Scandals

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The Bush Regime is beset by scandals.

Closely related to these scandals or the Smears used by the Neo-Cons.

1 Scandals Alone Could Cost Republicans Their House Majority
2 Bush Whitehouse and Administration
3 Abramoff
4 House of Representatives
5 Kenneth Starr
6 Religious related
- 6.1 'Dr. Dino' guilty on all counts
- 6.2 Pat Robertson
7 Brent Wilkes
8 Mitchell Wade
9 Military, Iraq War, Graft and Fraud
10 Iraq War, Torture, Rape and Abuse
11 Reagan Regime scandals
- 11.1 Iran Contra
  - 11.1.1 #26: Michael Ledeen: Improving on Mussolini
12 Nixon Era scandals
- 12.1 Watergate

Scandals Alone Could Cost Republicans Their House Majority

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/01/AR2006110103146.html

November 02, 2006 Indictments, investigations and allegations of wrongdoing have helped put at least 15 Republican House seats in jeopardy, enough to swing control to the Democrats on Tuesday even before the larger issues of war, economic unease and President Bush are invoked.

With just five days left before Election Day, allegations are springing up like brushfires. Four GOP House seats have been tarred by lobbyist Jack Abramoff's influence-peddling scandal. Five have been adversely affected by then-Rep. Mark Foley's unseemly contacts with teenage male House pages. The remaining half a dozen or so could turn on controversies including offshore tax dodging, sexual misconduct and shady land deals.

Not since the House bank check-kiting scandal of the early 1990s have so many seats been affected by scandals, and not since the Abscam bribery cases of the 1970s have the charges been so serious. But this year's combination of breadth and severity may be unprecedented, suggested Julian E. Zelizer, a congressional historian at Boston University.

For more than a year, Democrats have tried to gain political advantage from what they called "a culture of corruption" in Republican-controlled Washington. Republican campaign officials insist the theme has not caught on with the public, but even they concede that many individual races have been hit hard.

"So many different kinds of scandals going on at the same time, that's pretty unique," Zelizer said. "There were scandals throughout the '70s, multiple scandals, but the number of stories now are almost overwhelming."

At least nine GOP seats have been affected by scandals and are highly vulnerable to Democratic takeover next week. Foley's abrupt resignation has jeopardized a Florida House district that had been on no one's radar screen. Under indictment and amid a swirl of ethics investigations, former House majority leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) resigned from Congress earlier this year, forcing Republicans to mount a long-shot write-in campaign for their chosen candidate. Rep. Robert W. Ney's guilty plea last month on corruption charges still hangs over the Ohio campaign of his would-be Republican successor, Joy Padgett, especially because Ney still has not resigned from Congress.

The GOP has all but abandoned longtime Rep. Curt Weldon (Pa.), as federal investigators examine charges that he steered lobbying contracts to his daughter. Weldon went on television yesterday with an ad featuring actors pleading, "Would you give a friend the benefit of the doubt? . . . Today, Curt Weldon needs our support."

Republican campaign strategists fear they have also lost the seat of Rep. Don Sherwood (Pa.), who has been dogged by the settlement of a lawsuit filed by a mistress who charged that Sherwood had throttled her.

Congress watchers once saw the swing seat of Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) as a missed opportunity for Democrats. But now, as the U.S. attorney's office in Phoenix examines his role in a land deal for a business partner and political benefactor, Renzi's race with political neophyte Ellen Simon (D) has tightened.

Farther west, Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.) has had to contend with charges lodged last month by a longtime former aide, Jim Shepard, that the lawmaker made dozens of illegal fundraising calls from his congressional offices. And two reliably Republican districts in California are under assault by Democrats because Reps. Richard W. Pombo and John T. Doolittle have been linked to Abramoff, the lobbyist who pleaded guilty in January to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials.

Beyond those nine jeopardized GOP seats, four other Republicans have been tainted by the Foley page scandal. Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (N.Y.) chose to issue a public apology after he admitted that he had known about inappropriate contact between Foley and a former page this spring. Democrats have repeatedly hit Rep. Deborah Pryce (Ohio), the House Republican Conference chairman, for inaction on the Foley matter. And Democrats have tried to hold two former members of the Page Board, Reps. Sue W. Kelly (N.Y.) and Heather A. Wilson (N.M.), accountable for Foley's actions.

Meanwhile, new allegations continue to spring up. Vern Buchanan, a Republican running for the Florida seat vacated by Rep. Katherine Harris (R), was the target of local media reports this week detailing his use of business entities in Caribbean tax havens to reduce levies on his auto dealerships. The Albany Times Union published an article yesterday charging that the wife of Rep. John E. Sweeney (R-N.Y.) called police late last year to report that her husband was "knocking her around" during a late-night argument.

And Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), who made his name pushing campaign finance changes and governance reforms, was confronted with media reports alleging that a 2003 trip to Qatar -- partly funded by a group loosely tied to Abramoff -- had not been properly disclosed.

"The corruption issue plays in two ways: It contributes to the sour mood of the country and to the low job approval of Congress, and it particularly plays in races directly touched by allegations of scandal," said Republican pollster Whit Ayers. "And in those races, it plays a significant role."

House Democrats have had to deal with investigations of their own, involving Reps. William J. Jefferson (La.), Alan B. Mollohan (W.Va.) and Jane Harman (Calif.), but none of those cases have put Democratic seats in jeopardy.

In the Senate, a federal inquiry into Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and his ties to a nonprofit community agency that paid him more than $300,000 in rent while receiving millions of dollars in federal assistance has provided his Republican challenger with a strong issue and has kept that race close. But the seat of Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) may be in even more jeopardy, primarily because of Burns's ties to Abramoff.

Recent polling suggests that the issue of corruption is beginning to stick. A CNN poll last month found that "half of all Americans believe most members of Congress are corrupt" and that "more than a third think their own representative is crooked."

And where the issue has hit directly, Democrats and their allies have been playing up charges to the hilt. Just yesterday, Christine Jennings, the Florida Democrat running for Harris's House seat, held a news conference to attack Buchanan's alleged offshore tax dodges.

Even the most peripheral contact with a scandal has not gone unnoticed. "Those that knew got to go," Albuquerque's Democratic mayor, Martin J. Chavez, thundered at a rally last month against New Mexico's Wilson, citing her role on the Page Board during Foley's misconduct. "Those that didn't know need to explain why they didn't."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/01/AR2006110103146.html

Bush Whitehouse and Administration

Ex-FDA Chief Crawford to Plead Guilty to U.S. Charges (Update2)

Lester Crawford, the former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, will plead guilty to federal charges of failing to disclose owning shares in companies regulated by the agency, his attorney said.

Prosecutors charged Crawford, 68, with filing a false document and violating federal conflict-of-interest laws. Crawford may face as much as six months of jail or house arrest and a fine of $50,000, said his lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder, in a phone interview today.

Government investigators have been probing Crawford's financial dealings since he stepped down as FDA commissioner in September 2005, two months after his Senate confirmation. He stated in 2004 that shares of Sysco Corp. and Kimberly-Clark Corp. had been sold when he and his wife continued to hold them, and he failed to disclose income from Embrex Inc. stock options, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor said in a court filing.

President George W. Bush nominated Crawford to become FDA Commissioner in February 2005. Crawford, from Demopolis, Alabama, holds a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Auburn University in Alabama.

He also has a doctorate in pharmacology from the University of Georgia. Crawford ran the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine from 1978 to 1980 and from 1982 to 1985, taking time out to serve as head of the department of physiology-pharmacology at the University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine.

He then served as the administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food safety and inspection service from 1987 to 1991 before taking a job as the chief science officer at a trade group, the National Food Processors Association.

The case is U.S. v. Crawford, 06-438, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Washington).

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aD.04W7W3tyE&refer=home

Bush 'Faith-Based' Initiative Was Used For GOP Campaigns

Former White House Official Charges In New Book

October 12, 2006 White House Faith-Based Office Is 'Deplorable Sham' And Should Be Shut Down, Says AU's Lynn

A new book by a former staffer in the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives details how the much-ballyhooed Bush “faith-based” initiative was cynically manipulated by Republican operatives to help GOP candidates locked in close races.

David Kuo’s forthcoming book, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, also asserts that applications for federal faith-based funds were sometimes rejected by reviewers because they came from non-Christian applicants, that civil rights rollbacks sought by the administration were unneeded and that Bush’s conservative Christian allies were derided behind their backs and bought off with White House cufflinks and other trinkets.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which has led opposition to President George W. Bush’s faith-based initiative, said the information is confirmation of critics’ long-standing complaints.

“This is proof that the faith-based initiative was a deplorable sham from day one,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “This initiative was never about helping the poor; it was about shameless partisan politicking. It has undercut the constitutional separation of church and state, and it has been horrible public policy.

“The White House faith-based office ought to be shut down today, before more taxpayer money is misused,” Lynn said. “Kuo’s book confirms evidence that Americans United brought forward four years ago. The faith-based initiative is a travesty that has gone on far too long.”

Kuo alleges that White House strategist Karl Rove and other Republican leaders staged a series of supposedly non-partisan events around the faith-based initiative in states with tight House and Senate races.

According to Kuo, 20 events were held, and Republican candidates subsequently won 19 of those races. Discussing the book on MSNBC’s “Countdown” last night, Keith Olbermann remarked, “The [faith-based] office was literally a taxpayer-funded part of the Republican campaign machinery.”

While the White House was happy to take evangelicals’ votes, it had nothing but contempt for their leaders, Kuo asserts. He alleges that staffers in Rove’s office referred to Religious Right leaders as “nuts” and writes, “National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as ridiculous, out of control and just plain goofy.”

http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=pr&page=NewsArticle&id=8621

Why a Christian in the White House Felt Betrayed

By DAVID KUO

October 17, 2006 For Republicans who fear that the Foley scandal might keep Evangelicals away from the polls in November, here comes another challenge--in hardcover format. A new memoir by David Kuo, former second-in-command of President Bush's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, has the White House on the defensive with its account of an Administration that mocked Evangelicals in private while using them at election time to bolster its support. In this exclusive adaptation from the book, Kuo writes about how his White House experiences left him disillusioned about the role religion can play in politics.

I stepped into the Oval Office to find President George W. Bush prowling behind his desk looking for something. "Kuo!" he said without looking up. "Tell me about this meeting."

