The Abramoff/Scanlon nightmare worsens

November 28, 2005

There wasn’t a lot of vital political news over the Thanksgiving break, with one important exception — the Abramoff scandal keeps getting worse for the GOP.

A Justice Department investigation into possible influence-peddling by prominent Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff is examining his dealings with four lawmakers, more than a dozen current and former congressional aides and two former Bush administration officials, according to lawyers and others involved in the case.

Investigators want to know whether Mr. Abramoff and his lobbying firm partners made illegal payoffs to lawmakers and aides in the form of campaign contributions, sports tickets, meals, travel and job offers, in exchange for helping their clients.

The Justice Department’s probe is far broader than previously thought.

In particular, prosecutors in the DoJ’s public integrity and fraud divisions are scrutinizing Abramoff’s dealings with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), and Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.). All of this, of course, is on top of the investigation regarding Abramoff’s dealings with Bush administration officials, including David Safavian, the administration’s top federal procurement official before he was arrested two months ago.

For that matter, Abramoff and his business partner, Michael Scanlon, may have also been involved with bribery and influence peddling with Republican staffers. Federal prosecutors are investigating at least 17 current and former congressional aides, about half of whom later took lobbying jobs with Abramoff.

But for Bob Ney, this is a mess of historic proportions. The Washington Post reported that prosecutors have already told Ney and his former chief of staff that they may face bribery charges. For that matter, as Josh Marshall noted, Ney will be lucky if that’s the only charge brought against him.

You know that when the casino boat line SunCruz was owned by Jack Abramoff and Adam Kidan, the company paid the men who blew away SunCruz founder Gus Boulis.

Now it turns out they also had the company pay the National Republican Congressional Committee (the House GOP election committee) $10,000 on behalf of Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH). That was in exchange for Ney’s putting anti-Boulis remarks in the congressional record that helped Abramoff and Kidan pressure Boulis to sell them SunCruz.

The guy who helped arrange Ney’s anti-Boulis-trash-talking and the later pay-off was none other than Mike Scanlon, who later did public relations work for SunCruz, in addition to going into the Indian gaming bilking biz with SunCruz owner Abramoff.

Scanlon is the guy who just agreed to testify against, well … everybody in the Abramoff cases.

When Scanlon struck his deal with prosecutors, it was perhaps the worst day imaginable for a lot of Republicans on Capitol Hill.

About 30 years ago, “Koreagate” and “Abscam” rocked Congress and implicated dozens of congressmen, one of whom went to prison. The Abramoff/Scanlon affair doesn’t have a clever little moniker yet, but it’s likely to be just as serious a scandal.

Man there are a lot of chickens coming home to roost. Washington, D.C. is getting crowded.

  • The one thing which is surprising about both the Abramoff and Plamegate scandals is the Justice Department. It appears there are still investigators with integrity – Patrick Fitzgerald seems to be exhibit A. How is this possible after 5 years under Bush? 4 years of Ashcroft and a year of Gonzales?

    Perhaps only the upper, political appointees are dedicated to destroying the proper functioning of government. Could it be that the professional government employees actually beleive in the power of government to improve people’s lives?

  • The one thing which is surprising about both the Abramoff and Plamegate scandals is the Justice Department. It appears there are still investigators with integrity – Patrick Fitzgerald seems to be exhibit A. How is this possible after 5 years under Bush? 4 years of Ashcroft and a year of Gonzales?

    That’s a good point, VOR, because it reminds us that the executive branch is filled with capable, dedicated career officials who serve in multiple administrations. Sometimes these lawyers are overruled — the Georgia re-redistricting fiasco comes to mind — but the Justice Department nevertheless has some excellent attorneys who have little concern for the Rove playbook.

    We can only hope they’re not driven out before 2009.

    Need a moniker for this one? Why not Ab/Scan?

    Good one, yam. I wish I had thought of that.

  • … implicated dozens of congressmen, one of whom went to prison.

