House Committee Details Abramoff Connections to Bush White HouseThe House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a “proposed” report this morning finding that Jack Abramoff did indeed have “personal contact with President Bush” and that Abramoff and cohorts were “held in high regard” by White House officials.
The proposed report also finds that Abramoff and his associates “influenced some White House actions” and gave White House officials “expensive tickets and meals.”
The report (.pdf), technically a draft of the committee’s findings, will be marked up and voted on by committee members in a meeting on Thursday.
We’ll be looking through the report and bringing you updates, but in a first read through here are some findings that stuck out.
Abramoff and team gave gifts to Carlos Bonilla, at the time a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and now an economic policy advisor for John McCain:
On October 18, 2001, Kevin
Ring sent an unknown number of tickets to an unknown event to Mr. Bonilla by
courier. In addition, in response to an offer from Kevin Ring, Mr. Bonilla requested
and was provided with two tickets to sit in the Abramoff suite for the November 20,
2001, Washington Wizards game.
The report confirms much of what was already known about the Abramoff-led effort to oust Department of Interior official Alan Stayman, Abramoff’s nemesis on issues involving his client, the Mariana Islands:
One action that White House officials took at the request of Mr. Abramoff was to intervene to force the removal of a State Department official, Alan Stayman. In a previous position at the Office of Insular Affairs in the Department of the Interior, Mr. Stayman had advocated positions opposed by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, then a client of Mr. Abramoff. Mr. Stayman was appointed to his position at the Department of State during the Clinton Administration.
In a recent Committee deposition, Monica Kladakis, then-Deputy Associate Director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel (OPP), confirmed that OPP became involved in Mr. Stayman’s removal after White House officials were contacted by Mr. Abramoff’s team.
Late Update: McCain Camp: Advisor Linked to Abramoff No Longer with Campaign
