback for Scanlon cheating on her [6]. Once Scanlon 'flipped', Abramoff 'flipped' and gave up all of his personal records. However, there's more work to be done to 'walk the cat back'.
March 2004: the Senate hearing [7] also indicates that SIAC initiated their investigation based on press accounts at this time
June 22, 2004: The first subpoenas in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee investigation were issued I believe the SIAC got involved based on the complaints from the tribes...
March 2, 2005: Inside Politics: DeLay Defense, Washington Times: It says "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, has called for the House ethics panel to investigate Mr. DeLay after the National Journal cited his trip and said the Texas Republican violated House ethics rules. "The House gift rule clearly states that lobbyists cannot pay a member's travel expenses, but the expense voucher submitted by lobbyist Jack Abramoff indicates that this is precisely what he did for Mr. DeLay," she said."
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