    That’s the trouble. In these things almost no one ever lands in the slammer. Many accused and guilty, in fact, become filthy rich through book deals, lectures, talk shows, etc. Our collective consciousness can focus only on personality; nothing else matters.

  • CB, dont you mean judicial branch…?

    No, there’s a real difference between the White House and the executive branch, at least when it comes to career public servants. The Justice Department is a massive federal agency, but most of the employees stay on from administration to administration. With this in mind, many of the career attorneys, who weren’t hired by the Bush White House, are solid. It’s how we end up with tough and thorough investigations like this one.

  • Well well,another scandal for an Ohio republican as if we here in Ohio didn`t have enough already. I believe if they ever give the world an enema Ohio will be where they stick the hose!

  • Ab/scan is a good one, yam.

    This one has the potential to blow the
    Repubs out in 2006, depending on
    how wide and deep it goes, and, of
    course, how the media and press treat
    it.

    Too bad there aren’t, so far, a few
    sexual favors thrown in on the deal –
    that would really blow it open.

  • This one has the potential to blow the Repubs out in 2006, depending on how wide and deep it goes, and, of course, how the media and press treat it. This one has the potential to blow the Repubs out in 2006, depending on how wide and deep it goes, and, of course, how the media and press treat it.

    hark,

    Sorry to call you out on this, since I know you know better, but this is exactly the type of thinking that keeps the Dems in the minority.

    How do the press get onto a story? They get led there, through press packets, speeches, phone calls, cajoling begging and prodding. About two decades ago, maybe they also fact-checked and didn’t allow themselves to be baited by the biased politico liars that surround them now. Alas, no more, but so what? The question is not, “will the press follow up?” but, “How the hell are Dems going to lead the press by the nose and stink their face in it till they can’t do anything but write about it.

    Pre-neo-cons trying to bend th eear of the media ran into one problem: nobody cared. So they invented their own media and started calling everyone else a “liberal.” Dems today at least have truth on their side but they keep waiting around for the press to do their job for them. The press reports news, so make some. Make it often and loud and dramatic and maybe have some kind of moniker picked out. Neo-cons invent the story and then sell it; Dems read about it the next day and respond. Not a winning program.

  • Myabe everyone else already knows this but Abramoff and Kidan each donated $5,000 to the Friends of the Big Sky Committee in February after Boulis was murdered. Friends of the Big Sky has a Montana address so I assume it is linked to Conrad Burns.

    David R. Hughes was CEO of Suncruz from September 2000 to July 2001. He made four contributions of $1,000 each to Peter Deutsch, Tim Hutchinson, Robert Ney and Sepncer Abraham between March 2001 and April 2001.

    Here’s a bit of Jack Abramoff trivia. New Jersey was after his father and mother for more than $60k in back taxes in 2000. I found this out when I searched Broward County records. Somehow it involved a company named TL Atlantic. In 1999, Abramoff took part ownership of his parents condo and it looks like he and the parents took out a $60k mortgage.

    TL Atantic might be the parking lot that Abramoff claimed he co-owned with his father. It was listed as an asset on Abramoff’s financial report given to the Suncruz lenders. Looks like Abramoff lied again..

    In mid-2004, Kidan took out a loan of $50k against machinery and equipment for a company named the Florida Shirt Laundry in Palm Beach County. He also is listed as the owner of two laundries in New York.

    Kidan is still listed as the officer and director of Atlantic Casino Cruise in Massachusetts but I can’t tell if the company is operating. Interesting to note that he registered Atlantic Casino Cruise in August 2001 which was one month after he left Suncruz.

    Ben Waldman and his wife got a $425,000 mortage for Florida property in September 2001 from a finance company in Glen Allen Virginia. The mortgage was then transferred to Bankers Trust. The house was sold in January 2001 for $525k but there is no indication that the mortgage was satisfied.

    In November 2001, the Waldmans took out a second mortgage for $25k which was repaid in December 2001.

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