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To: DMaA who wrote (153724)	1/5/2006 12:27:53 AM
From: KLP	Respond to of 793834

Abramoff plea agreement's impact on DeLay weighed Close-up Re: >>>>>If this whole deal is only about "hundreds of thousands" That's nothing. Absolutely nothing." >>>>> KLP Note: Interesting that these numbers shown are for the total of 5 years!! Most of these Senators spill that much on their way to the bar....IMHO, of course. The numbers I heard tonight on KVI said Repubs got 62% overall, and the Dems got 37% overall. What I want to have is a complete list of Abramoff's clients, and what they gave to what political groups, and for whom..... Seems there are quite a few donations to the Appropriations No doubt, this will be forthcoming in the next bit of time. Here's the article: (from the Dallas Morning News via the Seattle Times)... Abramoff plea agreement's impact on DeLay weighed Close-up Wednesday, January 4, 2006 - 12:00 AM seattletimes.nwsource.com By Todd J. Gillman The Dallas Morning News WASHINGTON — Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and lobbyist Jack Abramoff had been friends for years, trading easily on each other's success. One rose to the pinnacle of power in Congress. The other became the most sought-after lobbyist in town. They built a politically potent network of former aides, lobbyists and comrades-in-arms. Top 20 Top recipients of donations from lobbyist Jack Abramoff, his tribal clients and his subordinates from 1999-2004: Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., chairman, Senate Interior appropriations subcommittee: $146,590 Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, D-R.I., House appropriations committee: $131,000 Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., House Resources Committee: $86,750 Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., Speaker of the House: $81,750 Rep. John T. Doolittle, R-Calif., House leadership and Appropriations Committee: $79,750 Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, former House majority leader: $71,000 Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Senate Appropriations Committee: $62,485 Rep. Robert Ney, R-Ohio, chairman, House Administration Committee: $62,485 Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Senate Appropriations Committee: $49,480 Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Senate minority leader: $47,000 Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La., House Ways & Means Committee: $45,500 Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., Senate Appropriations Committee: $44,500 Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., ranking Democrat, Senate Interior appropriations subcommittee: $44,050 Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., former Senate minority leader: $41,750 Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., former House minority leader: $39,500 Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., former Senate assistant majority leader: $37,500 Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., chairman, House Resources Committee: $36,000 President Bush: $34,250 Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., House Appropriations Committee: $33,000 Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman, Senate Finance Committee: $31,500 Sources: Federal Election Commission, Center for Public Integrity, The Washington Post The question hanging over Washington on Tuesday: Could Abramoff's fall and plea deal drag down his longtime ally? The financial and political ties between the men are so extensive, their histories and causes so intertwined, that some find it hard to fathom how the Texas Republican could escape as Abramoff — facing 11 years in prison and $27 million in restitution — begins to talk. In court Tuesday, Abramoff confessed to proferring all sorts of favors on just one lawmaker, and it wasn't DeLay. He told the court he'd provided the legislator, understood to be Ohio Republican Bob Ney, a "lavish trip to Scotland to play golf on world-famous courses, tickets to sporting events and other entertainment," meals at Abramoff's upscale restaurant, and generous campaign donations — largess he also bestowed on DeLay. Prosecutors cited several favors Ney offered in return, including help with Abramoff's purchase of a fleet of casino ships. Justice Department and FBI officials have offered no such examples involving DeLay, and wouldn't say if they're digging or expect to learn of any in coming months. Abramoff and DeLay worked closely on many projects, traveling together to the Mariana Islands, Russia and the United Kingdom, ostensibly under the auspices of a conservative Washington think tank, the National Center for Public Policy Research. Abramoff sat on the group's board, and reports surfaced that two of his clients each donated $25,000 to the nonprofit a day before the Britain junket. House rules prohibit travel paid for by lobbyists or their clients, though DeLay and other lawmakers on the trip say they had no idea where the group got the funds. Abramoff and his partner, former DeLay press secretary Michael Scanlon — who has also pleaded guilty and cooperated with federal prosecutors — routinely boasted of their connections with the majority leader when selling their services to Indian tribes and others. The Marianas connection could also provide investigators an interesting trail. DeLay sought to protect the garment industry on the islands, an American commonwealth in the Pacific, from U.S. labor laws. In 1999, during a power struggle in the local legislature, two former DeLay aides, Ed Buckham and Scanlon, went to Saipan to persuade two lawmakers to switch sides in a leadership vote, dangling promises of federal largess for which DeLay reportedly paved the way later. The favored candidate won and later awarded Abramoff a contract worth $1.6 million. DeLay and Abramoff also collaborated closely on the K Street Project, an effort to pressure Washington's premier lobbying firms to shun Democrats and stock their staffs with GOP loyalists. At one point the House ethics committee reprimanded DeLay for threatening retaliatory legislation against a trade group for hiring a Democrat as its top lobbyist. National party recipients (1999-2004): Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee: $395,000 Republican Congressional Campaign Committee: $337,500 Republican National Committee: $307,000 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee: $353,480 Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: $332,000 Democratic National Committee: $73,500 Abramoff raised at least $71,000 for DeLay's political committees in the past five years alone. Critics have raised questions about the $115,000 the congressman's wife, Christine DeLay, was paid over four years by Alexander Strategy Group — a firm led by Buckham and other former DeLay aides that got client referrals from Abramoff — for researching the charitable preferences of lawmakers. The DeLays said the work was real and the pay justified. Jan Baran, a Republican ethics lawyer who once represented then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, said the plea deal might carry no implications for DeLay. "There's nothing in there that involves him or suggests his involvement. ... If the Justice Department has some information about other public officials, they presumably would have included it by now," he said. He noted that courts are strict when it comes to enforcing bribery law. Prosecutors must prove quid pro quo — Latin for "something for something." DeLay got favors from Abramoff. But so did several hundred colleagues. As speculation bubbled about what Abramoff could offer federal authorities, there was activity involving DeLay in Austin. Travis County prosecutor Ronnie Earle obtained subpoenas Tuesday for donations from two former Abramoff law firms — Greenberg Traurig and Seattle-based Preston Gates — to DeLay's state political-action committee, Texans for a Republican Majority. The grand jury, which is investigating money-laundering allegations against DeLay and several lieutenants, also ordered records of campaign donations from Abramoff's biggest lobbying client, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

