We learned back in March that Tom DeLay joined Jack Abramoff on a lavish European vacation, including golf at St. Andrew’s and a meeting with former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The trip, of course, has become controversial for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that the excursion was paid for by a corrupt lobbyist.
But a new angle has also drawn the interest of federal investigators. DeLay claimed that his meeting with UK officials bolstered the contention that the trip was part of official government business. The Justice Department isn’t entirely convinced.
[DeLay’s] new indictment was issued as Bush administration officials confirmed news reports in London that the Justice Department had asked the British police to question former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher about the circumstances of her meeting in 2000 with Mr. DeLay during a trip to Britain organized by the Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
The interview request was the first publicly disclosed evidence from the Justice Department that Mr. DeLay was under scrutiny in the department’s wide-ranging corruption investigation of Mr. Abramoff. […]
A spokesman in London for the former prime minister, speaking on condition that he not be identified by name, acknowledged that the British police had recently contacted Mrs. Thatcher to “clarify” details of the meeting that she had with Mr. DeLay when he visited London in May 2000.
The spokesman was quoted by The Press Association, the British news agency, as saying that Mrs. Thatcher would cooperate with investigators and that the meeting with Mr. DeLay, which she had previously acknowledged, was a “courtesy call” at which no business of any sort was conducted.
Except that isn’t likely to help DeLay at all. If he helped justify his Abramoff-sponsored trip under the auspices of conducting official business with the former Prime Minister, and she explains that no business took place, DeLay has (yet another) problem.
DeLay is already facing three indictments; any guesses on when he’ll face a fourth?