It was June 2003, and I was deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The office had opened in the West Wing in 2001 to support the President's campaign promise of $8 billion a year in new funding for both religious and secular charities that helped the poor. That money never materialized, however, and I was increasingly stuck with the task of explaining to religious groups why the White House was so bad at helping them do good. This meeting, with a group of prominent African-American pastors who had supported Bush's plan, promised to be no different.

I began to brief the President on the pastors, recommending that he talk about the administrative reforms we had implemented, and the tax credits we were still fighting for ...

He interrupted. "Forget about all that. Money. All these guys care about is money. They want money. How much money have we given them?"

I never doubted the President's own faith or desire to help those who, like him, had once been lost in a world of alcohol or, unlike him, had struggled with poverty or drugs. Because I shared his faith and his vision of compassionate conservatism, I had been a very good soldier. When members of his senior staff mocked the plan as the "f___ing faith-based initiative," I didn't say a word. When his legislative-affairs team summarily dismissed our attempts to shoehorn our funding into the budget, I smiled and continued trying to work neatly within the system. When I heard staff privately deriding evangelical Christians because they were so easily seduced by White House power, I raised an eyebrow but not a ruckus. Like everyone else in the small faith-based office, I didn't speak too loudly or thunder too much. We were the nice guys.

Today, however, I decided to choose honesty over niceness. Two months earlier, I had been diagnosed with a brain tumor that required intensive surgery and rehabilitation. This was my first meeting with the President and Karl Rove since my return. Something about undergoing brain surgery had made me reflect about whether I had really been doing a public service by pretending that our office had been living up to its commitments.

I glanced over at Karl and turned to look the President in the eye. "Sir, we've given them virtually nothing," I said, "because we have had virtually nothing new to give."

The President had been looking down at some papers about the event, but his head jerked up. "Nothing? What do you mean we've given them nothing?" He glared. "Don't we have new money in programs like the Compassion Fund thing?"

I looked again at Karl. He seemed stunned at what I was saying. "No, sir," I told the President. "In the past two years we've gotten less than $80 million in new grant dollars." The number fell shockingly short of the $8 billion he had vowed to deliver in the first year alone.

The President's staff didn't just bad-mouth the faith-based office behind closed doors. Their political indifference also kept us from getting the funding we needed so badly. No episode captured that more clearly than the 2001 negotiations over the President's $1.7 trillion tax cut. In those final negotiations with the Senate and House, the White House voluntarily dropped a centerpiece of the President's compassion promise: a provision to allow 80% of Americans to get credit for their charitable contributions.

Karl stayed behind to share some thoughts and answer questions. "Before I get started, I want to say something. This initiative isn't political," he told them. "If I walked into the Oval Office and said it was going to be political, the President would bash my head in."

Then the questions began. "Since the President brought up money, where, exactly is that money?" asked one pastor. "We've talked to the Cabinet Secretaries, and they say there isn't any new money." They peppered him with questions for several minutes. Finally he smiled at them and said, "Tell you what, I'm going to get those guys in a room and bash some heads together and get to the bottom of this. I'll be back in touch with you." He left confidently.

At the meeting's end, several of the pastors said they wanted to pray for my healing. They placed their hands on my shoulder and called on God to hear their prayers on my behalf. I listened and loved it and said a prayer of my own: that I would have the courage to tell them what was really going on at the White House.

That was more than three years ago. Their prayers have worked on my body. I am still here and very much alive. Now I am finding the courage to speak out about God and politics and their dangerous dance. George W. Bush, the man, is a person of profound faith and deep compassion for those who suffer. But President George W. Bush is a politician and is ultimately no different from any other politician, content to use religion for electoral gain more than for good works. Millions of Evangelicals may share Bush's faith, but they would protect themselves--and their interests--better if they looked at him through the same coldly political lens with which he views them.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1546580,00.html

Breach of faith

Former White House insider David Kuo talks about how the Bush administration used its most loyal voters, evangelical Christians, for political gain.

October, 17, 2006 The No. 2 man in the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives from 2001 to 2003, Christian conservative David Kuo grew disillusioned with the Bush administration's attempt to solve social problems with large helpings of federally funded religion. In his new book, "Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction," Kuo tells the story of an administration that used evangelicals for purely political purposes, and that often revealed disdain for the very bloc of voters most responsible for recent Republican success. Kuo, who has also been an aide to William Bennett, an advisor to John Ashcroft, and a speechwriter for Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson and Bob Dole (as well as a chronicler of the dot-com bust), claims members of the administration often disparaged fundamentalists in private; Karl Rove, he says, referred to the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives as "the fucking faith-based initiative." Kuo says this cynical attitude was reflected in the way the administration actually dealt with evangelical groups, promising sweeping change and billions of dollars and never quite delivering.

Since his book was discussed on MSNBC's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" last week, and since he was interviewed on CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Kuo has become a target for the ire of Republicans and Christian conservatives. Focus on the Family's James Dobson has called "Tempting Faith" a "mix of sour grapes and political timing," and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told the Washington Post that he "felt sorry" for Kuo. "Once you do something like this," said Perkins, "you get your 15 minutes in the spotlight, but then after that nobody will touch you."

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/10/17/kuo/

White House, NSA staff said to be buyers from online diploma mill

Trial that could out feds alleged to have bogus degrees delayed

October 18, 2006 Names of 135 federal employees who allegedly bought fake diplomas from an outfit in the western United States will not be revealed for at least one year, if ever, according to a U.S attorney's office.

Last week in Spokane, Wash., during a pretrial hearing for eight people accused of selling counterfeit degrees from nonexistent universities, a defense attorney told the judge that employees from the National Security Agency and the Health and Human Services, Justice and State departments were among 6,000 people who bought the diplomas, according to the Associated Press.

The AP also reported that Peter Schweda, attorney for alleged diploma mill operator Steven Randock, said the names of 135 government employees who supposedly purchased the degrees for promotions or pay raises would be released during the course of the trial.

The trial will not start for another year, though. Judge Lonny Suko of the District Court of the Eastern District of Washington delayed it until Oct. 1, 2007, to give attorneys more time to prepare. Suko said more than 150,000 pages of e-mails, 40 CDs of documents and up to 50 witnesses will be used.

Tom Rice, a spokesman for the U.S attorney's office in Spokane, Wash., which is prosecuting the case, said Schweda's assertions that government purchasers would be revealed "were not necessarily accurate."

Rice also said he cannot confirm or deny that there is a separate Justice Department investigation into federal purchasers of the fake degrees. The case was built around a sting operation by a handful of Secret Service agents.

"It has been said that [names] may become available in that trial, but sitting here discussing it with you, I don't see how it's relevant to the Randock trial who purchased them," Rice said. "That'd be like saying everybody who used cocaine would be introduced in the trial of Manuel Noriega."

The 40-page indictment for defendants Steven Randock, Dixie Randock, Richard Novak, Blake Carlson, Amy Hensley, Heidi Lorhan, Roberta Markishtum and Kenneth Pearson accuses them of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, among other offenses. Pearson pleaded guilty last week.

The defendants allegedly set up a number of bogus universities, including "Saint Regis University," "James Monroe University" and "Trinity Christian School." They then sold diplomas and fake transcripts without requiring any coursework or testing.

One of the fake universities, "Robertstown University," used a photograph of Blenheim Castle, the birthplace of Winston Churchill and home of the Duke of Marlborough, to depict its campus on a Web site, according to the indictment.

In 2004, the Office of Personnel Management held seminars to train federal managers on spotting fake degrees. OPM and congressional overseers stepped up efforts to thwart diploma mills after Laura Callahan, a senior director in the Homeland Security Department chief information officer's office, was found to have purchased her degrees from an alleged diploma mill in Wyoming.

OPM did not respond to requests for comment on any current investigation into federal employees involved in the Randock case.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=35281&dcn=e_gvet

White House, NSA staff said to be buyers from online diploma mill

October 12, 2006 SPOKANE, Wash. -- A White House staff member and National Security Agency employees were among 6,000 people who bought bogus online college degrees from a diploma mill, a federal judge has been told.

Others who paid thousands of dollars for phony diplomas in the operation, which used names such as St. Regis University, James Monroe University and Robertstown University, include a senior State Department employee in Kuwait and a Department of Justice employee in Spokane, defense lawyer Peter S. Schweda said Wednesday.

None of the federal officials was identified during the status conference for five defendants in U.S. District Court, nor would lawyers for either side provide any of their names outside the courtroom, The Spokesman-Review reported Thursday.

"We're not going to disclose who bought these degrees until after the trial is under way," U.S. Attorney James A. McDevitt told the newspaper.

Material provided to the defense by the Justice Department shows at least 135 government employees, also including some from the Department of Health and Human Services, bought college or university degrees to use in seeking promotions or pay raises, Schweda said.

The defense team also is seeking access to an Office of Personnel Management report which reportedly provides more detail on federal employees who are believed to have purchased the bogus degrees to enhance their portfolios.

The White House employee who reportedly bought a degree is the subject of a separate investigation, Schweda said.

The latest twist in the criminal case came Wednesday, a day after Kenneth Wade Pearson, 31, webmaster for the operation, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and receipt of child pornography.

Pearson said he would provide evidence and testify against Dixie E. and Stephen K. Randock Sr. of Colbert, described by government investigators as the ringleaders, making him the third of eight defendants to reach plea agreements in the case.

Pearson, who likely faces three to five years in prison, remained free on a $10,000 bond he posted after being indicted in January. Judge Lonnie R. Suko postponed his sentencing until December 2007, two months after the Randocks and three others are scheduled to go on trial.

The Randocks also remain free on bail.

More than 10,000 sexually explicit images of children were found in four computers used by the Spokane-based operation, government lawyers said, but only Pearson was named in pornography charges.

The defendants are charged with conspiring to commit wire and mail fraud and laundering almost $2 million in diploma mill receipts in 2002-05.

As webmaster, Pearson set up and maintained as many as 125 Web sites for sales of fraudulent college and high school degrees worldwide, investigators wrote in court filings.

Investigators also have asserted that more than $43,000 in bribes were paid to three Liberian diplomats who also have not been identified, including one handoff that was videotaped by Secret Service agents at a hotel in Washington, D.C. Government lawyers have said diplomatic immunity precludes charges against the diplomats.

