Who needs Jack Abramoff? His clients can fend for themselves — or at least get a new lobbyist!
Roll Call brings word that an Indian tribe formerly repped by Abramoff is working to hold up a gaming reform measure they don’t want that’s being pushed by Abramoff foe John McCain:
The Choctaws, who paid Abramoffâs firms $11.7 million over a six-year stretch, have prevailed on their senior home-state Senator, Republican Thad Cochran, to put a hold on McCainâs bill. The move has helped tangle the measure in a thicket of objections from other Indian tribes and about a dozen Senators. Aiding the Choctaws in their drive is lobbyist Kevin Ring, who worked for the tribe as an associate of Abramoffâs and later refused to testify before McCainâs Indian Affairs panel as it conducted an investigation into the corruption scandal. Ring stopped working for the tribe in 2004 when it dropped its lobbyists at Greenberg Traurig amid revelations of Team Abramoffâs practices. But he was rehired last spring after joining the lobbying shop at Barnes & Thornburg. That contract also included former Abramoff associates Edward Ayoob and Neil Volz. Volz has since pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges.
(Roll Call)
Bob Ney Crafts Legislation Single-Handedly
“Ney [R-OH], a committee chairman until the scandal erupted, has told several colleagues and aides that the Justice Department has a rule against indicting members within 90 days of an election, increasing his chances of victory. A Justice official said there is no such rule. Ney spokeswoman Katie Harbath said, ‘We don’t comment on Ney’s conversations with other members.'” (WaPo)
Judge Says Privacy Suit Will Be Heard
“A federal judge in San Francisco has denied the Justice Department’s request to dismiss a lawsuit against AT&T for their cooperation with the National Security Agency in the terrorist eavesdropping program. The suit brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy rights group, alleged that by working with the NSA, AT&T was violating the law and the privacy of its customers. The Justice Department intervened in the litigation saying that allowing the case to go forward would damage national security by disclosing state secrets and sensitive intelligence gathering methods.” (The Blotter)
Health Secretary Runs “Charity” To Claim Tax Deductions
“The Internal Revenue Service has called the tax structure used to create the Leavitt foundation a Type III supporting organization, one of its ‘Dirty Dozen’ tax scams. Christina Pearson, an HHS spokeswoman, said the foundation’s activities are ‘totally legal and proper.’ Much of the money from the foundation — set up in 2000 with nearly $9 million from Leavitt family assets — went into investments or loans to the family’s business interests and real estate holdings, the Post reported Friday. The Leavitt organization donated less than 1 percent of its assets in 2002, 2003 and 2004, according to the Post. Standard private foundations are required to donate at least 5 percent of their assets to charitable causes, but the Leavitts set up their foundation under a provision of the federal tax code that allows a lower level of giving, the newspaper reported.” (AP)
Party of Phone Jammers Want Phone Jamming Case Dismissed
“Lawyers for Republicans said the three-year statute of limitations had expired when state Democrats filed their complaint in late January. But state Democratic Party Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan testified in Hillsborough County Superior Court that Democrats did not know whom to sue until long after the actual phone-jamming, when information from a federal investigation became public. The hearing resumes Friday.” (AP)
Bribes? What Bribes?
