Abramoff’s end game?

March 9, 2006

Jack Abramoff’s revealing interview with Vanity Fair, which sheds new light on the disgraced lobbyist’s relationships with Bush, DeLay, Mehlman, Gingrich, and Burns, among others, has renewed interest in the broader scandal. But it also has me wondering: where is Abramoff going with all of this?

The Vanity Fair comes just a few weeks after Abramoff started sharing personal emails with reporters between himself and administration officials, and began showing pictures of him and key Republican players to folks around DC. But while he’s slowly dishing, Abramoff is also holding back, asking the Washingtonian, for example, not to publish pictures of him and Bush together.

Is there some kind of subtle strategy at play? Is Abramoff trying to let his Republican friends know that he could cause them all manner of headaches? TNR’s Michael Crowley recently speculated that Abramoff is playing a game.

If I had to guess, I’d say that Abramoff was initially wounded by the official White House line that he was no closer to Bush than any other schmoe who ponied up some money and got himself a quick presidential photograph. So he advertised the existence of these photos indicating a closer relationship as a way of defending his pride, and perhaps of warning the White House not to talk too much trash about him. But, because of his basic fealty to the conservative establishment, Abramoff stopped short of the nuclear option of releasing the pictures to the drooling media.

I think this is right, but I also think that Abramoff’s “basic fealty to the conservative establishment” has limits. Earlier this week, a federal judge delayed sentencing for Abramoff stemming from his role in a wire-fraud case, because he’s still cooperating with the Justice Department’s corruption investigation.

To help make the case for a lenient sentence, Abramoff’s lawyer told the judge that he may have to make the details of Abramoff’s cooperation public. “We would be naming names, and we would be providing evidence of what’s going on out there,” Abbe Lowell, one of Abramoff’s lawyers, told the judge. “This is not going to be good for the government.”

Abramoff is still, no doubt, making the Republican establishment very nervous.

I love to see a falling out among thieves. It’s especially handy when the Federal policing agencies and other branches of government won’t do their jobs.

  • He’s saving the snaps to sell to the highest bidder for his defense- either tp pay for it or to buy a pardon. Wouldn’t you? Those smart shaygets lawyers don’t come cheap.

  • The real question is what can anyone do for Abramoff? Sure, Bush could pardon him, but at what political price? A pardon, or a plea bargained slap on the wrist would make the GOP look as guilty and corrupt as anything Abramoff would say.

    I say, pass the popcorn. Let the entire GOP pretend they never heard of the bum, then watch him lash out. Should be very entertaining.

  • I think that you are exactly right. For now Abramoff is just showing a little ankle. At the same time he is letting the powers that be know that he has more ammo at his disposal. The question is as JoeW has put it, what can Bush and others safely do to help Abramoff. Personally I think that the promotion of the present prosecutor and his replacement with a temporary prosecutor from Florida is part of the game, but I don’t know enough about the details of how these things work to have anything other than deep suspicions.

  • I think he was hurt. He did a lot for them with regards to money and he likely feels abandoned – though if he thought they were going to stick around he was living in a fools paradise.

    Of course I think he revelations are a dig back at his “friends” as well as a reminder that he can and may reveal more that may even be more damaging. Whey he doesn’t just go ahead and unload all of it I don’t know. A kernel of loyalty? Habit? Looking for leverage later? All or none of the above?

  • A Bush pardon, followed by a phoney “terrorist alert” and most will be forgotten by the US.
    The media won’t follow up, Bush is their guy.
    Until we get a “liberal” version of FOX, we are all screwed.

  • Actually, the federal judge refused the request to delay sentencing (which was made by both sides of the case) for 90 days. It is still scheduled for March 29. Still, I do think Abramoff is playing some sort of game — and I imagine even if he is as bad as he’s been made out to be, it’s gotta hurt when friends and associates start acting like they’ve never heard of you. Still, at heart he’s an opportunist — so I imagine he’ll take any opportunity to sing if it means less prison time.
    Here is the link to the Sun-Sentinel story from Monday.

  • What does an egomaniac, amoral nut like Abramoff want?

    To feel powerful one last time? A mega-million book deal? To slap those who have abandoned him after all he has done for them?

  • I don’t understand why Abramoff would even have discretion as to what he discloses and how it is disclosed at this point since has a plea agreement. But I’ve thought all along that the campaign contributions were only the tip of the iceberg and the real money was funneled to the politicians by other means.

    One way that money has been shoveled to politicans is through phony stock sales. John Rowland, convicted former governor of CT, made $26k trading Edulink, a phony penny stock company that I had looked into. That was no accident. I’m not sure how exactly how the system works but basically, a politician is tipped about a certain stock, the price of the stock then is artifically inflated, politican sells stock at profit and no one is the wiser.

    I spent two years on and off compiling info about Charlie Gargano, Bush pioneer and a phony public company named Eagle Building Technologies. Eagle got caught by the SEC for trying to swindle the government out of $50 million after 9/11 and filing false financials. The president, Anthony M. D’Amato, went to prison for nine years but no one else did.

    Charles Gargano while serving as the vice chariman of the NY-NJ Port Authority and president of the Empire State Development Corp. (NYS economic development agency) was an Eagle director from April 2000 to October 2001. He went on to become a director of Andros Development International, a privately held phony company related to Eagle.

    On its website, Andros claimed to be developing resort property on the the island of Andros in the Bahamas along with a fibreboard factory to build homes. I doubt very much that Andros ever had rights to any property in the Bahamas yet Sir Orville Turnquest, former governor of the Bahamas, was a director. Gene Brehm is a successful San Antonio accountant who raises limousin cattle yter he became an Andros director. Lord Charles Spencer Churchill was a director. I’ve been told by someone in the “know” that Lord Churchill was involved in other shady business in the past. Another director was Alfred V. Greco, a NYC lawyer, who has served as a director of penny stock companies.

    Sam Gejdenson, former CT Democratic congressman from CT whose district included Foxwoods Casino, became an Eagle director in February 2001. At the same time, Meyer Berman, prominent investor and Demcratic supporter, invested in Eagle and also became a director. Berman attended two state dinners under the Clinton administration. Guy Molinari, Susan’s uncle, made about $225k by selling Eagle stock. Rep. Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from Queens NY, invested in Eagle in June 2001, according to Roll Call.

    All told, between Eagle and its affiliate, its president and his wife, more than $230k was contributed to the Republicans. I think the Democrats got about $15k. At one time, Eagle’s $71k contribution put it in the top ten construction company donor list on OpenSecrets.org but it was removed. I assume the $71k was returned to Eagle after it was nabbed by the SEC.
    Anthony M. D’Amato, Eagle president, and his wife, Gabriella, flew to Washington on a private plane to attend the Governors Ball during the first Bush inauguration, according to a press release.

    I posted a little bit more info about Eagle and Gargano at the TPM Cafe and the Cunning Realist. There’s lots more to the story but I’ve run out of time.

    Just think – Charlie Gargano is the vice chairman of the NY-NJ Port Authority and as such, has responsbility for security at the NYC airports and ports. While serving in this capacity, he is a director of two companies linked to organized crime. Does this sound like a good idea to you?

    I hope Abramoff keeps talking and talking and no one blows his head off before he is finished.

  • What could turn out to be funny is if Abramoff ends up being the smaller scandal and the Duke Cunningham/Mitchell Wade cases end up dwarfing it in terms of the audacity of the bribes, if not the actual number of officials it touches.

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