The Liberian "Board of Education" offered accreditation for the online diploma mills in exchange for the bribes, according to court filings.

About 40 percent of the estimated 6,000 phony college degrees that were sold with that accreditation went to foreign residents seeking entry into the United States, investigators wrote in court filings.

A task force of state and federal agents served search warrants in August 2005 after investigators found many of the phony degrees were sold in Saudi Arabia, raising national security concerns.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Diploma_Mill.html

Information from: The Spokesman-Review, http://www.spokesmanreview.com

Laura Callahan resigns from DHS

April 05, 2004 Laura Callahan, former senior director in the Homeland Security Department’s CIO office, resigned from the department late last month.

Callahan had been on administrative leave with pay since last June, after a PostNewsweek Tech Media investigation revealed that she had three questionable degrees from a diploma mill in Wyoming.

DHS spokeswoman Valerie Smith said, “Laura Callahan has resigned effective March 26. It is the agency’s policy not to comment on individual personnel matters.”

Callahan, who before moving to DHS had been deputy CIO of the Labor Department, lost her security clearance following the department’s decision to place her on administrative leave, so she could not work in the CIO office.

Callahan has a legitimate two-year associate’s degree in liberal arts from Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, N.J. She has enrolled again in the accredited distance-learning institution to pursue a bachelor’s degree in computer science, according to the college registrar’s office.

Neither Callahan nor her attorney, Ralph Lotkin, could be immediately reached for comment. GCN and Washington Technology reported last year that dozens of federal employees and contractors have questionable degrees.

http://www.gcn.com/print/23_7/25482-1.html

Cut-Rate Diplomas, How doubts about the government's own "Dr. Laura" exposed a résumé fraud scandal

Posted May 30, 2003 - 5:43 p.m. Updated June 2, 2003 4:44 p.m

Alberto Gonzales

Thirty-one Senate Democrats on Thursday asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to remove himself from the investigation into the Jack Abramoff scandal, saying the lobbyist's dealings with President Bush and others in the administration should compel Gonzales to step aside.

“FBI officials have said the Abramoff investigation 'involves systemic corruption within the highest levels of government,' “ the Democrats wrote in a letter to Gonzales. “In light of your previous service as White House Counsel and your close connection to many Administration officials, the appearance of conflict looms large.”

New questions have arisen about Abramoff's ties to the White House since a photo emerged over the weekend showing Abramoff with Bush. The White House would not release the photo or any others that Bush had taken with Abramoff.

Bush has said that he, like all presidents, is frequently photographed with people at various events and that Abramoff is not a personal friend.

Also surfacing were the contents of an e-mail from Abramoff to Washingtonian magazine claiming he had met briefly with the president nearly a dozen times and that Bush knew him well enough to make joking references to Abramoff's family.

Three former associates of Abramoff told The Associated Press this week that the lobbyist frequently told them he had strong ties to the White House through presidential confidant Karl Rove.

David H. Safavian, Bush's former top procurement officer, is under indictment on five counts of obstructing investigations into whether he aided Abramoff in efforts to acquire property around the nation's capital controlled by the General Services Administration.

Karl Rove

Mr. Rove has known Mr. Abramoff for about two decades, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan. Both are former top officials of the College Republicans, many of whose alumni have gone on to national prominence within the party.

Susan Ralston

White House reels as aide quits over links to disgraced lobbyist

October 08, 2006 Republicans have been dealt a fresh blow in their increasingly frantic struggle to cling to power in next month's mid-term elections by the resignation of a key White House aide over links to a disgraced lobbyist.

Already reeling from a Capitol Hill sex scandal, the White House was bracing itself yesterday for further fallout over a widening financial scandal that precipitated the departure of Susan Ralston, executive assistant to Karl Rove, Mr Bush's chief political strategist.

She stepped down after congressional investigators documented her extensive dealings with Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist who has pleaded guilty to multimillion-dollar bribery charges involving Republican members of Congress and government officials. Her departure was announced late on Friday as the unrelated scandal surrounding the alleged cover-up of sexual approaches made by Congressman Mark Foley, a Florida Republican, intensified.

The resignation of Miss Ralston, officially a "special adviser" to President George W. Bush, will remind voters of the row that previously engulfed the Republicans over Abramoff, to whom she had been an aide before she joined the White House in 2001. She was reportedly found to have been involved in more than half of her former boss's 66 recorded contacts with her colleagues and superiors on President Bush's staff. Records showed that Abramoff's lobbying colleagues contacted her 69 times.

Congressional investigatorsindicated Miss Ralston had accepted tickets from Abramoff to nine events, including professional basketball, hockey and baseball games and an operatic recital. E-mails and memos uncovered by investigators suggest she served as a conduit for requests for favours by Abramoff, and at one point discussed the "significant amount of money" it would take to lure her away from the White House to work for him.

There was no suggestion that Miss Ralston acted illegally and it is not known whether she declared her dealings with Abramoff, or paid for the tickets he gave her. "She recognised that a protracted discussion of these matters would be a distraction to the White House and she's chosen to step down," said a White House spokesman.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/08/wrepubs08.xml

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/07/washington/07ralston.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1160742857-HR34LDON5L67aD54EV72qQ

Irwin Lewis "Scooter" Libby

Plame suit makes political waves

t is an extraordinary development: the vice-president of the United States and a dozen other administration officials accused, in court, of deliberately leaking the identity of a classified CIA operative.

In their lawsuit Joseph Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame, accuse Dick Cheney and others of endangering the lives of themselves and their children by revealing her status.

And, they allege, it was all done for revenge.

This on-going saga began in 2002, when former US Ambassador Joseph Wilson was despatched from Washington to Niger - the White House apparently hoping that he could gather detailed intelligence on reports that Saddam Hussein was attempting to buy uranium from the African country in an attempt to build a nuclear bomb.

Ambassador Wilson's investigation found that those allegations were untrue.

His findings were at odds with the administration's expectations and went largely ignored: President Bush and others continued to claim that Saddam Hussein was attempting to acquire uranium from Niger.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5182232.stm

Irwin Lewis "Scooter" Libby indicted

Lewis 'Scooter' Libby leaves federal court in Washington February 3, 2006. Vice President Dick Cheney directed his aide to use classified material to discredit a critic of the Bush administration's Iraq war effort, the National Journal reported on Thursday.

The White House has tried to move beyond ethics controversies after the indictment late last year of former vice-presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby in connection with the Central Intelligence Agency leak case. Mr. Rove hasn't yet been cleared in the investigation by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

Cheney authorized leaks

Indicted former top White House aide Irwin Lewis "Scooter" Libby will argue that Vice President Dick Cheney authorized him to leak classified information in 2003 to bolster the case for the US-led war against Iraq, US news media reports.

Libby, who has been charged in a federal investigation into the outing of a CIA agent, will in part base his defense on the claim that Cheney had encouraged him to share classified information with reporters, NBC television news said, citing sources familiar with the case.

Libby's lawyer Theodore Wells discussed Cheney's authorization with federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and the judge handling the case in a recent teleconference call, NBC News reported.

The online edition of the magazine National Journal reported that Libby had testified to a federal grand jury that Cheney and other White House "superiors" had "authorized" him in mid-2003 to leak classified information to defend the administration's prewar intelligence assertions in making the case to go to war with Iraq.

The magazine quoted attorneys familiar with the matter and court records as sources.

Libby also argued that Cheney authorized him to release details of the classified National Intelligence Estimate, the magazine reported, citing sources with firsthand knowledge.

Senator Edward Kennedy of the opposition Democrats called the new revelations, if true, "a new low" in the "sordid case".

Cheney Says He Has Power to Declassify Info

When Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald revealed Libby's assertions to a grand jury that he had been authorized by his superiors to spread sensitive information, the prosecutor did not specify which superiors.

But in an interview on Fox News Channel, Cheney said there is an executive order that gives the vice president, along with the president, the authority to declassify information.

"I have certainly advocated declassification. I have participated in declassification decisions," Cheney said. Asked for details, he said, "I don't want to get into that. There's an executive order that specifies who has classification authority, and obviously it focuses first and foremost on the president, but also includes the vice president."

Cheney added a ringing endorsement of Libby.

"Scooter is entitled to the presumption of innocence," said Cheney. "He is a great guy. I worked with him for a long time. I have tremendous regard for him. I may well be called as a witness at some point in the case, and it is therefore inappropriate for me to comment on any facet of the case."

George C. Deutsch

George C. Deutsch, the young presidential appointee at NASA who told public affairs workers to limit reporters' access to a top climate scientist and told a Web designer to add the word "theory" at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned yesterday, agency officials said.

Mr. Deutsch's resignation came on the same day that officials at Texas A&M University confirmed that he did not graduate from there, as his résumé on file at the agency asserted.

Officials at NASA headquarters declined to discuss the reason for the resignation.

Such complaints came to the fore starting in late January, when James E. Hansen, the climate scientist, and several midlevel public affairs officers told The Times that political appointees, including Mr. Deutsch, were pressing to limit Dr. Hansen's speaking and interviews on the threats posed by global warming.

Yesterday, Dr. Hansen said that the questions about Mr. Deutsch's credentials were important, but were a distraction from the broader issue of political control of scientific information.

"He's only a bit player," Dr. Hansen said of Mr. Deutsch. " The problem is much broader and much deeper and it goes across agencies. That's what I'm really concerned about."

"On climate, the public has been misinformed and not informed," he said. "The foundation of a democracy is an informed public, which obviously means an honestly informed public. That's the big issue here."

Tom Noe coin dealer and prominent GOP fundraiser

GOP fundraiser gets 18 years in prison

Defense attorney Bill Wilkinson, left, talks with Tom Noe after Noe's sentencing in the Lucas County Courthouse Monday, Nov. 20, 2006, in Toledo, Ohio. Noe, a politically connected coin dealer, was sentenced to 18 years in state prison Monday for embezzling millions from a state investment in rare coins. (AP Photo/Jeremy Wadsworth, Pool)

November 20, 2006 TOLEDO, Ohio -- A GOP fundraiser who embezzled from a state investment in rare coins was sentenced Monday to 18 years in prison in a scandal that helped bring down Ohio's ruling Republican Party on Election Day.

Tom Noe, 52, was also fined $139,000.

