One of the secondary questions surrounding disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff is how, exactly, he managed to evade indictment for as long as he did. Sure, he was finally arrested a few weeks ago, but in light of all of Abramoff’s criminal activities, what took so long?
As it turns out, he may have had someone looking out for him.
The Justice Department’s inspector general and the F.B.I. are looking into the demotion of a veteran federal prosecutor whose reassignment nearly three years ago shut down a criminal investigation of the Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, current and former department officials report.
They said investigators had questioned whether the demotion of the prosecutor, Frederick A. Black, in November 2002 was related to his alert to Justice Department officials days earlier that he was investigating Mr. Abramoff. The lobbyist is a major Republican Party fund-raiser and a close friend of several Congressional leaders.
Colleagues said the demotion of Mr. Black, the acting United States attorney in Guam, and a subsequent order barring him from pursuing public corruption cases brought an end to his inquiry into Mr. Abramoff’s lobbying work for some Guam judges.
The details here look awfully bad. Frederick Black, a respected and experienced US Attorney, launched an investigation into Abramoff — and immediately lost his job. No explanation, no justification. It’s these “unusual” circumstances that have caught the attention of the Justice Department’s inspector general and the FBI, who, for some reason, seem to think Black’s demotion is a little suspicious.
But wait; it gets worse.
[Colleagues of Mr. Black] said F.B.I. agents questioned several people in Guam and Washington this summer about whether Mr. Abramoff or his friends in the Bush administration had pushed for Mr. Black’s removal. Mr. Abramoff’s internal e-mail messages show that he boasted to clients about what he described as his close ties to John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, and others at the department. […]
Justice Department officials said they knew of no evidence to suggest that Mr. Ashcroft was involved in the decision to reassign Mr. Black. A spokesman for Mr. Ashcroft said the former attorney general and his aides at the Justice Department had done nothing to assist Mr. Abramoff and his clients and had had no significant contact with him.
Josh Marshall adds some important insight to this article, with two key pieces of information. One, Abramoff and Ashcroft did have extensive connections, the denials not withstanding.
Two, once Frederick Black was pushed aside, guess who picked the new US Attorney?
His replacement, Leonardo Rapadas, was confirmed in May 2003 without any debate. Rapadas had been recommended for the job by the Guam Republican Party. Fred Radewagen, a lobbyist who had been under contract to the Gutierrez administration, said he carried that recommendation to top Bush aide Karl Rove in early 2003.
So, let’s wrap this one up, shall we? A respected US Attorney opens an investigation into Jack Abramoff. The investigator is then promptly demoted and the investigation ends. The new US Attorney gets the job, thanks in large part to Karl Rove, who happens to be Abramoff’s buddy.
Bush’s America is a very strange place, indeed.