To: DMaA who wrote (153724)	1/5/2006 12:53:58 AM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793834

Ahhh...here comes some of the "bigger moolah...." Many Millions in Kickbacks From Tribes By MICHAEL JANOFSKY January 4, 2006 Money Trail nytimes.com WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - The kickbacks from one Indian tribe exceeded $11 million. From another, they surpassed $6 million. In less than three years, Jack Abramoff secretly netted more than $20 million from tribes in five states, a sum close to half of the $43.3 million they paid him and a partner to lobby on their behalf. "These are staggering numbers, even by Washington standards," said Stanley Brand, a defense lawyer who specializes in criminal and ethical matters. "The big firms do very, very well, but they don't come close to these kinds of numbers." The level to which Mr. Abramoff enriched himself at the expense of clients came into sharp focus on Tuesday as his plea agreement on federal charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion was made public by the Justice Department. The agreement referred to five business relationships Mr. Abramoff had with Indian tribes, and in each case he admitted to receiving a large percentage of the tribe's total spending as a kickback. As part of his plea, Mr. Abramoff agreed to repay his former clients $25 million. Mr. Abramoff carried out his fraudulent schemes by persuading clients that they needed the lobbying services of firms run by a former business partner, Michael Scanlon, or by his own companies. Mr. Scanlon pleaded guilty in November to conspiring to bribe a member of Congress, and as part of his plea, he agreed to repay $19.6 million to the tribes that once retained him. Mr. Abramoff's largest kickback came from a Louisiana tribe that used his services from early 2001 through the spring of 2004. In the plea agreement Mr. Abramoff said the tribe paid companies run by Mr. Scanlon $30,510,000. But through an agreement between Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon, they concealed a kickback of about $11,450,000 to Mr. Abramoff. In another scheme, beginning in early 2001, a Mississippi tribe paid Mr. Scanlon about $14,765,000, ignorant of the "secret profit-sharing agreement" between Mr. Scanlon and Mr. Abramoff that sliced off nearly half of the total, about $6,364,000, as a kickback to Mr. Abramoff. A Michigan tribe paid Mr. Scanlon about $3.5 million from the middle of 2002 to the fall of 2003, unaware of the "secret arrangement" that directed about $540,000, half the profit earned by Mr. Scanlon's companies, to Mr. Abramoff. In a scheme that suggested how little they cared for the needs of their clients, Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon persuaded a Texas tribe in 2002 to hire them to help the tribe reopen its casino through federal legislation. According to the plea agreement, while the tribe paid $4.2 million for services arranged by Mr. Scanlon, the two men concealed from the Texas tribe that, at the same time, they had collected millions of dollars from the Louisiana tribe to oppose all gaming in the Texas Legislature. They also did not tell the Texas tribe that $1,850,000 of their fees went directly to Mr. Abramoff "pursuant to his undisclosed arrangement with Mr. Scanlon." In a final case cited by the plea agreement, a New Mexico tribe paid Mr. Scanlon $2.75 million, hiding from tribal officials that the lobbying firm's profit margin was about 80 percent and that $1,175,000 of the total was paid to Mr. Abramoff through his secret agreement with Mr. Scanlon. Paul Miller, president of the American League of Lobbyists, a trade group with 700 members, said Mr. Abramoff was "in a league by himself" as a Washington lobbyist, a term he said he used reluctantly. "Jack Abramoff, by my definition, is not a lobbyist," Mr. Miller said. "He knowingly defrauded clients. In my view, he is nothing more than a scam artist."