Noe spent money as if he had "a bottomless cup of wealth and luxury" at his disposal, "when in fact it was at the state's expense," Common Pleas Judge Thomas Osowik said.

The sentence handed out to the politically connected coin dealer will be on top of the more than two years he was ordered to serve after pleading guilty earlier this year to illegally funneling $45,000 to President Bush's re-election campaign.

Noe was the central figure in a scandal that dogged the Ohio Republican Party for more than a year. On Election Day, the Democrats won the governor's office, a Senate seat and other major offices after 12 years of GOP rule.

Up until Monday, prosecutors did not say whether Noe used any of the money to make campaign contributions. But after the sentencing, Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said, "You can make those inferences."

Also for the first time, prosecutors calculated that Noe stole $13.7 million in all.

Noe was hired by the state workers' compensation agency and given $50 million to invest in an unorthodox and risky attempt by a state government to make money buying and selling rare coins. A furor erupted when the rare-coin investment became public and when it was learned that millions of dollars were missing.

advertising Democrats charged that Noe got the job because of his GOP ties. He was a top fundraiser who gave more than $105,000 to Republicans, including Bush and Gov. Robert Taft in 2004.

The resulting investigations led to ethics charges against Taft, who pleaded no contest to failing to report golf outings and other gifts. Four former Taft aides pleaded no contest to similar charges.

Noe was convicted last week of theft, corrupt activity and other offenses, and faced a minimum of 10 years in prison on the corrupt-activity charge alone.

Prosecutors said he used the money to pay off business loans, renovate his Florida Keys home and otherwise live in high style.

Noe declined to make a statement before sentencing and stared blankly, his upper lip twitching, as his punishment was handed down.

Defense attorney John Mitchell had asked for the minimum 10-year sentence, saying that other high-profile criminals had received less time for taking more money. The lawyer also assured the judge that Noe's offense "was a one-time crime."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Investment_Scandal.html

Trial of coin dealer comes at a bad time for Ohio GOP

October 08, 2006 TOLEDO, Ohio – Just a month before Election Day, a former Republican fundraising star is set to go on trial on charges that he stole millions of dollars from a state investment in rare coins.

The timing couldn't be worse for the GOP. Democrats, who haven't won a statewide executive office in Ohio since 1990, are poised to take back the governor's office and are in position to win a majority of the five statewide races, according to recent polls.

National Democratic leaders also are watching closely because Ohio again is widely expected to play a key role in picking the next president. The party believes that if it can capture Ohio's governor's office, it will have a better shot at winning the state in 2008. The trial of Tom Noe will shine a spotlight on Republican Party problems even though its leaders have worked to distance themselves from the former coin dealer who managed the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation's $50 million rare coin investment.

“You couldn't think of much worse to happen to a state party during a critical election,” said William Binning, a political scientist at Youngstown State University who has worked on past GOP campaigns.

The scandal has become a dominant issue in Ohio over the past 18 months along with the state's sluggish economy. Investigations into Noe's coin investments led to separate ethics charges against Gov. Bob Taft, who pleaded no contest last year to failing to report golf outings and other gifts.

Noe has pleaded not guilty to state charges of theft, money laundering, forgery and a corrupt activity charge that includes accusations he stole more than $2 million. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on the corrupt activity charge.

Ohio started its rare coin investments in 1998, giving Noe $25 million, followed by another $25 million in 2001.

Democrats charge that the deal demonstrates a culture of corruption that has set in while Republicans have been in charge.

Investigators began looking into the coin investment after The Toledo Blade wrote about the fund in April 2005.

State officials initially defended the investment, saying it earned more than $15 million. Then Noe's attorney told investigators the fund had a shortfall of at least $10 million.

A state lawsuit later accused Noe of improperly taking more than $4 million from the funds to pay himself and his coin-collection business.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061008/news_1n8ohio.html

Noe indicted in coin scandal

February 13, 2006 TOLEDO, Ohio -- A coin dealer and prominent GOP fundraiser was charged Monday with stealing at least $1 million from a controversial state investment in rare coins that has embroiled Republicans in scandal during an election year.

The 53 charges against Tom Noe conclude a 10-month investigation by state and federal prosecutors into the $50 million rare coin investment Noe managed for the state insurance fund for injured workers.

He's accused of stealing from the investment by writing checks, sometimes for hundreds of thousands of dollars each, knowing the money was not his to use.

Noe's attorney has acknowledged a shortfall of up to $13 million of the money Noe invested for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.

Abramoff

Jack Abramoff, center. At right is his attorney Abbe Lowell.

former White House aide David Safavian, who is charged with lying in connection with a golf trip Mr. Jack Abramoff arranged. Justice Department officials haven't closed their review of actions by former Interior Department official J. Steven Griles, who disputes claims that he favored Abramoff clients, such as Native American tribes involved in casinos. Calls for the White House to release photos of Mr. Abramoff with the president -- and details of his contacts with presidential aides including Karl Rove -- haven't abated.

Mr. Abramoff was an early backer of the president, having been listed as a co-chairman pledged to raise $25,000 for Mr. Bush at a 1999 Washington reception. He gave money to the president's recount committee in 2000 and was in the elite tier of fund-raisers for the president's 2004 re-election committee. An Abramoff aide, Susan Ralston, later went to work as Mr. Rove's executive assistant at the White House.

Mr. Abramoff bragged of his "contact" with Mr. Rove when Tyco International Ltd. sought action on tax legislation in 2002, according to Senate testimony by Tim Flanigan, a former Tyco official. "At some point after he joined the engagement team, Mr. Abramoff told me that he intended to contact Mr. Rove directly or indirectly to communicate Tyco's position" on the tax issue, said Mr. Flanigan, who also once worked as Mr. Bush's deputy White House counsel.

Abramoff at a glance

Charges: Conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion.
Penalties: Up to 30 years in prison and $750,000 in fines, but prosecutors and Abramoff’s attorneys agreed to recommend 9 1/2 to 11 years in prison and a fine of $15,000 to $150,000. If he cooperates fully in prosecution of others, the government might recommend another reduction.
Restitution: Abramoff agreed to pay an estimated $25 million in restitution to his victims and $1.7 million to the Internal Revenue Service for evading taxes during 2001-03.
Indian tribes: Abramoff admitted he conspired to defraud Indian tribes in Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. They paid Abramoff and companies he controlled roughly $55 million, from which he secretly took more than $21 million for himself. At one point, he took money from a Texas tribe to lobby for Indian gambling in that state while also taking money from a Louisiana tribe to oppose such gambling in Texas.
Public corruption: Abramoff and his former partner Michael Scanlon, who has already pleaded guilty, gave campaign contributions, trips, meals and entertainment to public officials and their relatives in return for favorable treatment of his clients.
Other allegations: Abramoff admitted misusing tax-exempt charities to collect illegal payments; arranging for Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio’s former chief of staff to lobby the congressman in 2002 before the staffer’s one-year ban on lobbying had expired; and paying $50,000 in 2000-01 to the wife of a congressional aide identified elsewhere as a top aide to then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

Lobbyist Abramoff to report to prison

FEDERAL INMATE No. 27593-112

November 14, 2006 WASHINGTON -- Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist known for lavishing politicians with football tickets or whisking them away on exotic golf junkets, will start life Wednesday with a new identity: federal inmate No. 27593-112.

Abramoff is to report to federal prison to begin serving a nearly six-year prison sentence for a fraudulent deal to buy a fleet of casino ships in Florida. He also is awaiting sentencing for corrupting government officials and their staff members.

If it were up to the Justice Department, Abramoff wouldn't be heading to prison - at least not yet. He could hold the key to a sweeping corruption case involving Congress, members of the Bush administration and their aides, and prosecutors said putting their star witness behind bars would impede the investigation.

But a Miami federal judge refused to delay the sentence, meaning Abramoff's cooperation will have to continue from prison. Abramoff's lawyers had no comment.

Abramoff was originally assigned to a federal prison in Pennsylvania about four hours away from Washington. Prosecutors wanted him assigned to a prison in Cumberland, Md., about two hours away.

The Justice Department said the issue has been resolved and, though the Bureau of Prisons will not comment on where Abramoff will report, prison officials began making preparation for a crush of reporters outside the Cumberland prison.

Abramoff enjoyed access and influence across Capitol Hill, from his close ties to congressmen to his hundreds of contacts with White House officials. He kept his powerful friends flush with campaign cash, gifts and trips such as a $92,000 chartered jet to Scotland for a golf outing with Rep. Bob Ney, Bush administration official David Safavian and congressional aides.

Ney, an Ohio Republican who recently resigned, became the first congressman convicted in the case when he admitted last month that he took official actions on behalf of Abramoff's clients in exchange for his gifts and campaign donations.

The investigation had already ensnared Ney's former chief of staff and two aides to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The investigation cost DeLay his leadership seat before he ultimately resigned, and it contributed to the Election Day defeat of Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.

Safavian was sentenced in October to 18 months in prison for lying to investigators about his ties to Abramoff. He is asking a federal judge to postpone his sentence until he can appeal his conviction.

Burns, who received about $150,000 in Abramoff-related donations and whose aides traveled on the lobbyist's jet to the 2001 Super Bowl, has denied any wrongdoing. Though two of Delay's aides have pleaded guilty, the former majority leader maintains his innocence and has not been charged.

Also under scrutiny are Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., who accepted campaign money from Abramoff and used the lobbyist's luxury sports box for a fundraiser without initially reporting it, and former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles, whom senators and a former colleague said gave preferential treatment to Abramoff and his Indian tribe clients.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Lobbyist_Probe.html

Sweeney trip in question

Visit to U.S. territory with Jack Abramoff associate possibly broke rules

October 18, 2006 ALBANY -- U.S. Rep. John Sweeney may have violated congressional ethics rules by failing to reveal who paid for a trip he took to a Pacific island with a lobbyist hired by convicted Washington influence peddler Jack Abramoff. In January 2001, Sweeney traveled 8,000 miles to deliver a speech to the Saipan Chamber of Commerce in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory infamous for its garment sweatshops and prostitution trade. He traveled with Tony Rudy, who had just left the staff of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to work for Abramoff.

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce says it paid for Sweeney's visit, but Sweeney never reported any privately funded travel as House rules require. Those rules prohibit lobbyist-paid travel.

Sweeney, a Clifton Park Republican, initially refused to answer questions for this story, speaking only through an aide. His deputy chief of staff, Melissa Carlson, said the congressman believed the Marianas government had paid for the trip.

