Non-denial denial ain’t just a river in Egypt!
Mark Graul is the former Chief of Staff for Rep. Mark Green (R) of Wisconsin. Now he’s Green’s campaign manager in the congressman’s run for governor of Wisconsin.
Democrats back in the state have been razzing him for a few months over the fact that his name pops up numerous times in Team Abramoff emails we published here back in October. Graul followed up with a series of wiggly non-denial denials.
Now, with the Abramoff story starting to heat up, he’s starting to question the source of the documents themselves, i.e., me.
Yesterday, Graul had this to say to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel …
Graul, who is now managing Green’s campaign for governor, said the report was written by a “liberal blogger with an ax to grind.” Graul said he hasn’t seen the original documents on which the blog was based.
And from today’s Green Bay Press-Gazette …
Meanwhile, the former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Hobart, said Abramoff’s plea bargain has no bearing on his past association with a former colleague of Abramoff.
Mark Graul, who is now campaign manager for Green’s gubernatorial bid, acknowledges attending a Milwaukee Bucks-Washington Wizards basketball game as a guest of lobbyist Jennifer Calvert in 2000.
…
The Wisconsin Democratic Party, citing purported e-mails between Calvert and Abramoff posted by an Internet blogger, claims Graul also obtained free tickets to other events in Washington with Abramoff’s OK.
…
However, Graul denied having attended the other events, saying he was in Wisconsin on the days they occurred.
“I can assure you that I didn’t go to them,” said Graul.
Graul said there’s no evidence the alleged e-mails are authentic and that he never met Abramoff.
Calvert’s relationship with Abramoff as a co-worker ended several years ago, when she left Preston Gates & Ellis to help establish the government affairs business at Washington Strategies, a smaller lobbying firm across the Potomac River from Washington in Rosslyn, Va.
Graul said Thursday that he considered his attendance at the game at the MCI Center in downtown Washington with Calvert primarily a social event. He did not recall what business topics were discussed.
The two became acquainted when one of Calvert’s clients was an association that represented the personal watercraft industry, said Graul.
Calvert’s firm said Thursday she was out of town for the week.
If you’re interested in delving into the minutiae of this, note that Graul is changing his story about the hoops game with Calvert from what he said last year. Also, this talk about whether he showed for this game or that is just more bamboozlement. As we said last October “do we have proof that Graul showed up at the skybox that night? No. What we have are Team Abramoff emails saying he was one of the lucky Hill staffers who they gave tickets to. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.”
Now, Graul’s new angle seems to be that he hasn’t seen the letters, isn’t sure they’re real, doesn’t this, that and the other.
Mark, a bit of free advice courtesy of TPM: just admit you got some freebie tickets and move on. These emails were produced by the relevant parties pursuant to a lawful subpoena. They are most definitely authentic.
Graul knows they’re real. And that’s why he’s been ducking my phone calls about them for three months.
If Graul doesn’t have anything to hide here, why won’t he take my call?
Graul is far from the only congressional staffer to snag a few skybox tickets from the Abramoff gravy train. He’s just doing more than any of the others to cover it up.