“Rep. William Jefferson and Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar agree on two important points: Abubakar never accepted and never agreed to accept any money from the congressman. Jefferson, D-La., is at the heart of a bribery investigation in which the chief executive of a Louisville, Ky., telecommunications company says he paid more than $400,000 in bribes to Jefferson. The money was allegedly for help securing business deals for the company in Nigeria and other African countries. The assertions about money follow the government’s disclosure that Jefferson told an FBI informant the congressman took the “art,” which authorities believe was code for $100,000 in $100 bills, to Abubakar’s Potomac, Md., home on July 31, 2005. A subsequent search of Jefferson’s home turned up $90,000 of the $100,000 which the informant had provided.” (AP)
Frist Wants to Push Gambling Bill Through Senate
“A bill to ban Internet gambling faces opposition in the U.S. Senate, but backers still hope to win passage of it within a few weeks, a top aide to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said on Thursday. ‘We are trying to get something done before the August recess,’ set to begin on August 4, said Eric Ueland, Frist’s chief of staff.” (Reuters)
FEC Shuts Down DeLay’s PAC
“According to an agreement with the [Federal Election Committee], [Rep. Tom] DeLayâs [R-TX] committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, agreed to the fines to settle accusations that it had failed to report more than $322,000 in debts and other obligations to its vendors and had misrepresented more than $240,000 in other financial activity in 2001 and 2002. The pact did not provide a timetable for the shutdown of the committee, which for years was Mr. DeLayâs chief fund-raising arm, allowing him to make millions of dollars in contributions to political allies who then supported his rise in the Republican leadership in Congress. The committeeâs demise had been widely predicted as a result of Mr. DeLayâs decision to resign from the House. The resignation was linked to his indictment in Texas on charges that he violated state election laws, as well as the guilty plea this year by the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a close friend who has confessed to conspiring to corrupt members of Congress. Two former aides to Mr. DeLay have pleaded guilty in the investigation. ” (NYTimes)
Specter’s Victory Short-Lived
“[Proposed] Senate legislation, drafted during negotiations between the White House and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), would allow the administration to submit the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program to a secret intelligence court for review of its legality. The proposal was billed as a rare and noteworthy compromise by the administration when unveiled last week. But the legislation quickly came under attack from Democrats and many national security experts, who said it would actually give the government greater powers to spy on Americans without court oversight.” (WaPo)
Negroponte Doesn’t Want to Bush to Deal With Iraq Bad News
â’What do you call the situation in Iraq right now?’ asked one person familiar with the situation. ‘The analysts know that it’s a civil war, but there’s a feeling at the top that [using that term] will complicate matters.’ Negroponte, said another source regarding the potential impact of a pessimistic assessment, ‘doesn’t want the president to have to deal with that.’ The sources said that forces at the CIA have been lobbying for the new NIE for about six months. Not only is one overdue, but there’s also a fear that if the Democrats win control of at least one chamber of Congress this November, the agency is going to get hammered for not having produced an NIE for so long. When the topic of a new NIE was first raised, the Directorate of National Intelligence agreed to consider the matter, but advocates heard nothing back. They raised the topic again several months ago and were told that Negroponte was still mulling over the matter. Since then, there’s been no indication that the DNI intends to authorize a new NIE. ‘He’s not going to allow [analysts] to call the situation warts and all,’ said one source. ‘There’s real angst about it inside.'” (Harper’s)
Bloggers Back On In India
“According to the Department of Telecommunications, blogs which were blacked out three days after the Mumbai blasts will soon be restored. Post 7/11, the Government decided to block sites without saying why and the ISPs decided to go ahead, do one better and block all blogs. The Centre issued an order to block 22 websites after a two-page write up containing derogatory references to Islam appeared in a blog. The Department of Telecommunciations had issued notices to all Internet service providers (ISPs) to block the two pages, but due to a technical error, ISPs blocked all blogs.” (CNN-IBN)
Ambassador Accused of Misleading Congress
“[Attorney Sharon] Eubanks, who ran the [Justice] department’s tobacco litigation team, retired from government and now works for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The private group sued the department and questioned [Associate Attorney General Robert ] McCallum for several hours Tuesday about documents he kept on the tobacco case. The group wants to find out whether White House influence was brought to bear in the pending tobacco lawsuit. ‘I don’t remember ever receiving any directive from the White House about anything that had to do with the tobacco case,’ McCallum said in his sworn videotaped deposition…Eubanks said McCallum mischaracterized a court order in his statements to Capitol Hill, making it appear that U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler criticized the government’s embrace of smoking cessation as a remedy in the lawsuit. McCallum cited the judge’s order in explaining why he reduced the government’s request.” (AP)