Under House rules, U.S. government-paid travel, including travel financed by the island commonwealth, does not need to be disclosed. However, this week the Marianas government disputed Sweeney's assertion, saying it did not pay for the trip.

Tuesday, Sweeney said he will do whatever is necessary to comply with House ethics rules.

"It was our understanding that this was paid for by the Marianas government," the congressman said. "If it was based on misinformation that may have been given to us by a guy who's now an admitted felon, I will go to the Ethics Committee and ask what I should do."

Abramoff lobbied on and off for the Mariana Islands government from 1994 to early 2002, eventually earning more than $11 million.

Rudy, who met with Sweeney after the trip to lobby him on behalf of the territory, pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy charges connected to the cash laundering and political influence enterprise run by Abramoff.

Abramoff pleaded guilty in January to mail fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion charges. Both he and Rudy are cooperating with law enforcement officials in an ongoing investigation.

"If it indeed is true" that private money purchased his trip to the Pacific, Sweeney said, "I feel betrayed and misled."

Sweeney insisted Abramoff did not personally organize or pay for this trip, as he did for other members of Congress and congressional aides -- including DeLay -- in violation of House ethics rules. Sweeney said he never met Abramoff, adding that his only connection to the disgraced lobbyist was Rudy.

No suggestion has emerged that Sweeney directly assisted Abramoff or broke any laws.

Sweeney is among the Democrats' top targets as they fight for a net gain of 15 seats necessary to take over the House. He is fighting the toughest re-election battle of his congressional career against a Democratic political neophyte, Kirsten Gillibrand.

Last year, the Department of Justice began reviewing the personal financial records of members of Congress and former staffers in search of ties to Abramoff.

Among them were DeLay, U.S. Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif, whose efforts to help Abramoff with Marianas-related projects have been well-documented, and U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican who pleaded guilty last Friday to accepting numerous gifts, including trips, casino chips and meals, in exchange for legislative support for Abramoff's clients.

Sweeney has so far remained untainted by the DOJ investigation.

Sweeney is not the only Capital Region congressman with travel connections to Abramoff.

In 1997, Abramoff personally led a congressional delegation that included U.S. Rep. Michael McNulty, D-Green Island, on a trip to Pakistan. Abramoff did not tell either the group's sponsor, a now-defunct nonprofit group, or the lawmakers that he was a registered lobbyist for Pakistan.

McNulty said he had been misled. McNulty did file a report of his trip with the clerk of the House within 30 days, as is required when private sources pay expenses for trips made in connection with official duties.

Sweeney said he still has no direct confirmation that anyone other than the Marianas government paid for his trip. "We operated under the best information we had," he said. "We believed we were in full compliance."

However, in recent days the Times Union received contradictory accounts of who paid from the Marianas government and the Saipan Chamber of Commerce.

Charles Reyes, a spokesman for Marianas Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, said in an e-mail that the islands' government did not pay Sweeney's bill.

"Our finance office confirms that, based on available financial records, the CNMI government did not make any payment to or for Congressman John Sweeney for any expenses in connection with the congressman's travel to the commonwealth on or about January 2001," Reyes wrote.

Christine Parke, executive director of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, said in an e-mail that the chamber "did pay for Mr. Sweeney's expenses out of the proceeds of the dinner." She said she had no supporting documents and could not provide a total cost.

At the time of his trip, Sweeney had just been named to the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which could potentially direct federal funds sought by the commonwealth. But he did not sit on any committees with direct jurisdiction over the islands.

Parke could not say how Sweeney came to the chamber's attention. Carlson said Sweeney was invited because of his experience as state labor commissioner under Gov. George Pataki, a post Sweeney held from January 1995 to June 1997. She insisted Abramoff did not set up Sweeney's trip or recommend him to the chamber.

On Jan. 4, 2001, Abramoff wrote to then-CNMI Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio seeking the renewal of his lucrative lobbying contract with the commonwealth. At the time, Abramoff had switched firms and Tenorio was reportedly concerned about the growing costs of Abramoff's services. The lobbyist was charging the commonwealth $100,000 a month, plus costs and fees.

Four days later, on Jan. 8, 2001, the Saipan Tribune reported Sweeney would make a trip to the islands that weekend. The newspaper is published by the Tan Holdings Group, whose president, garment industry mogul Willie Tan, was also an Abramoff associate.

According to the Tribune story, Sweeney would be given "an opportunity to brief with local business and CNMI leaders, as well as enjoy some of the island's visitor attractions." Saipan has a number of resorts and golf courses.

On Jan. 15, 2001, the Tribune reported Sweeney had indicated in his speech that the CNMI needed to continue efforts to combat its poor image back in the states.

"The reputation of the commonwealth is not really what ought to be," Sweeney said. "I come (sic) here and found that the truth projected to me in Washington was not the truth at all."

Carlson said CNMI officials had "concerns about sweatshops" and wanted Sweeney to advise them on potential reforms. She said the congressman made some recommendations and suggested he could help if his suggestions were put in place, but the CNMI government never followed up.

"The congressman always believes that firsthand experience is preferable to hearing something from a second source," she said.

The CNMI, a chain of 14 islands northeast of Guam, is exempt from federal immigration and wage laws -- a status critics say has fostered sweatshops, trafficking in women and prostitution.

Over the years, at Abramoff's urging and with the support of the islands' garment industry, GOP House leaders blocked legislation to federalize the CNMI's immigration and wage laws and stop the islands from producing clothes stamped "Made in U.S.A."

Abramoff also worked to secure federal money for the islands.

Sweeney was quoted in the Saipan Tribune on Jan. 15 as saying reports of poor working conditions in the CNMI were overblown, and that he had seen worse sweatshops back home in New York. Carlson said Sweeney was "absolutely not" aware of any severe mistreatment of workers or forced prostitution before he made these comments.

U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., a longtime champion of legislation to change CNMI wage and immigration laws, traveled to the islands in 1998 on a fact-finding mission to document abuses there.

Problems were obvious "unless you choose not to look at the facts on the ground," Miller said, adding: "A blind pig could run into the human rights violations and the exploitation of workers on the islands."

Miller said he met women "forced into the sex trade, " workers living in barracks behind barbed wire and others who "wanted us to find someone to buy their kidney so they could go home, because they were trapped."

Several months after his trip, on April 6, 2001, Sweeney accepted a $1,000 campaign contribution from Abramoff's law firm, Greenberg Traurig. The firm made no more contributions to Sweeney until August 2004 -- about five months after Abramoff departed.

Partners and lobbyists at the firm where Rudy worked after leaving Greenberg Traurig in 2002, the Alexander Strategy Group, and others associated with them gave Sweeney at least $8,850 in campaign aid in 2005. The Alexander Strategy Group closed in January.

Within months of returning from the CNMI, Sweeney met separately with Marianas Gov. Fitial and Rudy in Washington. Rudy also met with members of Sweeney's staff.

The Tribune reported Fitial had meetings with Sweeney and his fellow Appropriations Committee member, Doolittle, in Washington on April 8, 2001, to discuss the islands' infrastructure and development needs.

"I am very glad that the CNMI has friends in such powerful positions," Fitial told the paper. "Whether the issue is construction funding or Compact impact assistance, the Appropriations Committee will make the important decisions, and I am confident we will receive a fair hearing because of our friends that serve on that committee."

Sweeney said he could not recall any appropriations being discussed.

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=526600 http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=526600&category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=LOCAL&newsdate=10/18/2006

Displease a Lobbyist, Get Fired

E-mails show Jack Abramoff's ability to influence White House staffing decisions through his highly placed friends.

October 15, 2006 WASHINGTON — For five years, Allen Stayman wondered who ordered his removal from a State Department job negotiating agreements with tiny Pacific island nations — even when his own bosses wanted him to stay.

Now he knows.

Newly disclosed e-mails suggest that the ax fell after intervention by one of the highest officials at the White House: Ken Mehlman, on behalf of one of the most influential lobbyists in town, Jack Abramoff.

The e-mails show that Abramoff, whose client list included the Northern Mariana Islands, had long opposed Stayman's work advocating labor changes in that U.S. commonwealth, and considered what his lobbying team called the "Stayman project" a high priority.

"Mehlman said he would get him fired," an Abramoff associate wrote after meeting with Mehlman, who was then White House political director.

The exchange illustrates how, more than two years after the corruption scandal surrounding the now-disgraced Abramoff came to light, people are still learning the extent of the lobbyist's ability to pull the levers of power in Washington. The latest revelations provide more detail than the Bush administration has acknowledged about how Abramoff and his team reached into high levels of the White House, not just Capitol Hill, which has been the main focus of the influence-peddling investigation.

The e-mails, disclosed as part of a report by the House Government Reform Committee, show how Abramoff manipulated the system through officials such as Mehlman, now the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Doing so, Abramoff directed government appointments, influenced policy decisions and won White House endorsements for political candidates — all in the service of his clients.

The report found more than 400 lobbying contacts between Abramoff's team and the White House.

Mehlman, meanwhile, also helped Abramoff with another client, Guam, the e-mails show.

On Oct. 9, 2002, Abramoff asked Mehlman to secure a White House endorsement for the island's GOP gubernatorial ticket.

Three weeks later, Abramoff received a note from Ralston, then Rove's assistant, saying that Mehlman had gotten a quote from the White House for "your Guam candidates." She also asked Abramoff to send his requests in the future to "Ken only."

For Stayman, learning more about how Abramoff used White House connections helped him understand why, five years ago, he found himself looking at a career change.

His job was up for renewal, but his State Department supervisors wanted to keep him on to finish a project that was expected to take more time.

"With only about a year left on my appointment, I didn't think it would trigger any interest from the White House," Stayman said. "I assumed that Abramoff was behind it, but I didn't know the details, who called whom and how much effort it took."

Unbeknownst to Stayman, though, within weeks of Bush taking office, the "Stayman project" was in full swing.

State Department officials resisted the dismissal, and negotiations dragged on for months. In May 2001, one of Mehlman's deputies assured Abramoff's team that, "Obviously, this guy cannot stay."

That July 9, Ralston e-mailed Abramoff with news of a deal on Stayman: "He'll be out in four months."

