The ripple effect
The Hill
Editorials
Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of conspiracy (including bribery of public officials and the use of former staffers as lobbyists before the door to K Street had taken its prescribed 12 months to revolve), fraud and tax evasion.
Washington has been waiting for weeks for this shoe to drop, ever since Abramoff’s co-conspirator Michael Scanlon copped a plea on related charges in the fall. The shoe fell particularly hard on Capitol Hill; the public officials whom Abramoff confesses, or claims, to have bribed include at least one lawmaker and members of his staff.
Over and above bilking Indian tribes of millions of dollars, “defendant Abramoff and others would offer and provide things of value to public officials, including trips, campaign contributions, meals and entertainment in exchange for agreements that the public officials would use their official positions and influence to benefit defendant Abramoff’s clients and defendant Abramoff’s business,” according to the criminal information document filed by the government yesterday.
A raft of lawmakers and staff were probably acutely uncomfortable yesterday as they read those words. Principal among them was surely the unnamed “Representative #1,” who has been identified as Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio).
Abramoff, Scanlon and others are charged with having “provided a stream of things of value to a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (‘Representative #1’) and members of his staff, including but not limited to a lavish trip to Scotland to play golf on world-famous courses, tickets to sporting events and other entertainment, regular meals at defendant Abramoff’s upscale restaurant, and campaign contributions for Representative #1, his political action committee, and other political committees on behalf of Representative #1.”
Representative #1 is said in the charge sheet to have agreed to “perform a series of official acts” for Abramoff, including supporting legislation, placing statements in the Congressional Record, and supporting the bid by one of the lobbyist’s clients to equip the House with a wireless phone system.
Ney denies all wrongdoing and this newspaper, like the law, will presume he is innocent until there is proof to the contrary. It should also be underlined that the word of a confessed crook cannot be accepted lightly, particularly one who, like Abramoff, is trying to reduce his own sentence — he faces 30 years in jail — by helping prosecutors color other people’s actions as darkly as possible
Nevertheless, Ney is in the fight of his life and, as The Hill first reported, has set up a legal defense fund anticipating substantial costs defending himself.
Other members are scrambling to distance themselves from Abramoff and there is no telling how far his taint will spread. It is clear, however, that it will spread at least as far as November, for the lobbyist’s links were primarily with the party in power, the Republicans, and Democrats have been handed a heavy stick with which to beat them.
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