And he was.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-mehlman15oct15,1,83076.story

Richard Pombo (R-Tracy), and John T. Doolittle (R-Roseville)

Pombo (R-Tracy), 45, and John T. Doolittle (R-Roseville), 55, have come under attack for their ethics as a corruption scandal threatens the GOP lock on Washington.

Ethics watchdogs have questioned their ties to Jack Abramoff, the Washington lobbyist who pleaded guilty to defrauding Indian tribes of more than $20 million. The watchdogs have also criticized the candidates for using public money for personal expenses and for making large payments to their wives and family from campaign funds.

Pombo also faces opposition from well-financed environmental groups.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-calcongress20may20,1,2646934.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Abramoff case dogs Pombo

Investigation offers glimpse into tactics of lobbyist

SACRAMENTO - Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff has dogged Rep. Richard Pombo of Tracy like an unwanted shadow even before the congressman began his bid for an eighth term.

Was Pombo a tool of "Black Jack," or did the two men exchange little more than passing pleasantries at Capitol Hill galas?

The truth lies buried within tens of thousands of e-mails, billing records, subpoenaed testimony - and in the minds of both Pombo and Abramoff, who is helping federal authorities with what is becoming the most far-reaching Washington scandal since Watergate.

But a Record investigation of hundreds of heavily redacted e-mails, billing records, lobbying and campaign finance reports, published reports including the Congressional Record and more than a dozen interviews with Beltway insiders found Pombo playing but a bit part in the larger Abramoff drama.

Unlike some of his colleagues, no evidence suggests that Pombo received Abramoff-funded trips, gifts, skybox visits, concert tickets or free meals at the lobbyist's Signatures restaurant. A former Abramoff employee told The Record that Pombo was never one of Abramoff's confidantes.

That said, Pombo did step on stage with Abramoff's crew at least four times in the past decade, but in only one case was there any evidence of impropriety - and that was by two of Pombo's former staffers, not the congressman himself.

Instead, what emerges from the investigation is a rare view of just how Team Abramoff worked. Here is the story:

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061029/NEWS01/610290317/-1/NEWS2010

Doolittle attorney, Justice talk

Rep. John Doolittle acknowledged Monday that his lawyer, whom he has paid more than $38,000 in the past two months, is talking with the Justice Department about the congressman's relationship with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The Washington Post and other papers, citing unnamed sources, have said the Roseville Republican and Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., are under investigation in the Abramoff matter.

Doolittle's office in a statement late Monday again insisted that the congressman is not under investigation.

Instead, it characterized the meetings as an effort initiated by Doolittle to clear the congressman's name.

"The congressman's attorney has had several conversations with the Justice Department which we believe have been helpful toward clearing the congressman's name," said Laura Blackann, Doolittle's spokeswoman.

"The congressman's attorney has committed to the Justice Department that in order to preserve the integrity of the ongoing investigation, details of their interactions will remain private," she said. "To date, the congressman has not been contacted or questioned by the Justice Department and has no reason to believe that he is the target of an investigation."

Blackann said Doolittle "instructed his attorney to establish contact with the Justice Department to further express the congressman's willingness to be helpful and satisfy the Justice Department that the congressman has done nothing wrong."

The new disclosures have added fuel to the campaign of Democratic challenger Charlie Brown, who has tried to tie Doolittle to the so-called "culture of corruption" in Washington, D.C., arising from the Abramoff scandal and the bribery conviction of Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-San Diego.

One of those implicated in the Cunningham bribery, San Diego businessman Brent Wilkes, also was a major contributor to Doolittle.

"It's time for John Doolittle to level with voters in his district, and stop lying about being under investigation for his involvement with Jack Abramoff," Brown said in a prepared statement Monday. "His shady campaign finance dealings, the fact that he won't return the tainted money he's taken from admitted felons, and his continued denials illustrate his lack of moral fitness for the office of congressman."

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/40493.html

Lobbyist donated cash to Doolittle

Congressman received $14,000, helped Abramoff win contract.

Rep. John Doolittle helped Jack Abramoff secure a lucrative lobbying contract with the commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in 1999 and then assisted the now-disgraced lobbyist's efforts to route federal money to the islands and defend its garment industry, newly obtained documents show.

Doolittle accepted $14,000 in contributions from Abramoff -- $4,000 to his congressional re-election committee and $10,000 to his California political action committee.

The first contribution came just a few weeks before Doolittle endorsed the election of a key commonwealth politician crucial to Abramoff winning the contract. The last Abramoff contribution came just as the Mariana Islands' lobbying contract was expiring in December 2001.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14288629p-15112022c.html

Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio)

060113_ney_hmed_3p.hmedium.jpg

In Ney's homestate, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett called Ney "a cancer in the Congress."

Ney pleads guilty, says he'll resign

October 13, 2006 WASHINGTON - Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record) pleaded guilty Friday in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling investigation, the first lawmaker to confess to crimes in an election-year scandal that has stained the Republican-controlled Congress and the Bush administration.

Beleaguered GOP leaders said Ney will be expelled from the House if he doesn't quit by the time they return to Washington after the Nov. 7 elections.

Appearing before Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle on charges of conspiracy and making false statements, Ney acknowledged taking trips, tickets, meals and campaign donations from Abramoff in return for official actions on behalf of his clients.

Ney, an Ohio Republican, faces up to 10 years in prison. The Justice Department recommended 27 months behind bars. Ney's lawyers plan to recommend him for a Bureau of Prisons alcohol treatment program, which could cut dramatically the time he serves behind bars.

Huvelle set sentencing for Jan. 19.

Although Ney's lawyer and the congressman promised he would resign in the next few weeks, it was not soon enough for House Republican leaders who are on the defensive because of fresh scandals in the final weeks before the midterm elections.

Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and other Republican House leaders, along with their top aides, are under investigation by the House ethics committee in a possible cover-up of former Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record)'s sexually charged messages to teenage males who served as House pages.

Hastert has called on Ney to resign, as did White House spokesman Tony Snow, who said Ney's criminal activity "is not a reflection of the Republican Party." House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said he will introduce a resolution to kick Ney out of the House as soon as Congress returns to Washington.

In Ney's homestate, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett called Ney "a cancer in the Congress."

Ney confessed his criminal acts during a half-hour session at a federal courthouse a few blocks from the Capitol, where until recently he wielded a gavel as chairman of the House Administration Committee.

Responding to each of 25 questions Huvelle asked, Ney agreed he had conspired to deprive the government of his "honest services," a fraud-related charge often used in public corruption cases.

Ney also acknowledged making false statements on his financial disclosure forms by concealing that Abramoff and a foreign businessman were the true source of gifts Ney received.

The gifts ranged from a trip to Scotland bankrolled by Abramoff's clients to thousands of dollars in gambling chips Ney got on two overseas junkets from foreign businessman Fouad al-Zayat, a Syrian-born aviation company owner in Cyprus.

"I allowed myself to get too comfortable with the way things have been done in Washington, D.C., for too long," Ney said in a written statement after his court appearance.

Ney said, "I never acted to enrich myself or to get things I shouldn't." Details of conspiracy suggested otherwise.

The congressman admitted he gave $5,000 from one gambling trip to a staff member to carry across the border so Ney could report a lower dollar amount to U.S. Customs officials.

Ney agreed to push legislation helpful to Abramoff clients including Indian tribes and a foreign beverage distiller. Ney agreed to help Al-Zayat get a visa to enter the United States and a legislative exemption to laws barring the sale of U.S.-made airplanes and parts to a foreign country.

Regarding Abramoff, Ney acknowledged accepting all-expense-paid and reduced-price trips to play golf in Scotland in August 2002, to gamble and vacation in New Orleans in May 2003 and to vacation in New York in August 2003. The total cost of all the trips — in which others, including some aides, participated — exceeded $170,000, prosecutors said. The congressman also admitted accepting meals and sports and concert tickets for himself and his staff.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061013/ap_on_go_co/ney_corruption;_ylt=AsLMh7.BGA_DiycCEtK0baGs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-

Ney admits guilt in lobby scandal

16 September, 2006 Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio admitted Friday that he had effectively put his office up for sale to corrupt Washington lobbyists and a foreign businessman in exchange for illegal gifts that included lavish overseas trips, the use of skyboxes at sports arenas in the Washington area and thousands of dollars worth of gambling chips from London casinos.

In a plea agreement announced by the Justice Department, Ney, a six-term Republican who once seemed poised to rise far in the House leadership, admitted to a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy and to making false statements about the gifts.

With the agreement, Ney became the first member of Congress to acknowledge criminal acts in the investigation of the former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, an inquiry that threatens to ensnare other Republican lawmakers and dim the party's hopes in the November elections.

Although Ney could face up to 10 years in prison, federal prosecutors said they would recommend a 27-month sentence for the lawmaker, who announced last month that he was abandoning his campaign for another term. He could also face up to $500,000 in fines.

Abramoff, once a leading fundraiser for the Republican Party, pleaded guilty in January to conspiring to corrupt public officials, including Ney.

In a statement released by his lawyers, Ney, 52, suggested that his criminal acts had been related to alcoholism.

"I have come to recognize that a dependence on alcohol has been a problem for me," said Ney, who friends say entered an alcohol-treatment facility this week. "I am not making any excuses, and I take full responsibility for my actions."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/285351_lobby16.html

Rep. Ney faces more than 2 years in prison

16 September, 2006 Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who has been at the center of an ongoing Justice Department investigation of former GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, could face up to 27 months in federal prison after agreeing to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of making false statements.

In the plea deal announced Friday, Ney admitted to influencing legislation on behalf of Abramoff clients in exchange for meals, campaign contributions, tickets and trips, including the now infamous golf trip to Scotland in 2002.

The Ohio Republican will appear before a federal judge on Oct. 13 for sentencing. The combined charges usually result in a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and a $500,000 fine, but federal prosecutors have agreed to recommend the 27-month sentence.

http://hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/091406/ney2.html

Effect of Ney's guilt could weigh heavily

16 September, 2006 WASHINGTON – Rep. Bob Ney's admission of guilt comes at a terrible time for Republicans, both in Ohio and nationally.

For the first time in months, GOP strategists had been enjoying a spate of good news and were starting to believe that the upcoming congressional elections may not be the disaster they were all dreading. But now, Ney bursts back into the news with sordid tales of taking thousands of dollars in poker chips from a Syrian businessman while accepting untold free trips, fancy meals and golf junkets from corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Just when they need it most, Democrats – courtesy of Ney – have been given a great opportunity to change the subject from national security back to Republican corruption.

bird cage liner

Rep. Bob Ney Will Not Seek Reelection

07 August, 2006 Rep. Robert W. Ney, the six-term Republican congressman from central Ohio implicated in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, announced this morning that that he will not seek re-election.

"After much consideration and thought I have decided today to no longer seek re-election in Ohio's 18th Congressional District," Ney said in a statement posted on his campaign Website. "I am extremely proud of my 25 years serving the people of Ohio. We've accomplished many things to make this state better and I will always be grateful for the trust my constituents put in me.

Ney has been identified as the accused but so far unindicted "Congressman A" in Abramoff's plea agreement. He has denied wrongdoing.

Ney has been under investigation by federal authorities in Florida and the District for actions that helped Abramoff and two partners buy a Fort Lauderdale-based casino cruise line. The deal that Ney promoted in the Congressional Record hinged on the Abramoff group's creation of a counterfeit $23 million wire transfer.

A Ney senior aide, who left Congress to join Jack Abramoff's lobbying team, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to corruptly influence Ney's official actions by showering him with gifts and trips.

Neil G. Volz, 35, a Ney confidant who spent seven years on the congressman's staff, joined Abramoff and three of his other former associates in agreeing to cooperate with the government and testify against Ney in the unfolding public corruption scandal on Capitol Hill.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/07/AR2006080700078.html

Guilty plea sharpens focus on Ney

09, May, 2006 A former top aide to Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy yesterday for his efforts to influence public officials to benefit clients of former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The development brings the lawmaker a step closer to being engulfed in the widening scandal.

Neil Volz, a former chief of staff to Ney, admitted to defrauding the public of the “honest services” of public officials by corruptly accepting and offering things of value in return for official actions, according to court documents. He also admitted to violating the one-year lobbying ban for former congressional staffers.

Volz served as communications director and chief of staff to Ney for more than seven years and so far is the closest person to Ney to make a plea deal with prosecutors. Two other former Abramoff associates, Michael Scanlon and Tony Rudy, along with Abramoff made plea agreements in the same government investigation last fall and earlier this year.

As in previous plea agreements, Ney is mentioned only as “Representative #1,” but the actions described have long been tied to the lawmaker. While Volz was working with Abramoff at law firm Greenberg Traurig, he, Abramoff and others offered Ney an all-expenses-paid trip to Scotland, frequent meals at Abramoff’s restaurants and tickets to events at Abramoff’s skyboxes in return for Ney’s taking actions that would benefit Abramoff’s clients.

“The purpose of the conspiracy was for [Volz] and his co-conspirators to unjustly enrich themselves by corruptly receiving, while public officials, and providing, while lobbyists, a stream of things of value with the intent to influence and reward official acts and attempting to influence Members of Congress in violation of the law,” the document said.

http://hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/050906/news3.html

Senate Questions Nonprofits' Tax Status

October 12,2006 WASHINGTON -- Five nonprofit groups, including one of President Bush's biggest supporters, may have broken tax laws and put their tax-exempt status at risk by helping convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a Senate Finance Committee report concludes.

The 600-page report issued Thursday was prepared by the committee's Democratic staff. Majority Republicans, however, had agreed to its release and joined with Democrats in issuing subpoenas for documents and e-mails cited in the report.

Among the groups named as possibly taking money from Abramoff clients and funneling it into his lobbying efforts on their behalf were Americans for Tax Reform, Citizens Against Government Waste and the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy.

Tax-exempt groups are barred by law from being paid to lobby or do public relations.

Americans for Tax Reform is headed by Grover Norquist, a key ally of Bush and a longtime associate of Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser.

The report said Norquist's group accepted $1.5 million from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, one of Abramoff's clients. More than two-thirds of that money was then passed to Christian Coalition founder Ralph Reed as part of Abramoff's lobbying efforts to block a rival tribe's proposed casino in Alabama.

Nell Rogers, a planner for the Choctaws, told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that the arrangement was never intended as a contribution to support ATR's general anti-tax work. She quoted Abramoff as saying Norquist's had instead agreed to be a conduit for getting money to Reed, provided that ATR got a fee.

Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the Senate Finance Committee's senior Democrat, said his staff turned up evidence showing the groups "may have improved a lobbyist's power and profits" by unlawfully exploiting their tax-exempt status, possibly even lobbying the White House.

Abramoff pleaded guilty in January to tax evasion and wire fraud. While awaiting sentencing, he is cooperating in a federal bribery investigation that has resulted in convictions against a congressman and the administration's top procurement officer.

Norquist's group and a second organization cited in the report denied any wrongdoing. They also questioned the timing of the report's release so close to Nov. 7 elections in which Republicans are trying to return their control of Congress.

"This is political nonsense put out by the Democrats in an inappropriate attempt to influence the election," said John Kartch, communications director for Americans for Tax Reform.

David Williams, a vice president of Citizens Against Government Waste, said it was "kind of suspicious that three weeks before an election, this comes out." The group named Baucus its monthly "porker" in October 2004 for adding drought relief to a domestic security bill.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061013/ap_on_go_co/abramoff_nonprofits_2

http://finance.senate.gov/press/Bpress/2005press/prb101206.pdf

Abramoff's use and misuse of nonprofits

There was the time he laundered money through a religious group's accounts to try to bribe a congressional aide. He diverted funds from a youth athletic foundation to bankroll a golf junket for a congressman and to bolster the bank account of his Washington restaurant. He used two other nonprofits to line his own pockets with millions of dollars defrauded from clients.

Charities are supposed to advance the public interest, which is why they aren't taxed. But Abramoff, by his own admission, used them to evade taxes, enrich himself and bribe public officials, according to a plea agreement he signed with federal prosecutors in January.

"One of the most disturbing elements of this whole sordid story is the blatant misuse of charities in a scheme to peddle political influence," said Mark Everson, commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.

Abramoff's Charity Began at Home The lobbyist admits he used nonprofits to evade taxes, pad his pockets and bribe officials.

Sen. Conrad Burns

Jack Bolender, a retiree who voted for three-term Sen. Conrad Burns because the Republican delivered mounds of federal aid to Montana, said he was deserting the incumbent in the state's November election. Allegations that Burns was cozy with Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist central to a wide-ranging corruption scandal in Washington, have Bolender steamed.

"I appreciate what [Burns] brought to the state, but at what cost?" Bolender said one cold afternoon outside Murdoch's. "We seem to be selling out to the special interests."

Voters such as Bolender are at the center of a political storm that threatens to roil this year's midterm elections. Democrats are trying to use the Abramoff scandal to tarnish Republicans. And there are few places where the effort is more intense than in Montana.

J. Steven Griles

Mr. Griles is waging a vigorous effort to avoid being charged in the Abramoff investigation. He has offered to meet with prosecutors, though so far they have declined. In emails that surfaced in a Senate inquiry, Mr. Abramoff referred to Mr. Griles as his "man" in the department that oversees Native American issues. Another Interior Department official last year told the Indian Affairs Committee that Mr. Griles showed unusual interest in such issues while serving as the department's chief of staff.

Barry M. Hartman is Mr. Griles's attorney.

David Safavian

Messrs. Abramoff and Rove shared a connection to Mr. Safavian. Mr. Safavian lobbied alongside Mr. Abramoff before applying for a job with the General Services Administration. On his GSA job application, Mr. Safavian listed Mr. Rove as a reference who could confirm he brought a group of Arab-Americans to a Bush 2000 outreach program in Austin, Texas.

Prosecutors have accused Mr. Safavian of giving Mr. Abramoff inside information from the GSA at a time when the lobbyist was seeking government leases for a client. They have also accused him of misleading ethics officers and investigators by saying Mr. Abramoff wasn't doing business with the GSA when the two men went to Scotland on a 2002 golfing trip.

Barbara Van Gelder is Mr. Safavian's attorney.

Ex-procurement chief gets 18 months in prison

October 27, 2006 Former federal procurement chief David Safavian was sentenced on Friday to 18 months in prison for lying and obstructing investigations into his dealings with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Safavian was convicted in June on four of five charges of lying to General Services Administration and Senate officials about his interactions with Abramoff while serving as the chief of staff at GSA, and obstructing a GSA inspector general investigation.

The 18-month sentence fell halfway between the defense's recommendation that he serve between zero and 12 months, and a Justice Department recommendation for 30 to 37 months. D.C. District Judge Paul Friedman also declined to impose a fine along with prison time, based on a pre-sentencing report that found Safavian's finances ruined by legal fees.

"I think since Mr. Safavian is going to serve some time in prison, to impose a fine is punishing Mrs. Safavian and perhaps other relatives," Friedman said.

The sentencing was complicated by questions of what guidelines should apply to each of the counts and potential adjustments to the term. Peter Zeidenberg, the lead prosecuting attorney, argued that the sentence should be extended because Safavian perjured himself while testifying during his trial. Defense attorney Barbara Van Gelder argued that the sentence should be shortened because her client accepted responsibility for his actions.

Friedman rejected the government's argument for a longer sentence. He conceded that "it was hard to believe some of what Mr. Safavian said" during the trial, such as his statement that he had not stopped to question the inordinately low costs that Abramoff quoted to him for a lavish trip to play golf in Scotland. But Friedman said there was gray area in the subjectivity of testimony centering on what Safavian believed, which separated the case from ones in which defendants had clearly lied about basic, objective facts of the case.

Friedman also rejected Van Gelder's argument for a lighter sentence, saying Safavian showed no sign of accepting responsibility for his crimes.

"My words cannot express how sorry I am for the actions at trial here," Safavian told the judge in an appeal for leniency. "I now see that there were appearance [of conflict of interest] issues with some of those actions...I brought notoriety to a good agency, and that makes me sad."

But Friedman said Safavian's statement, his trial testimony and his defense lawyer's briefings all reflected that he continued to consider his conduct itself innocent, viewing the problem as one of others' interpretation of his actions.

Friedman showed the most sympathy at the many appeals made by Safavian's friends and family, and he condemned attacks on Safavian's wife, Jennifer, who works as an aide to Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va.

The judge said he read each of the 50 to 60 letters submitted as character references by Safavian's friends, former colleagues, former subordinates, a fellow police department volunteer, and his grandmother, among others, and he found the universally positive accounts compelling. Safavian's sister also stood before the judge to plead for leniency on her brother's behalf; he cried as she said the convictions did not reflect who her brother really was.

But Friedman ultimately concluded that despite the many accounts of Safavian's upstanding morals, the facts did not merit a lighter sentence. "Mr. Safavian wasn't duped, he isn't naïve, he's smart," Friedman said during a lengthy discussion of his reasoning. "Did he believe in public service? I guess he did. But he also talked about one day wanting to join Mr. Abramoff -- join that lucrative lobbying business."

Linking Safavian's case to the corruption cases that have recently swamped Washington, Friedman said the city has become increasingly corrupt over the years.

"There was a time when people came to Washington asking not what they could do for themselves and their friends, but what they could do for the public," he said.

Safavian plans to request assignment to a prison in Cumberland, Maryland. He also intends to appeal his conviction, and his lawyer said she will argue that he be allowed to remain free on bond until the appeal is decided.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=35367&dcn=todaysnews

E-Mail Said to Link Abramoff, Safavian

A batch of 278 e-mails between lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a Bush administration official show a highly inappropriate relationship where gifts and business interests mixed freely and frequently, federal prosecutors said Friday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060415/ap_on_go_ot/lobbyist_probe

One message from Abramoff, sent July 23, 2002, asks Safavian, "golf Friday? golf Sunday? golf Monday? golf, golf, golf!!"

At the same time, Abramoff is peppering Safavian with questions and requests for his help on a variety of projects, including obtaining parcels of federal land that were managed by GSA for Abramoff's charitable groups.

"The e-mails demonstrate that Mr. Safavian's relationship with Mr. Abramoff was highly inappropriate," prosecutors wrote in a court filing accompanying the e-mails.

3 more lawmakers tied to Abramoff

Three members of Congress have been linked to efforts by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a former General Services Administration official to secure leases of government property for Abramoff's clients, according to court filings by federal prosecutors on Friday.

The filings in U.S. District Court do not allege any wrongdoing by the elected officials but list them in documents portraying David Safavian, a former GSA chief of staff, as an active adviser to Abramoff, giving the lobbyist tips on how to use members of Congress to navigate the agency's bureaucracy.

Safavian is charged with lying to a GSA ethics officer when he said Abramoff was not seeking business with the agency at the time the lobbyist paid for Safavian and several others to go on a golf outing to Scotland in August 2002.

At the time of the trip, prosecutors said, Abramoff was trying to get GSA approval for leases of the Old Post Office Pavilion in Washington for an Indian tribe to develop and for federal property in Silver Spring, Md., for use by a Jewish school.

Two of the elected officials referred to in Friday's filings have been identified in published reports as Reps. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, and Don Young, R-Alaska. According to Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, the two representatives wrote to the GSA in September 2002, urging the agency to give preferential treatment to groups such as Indian tribes when evaluating development proposals for the Old Post Office.

Friday's filings by prosecutors refer to a third member of Congress, Rep. Shelly Moore Capito, R-W.Va. Her name appears in e-mails that suggest she was trying to help Abramoff secure a GSA lease for land in Silver Spring for a religious school.

3 more lawmakers tied to Abramoff

House of Representatives

Speaker J. Dennis Hastert

Investigators Say Speaker’s Aide Hindered Inquiry of Hill Security Contracts

October 27, 2006 Two former House committee investigators who were examining Capitol Hill security upgrades said a senior aide to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert hindered their efforts before they were abruptly ordered to stop their probe last year.

The former Appropriations Committee investigators said Ted Van Der Meid, Hastert’s chief counsel, resisted from the start the inquiry, which began with concerns about mismanagement of a secret security office and later probed allegations of bid-rigging and kickbacks from contractors to a Defense Department employee.

Ronald Garant and a second Appropriations Committee investigator who asked not to be identified said Van Der Meid engaged in “screaming matches” with investigators and told at least one aide not to talk to them. Van Der Meid also prohibited investigators from visiting certain sites to check up on the effectiveness of the work, the investigators said.

Van Der Meid oversaw Capitol security upgrades for Hastert, R-Ill., and worked closely with the office that was charged with implementing them, the investigators said.

K. Lee Blalack, a lawyer for Van Der Meid, said Friday that neither he nor Van Der Meid would comment on the matter.

John Scofield, a spokesman for the Appropriations Committee, said the former investigators were taken off of the investigation, but denied that it was terminated.

“Nothing has been closed down on this study,” Scofield said. “It is a pending study.”

Scofield said it was a case of “sour grapes” because the investigators’ contracts were not renewed. He also said the case was assigned to more senior staff, whom he declined to identify.

The inquiry began in late 2003 or early 2004 and was authorized by former Appropriations Chairman C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., and the panel’s top Democrat, David R. Obey of Wisconsin. The probe focused on the office entrusted with ensuring continuity of Congress in the event of a terrorist or other attack. That office had grown from a sleepy Cold War relic to one that was spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on numerous security upgrades on and off Capitol Hill in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strikes and anthrax attacks the following month.

The investigation was carried out by members of the Appropriations panel’s Surveys and Investigations team, which looks into charges of waste and abuse.

Robert Pearre, the team’s director, ordered the investigators to stop their work on the security contracts in the fall of 2005. Before that, the investigators said they were looking into allegations that security contractors had showered a Defense Department employee with kickbacks in the form of Redskins tickets, golf outings, a set of golf clubs and meals. The allegations of kickbacks did not implicate congressional aides.

The investigators also said they were looking into concerns expressed by contractors that some of the security upgrades would fail to work in the event of a terrorist attack.

The office in charge of the upgrades was funded through the Defense Department and overseen by the Capitol Police Board, but the Speaker’s office took a lead role because of Hastert’s status as third in line to the presidency, the investigators said.

According to the investigators, Van Der Meid sought to stop their investigation shortly after it began.

“We got called into his office,” said Garant, who served previously in the Defense Department’s Comptroller’s Office before becoming an investigator for the Appropriations Committee. Van Der Meid shouted at them, Garant said: “What the [expletive] are you looking at this for? . . . He wanted to shut the operation down right then and there.”

According to the investigators, Van Der Meid was reluctantly persuaded to allow the inquiry into the security upgrades to go forward but continually hindered the investigators’ work.

“They had resisted all along,” the other investigator said about the Speaker’s office. Nonetheless the investigator said he was “stunned” when the inquiry was shelved about a year ago. Pearre, a former FBI agent, had strongly backed the inquiry until shortly before he ordered them to stop their work on it.

The order was “get out of there by sundown,” Garant said, referring to the secure offices they had used for the probe because of its sensitive nature.

Garant said the investigators believed that the Speaker’s office had successfully pressured appropriators to stop their inquiry. “From our perspective it was obvious. . . . The only people who would give a [expletive] was the Speaker’s office because this was an organization very close to them.”

Scofield said that neither Van Der Meid nor the Speaker’s office had ordered that the investigation be shut down.

Rob Nabors, the committee Democratic staff director, declined through a spokeswoman to comment for this story.

Lisa C. Miller, a spokeswoman for Hastert’s office, would not comment directly on Van Der Meid’s role in the investigation. “What I can tell you is what John Scofield has told you is what I know to be true,” she said. “Beyond that, everything else is highly classified.”

The investigation was launched under Young, who had a rocky relationship with House leaders, after the secret continuity office failed to spend more than $100 million before the appropriations expired, prompting an urgent and tardy request to have the money re-appropriated just as another Defense spending bill was being finalized.

The committee and its staff had to scramble to find room in the budget, and launched its investigation of the office.

Young said he does not recall the details surrounding the start of the inquiry.

The former Appropriations chairman said that after the Sept. 11 attacks his panel initially oversaw improvements to the Capitol Hill campus, including protective coatings that were added to windows to reduce the potential damage from a truck bomb. At some point, oversight of upgrades was taken over by House leadership, Young said.

“We were in effect put out of the process by the leadership office,” Young said. “The last two years of my chairmanship they basically cut me out of the loop.”

By the time the investigators said they were ordered to drop their work, Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., had taken over as Appropriations chairman amid expectations by House GOP leaders that he would be more of a team player than Young.

Unsuccessful bidders were the source of some, but not all, of the allegations of problems with the security contracts.

One would-be vendor complained that bid requests drawn up by the Army Corps of Engineers were drafted in such a way that only one contractor would be eligible for the work, Garant said.

“You don’t know how much of it was sour grapes and how much of it was real, but there was enough of it that you started to think there was something here,” Garant said.

Investigators said that in addition to allegations of bid-rigging and kickbacks, they were looking into allegations that some security upgrades would fail to work.

“The word was that what they were trying to do was physically or technically impossible to do but that they were spending a heck of a lot of money trying to do it,” said Garant.

The other investigator said he was told that “people are going to die” because the upgrades would fail to do the job.

“That whole organization was very, very secret and very few people even knew that it existed, but it was a great dispenser of money,” said Garant, who was dismissed in March from his position as a contract investigator.

The Appropriations Committee’s investigation team, formed in 1943, has been in turmoil for several years. The upheaval culminated last week in Chairman Lewis’ decision to dismiss all 60 remaining contractors on the investigative staff, which included many retired investigators from the FBI, CIA and other government agencies. A permanent staff of 16 remains.

Scofield said last week that the contractors’ dismissals were part of a “bipartisan review” of the staff, and said the staff’s work recently “has not been that good.”

Committee Democrats have not commented on the dismissals.

http://www.cq.com/public/20061027-spending.html

Dem says GOP's port bill tactics hurt bipartisan relations

The top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee says bipartisan relations on his panel have been damaged from the experience of pushing through a port security bill during last month's rush to recess for the fall elections.

House Homeland Security ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told CongressDaily "there's no question" that the process of finishing the bill strained bipartisan relationships on the committee, mainly because Democrats were not allowed to offer amendments during final conference negotiations.

Thompson's comments come about two weeks before the elections, in which Democrats across the country are fighting high-stakes battles with Republicans to win control of the House, with both sides using the issue of homeland security in their campaigns.

Thompson faulted Homeland Security Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., for not allowing Democrats to offer amendments. King told Democrats when conference negotiations began that it was his intention to allow them to offer amendments. But no follow-up meeting was ever held.

Thompson said he feels that King lied to him. "When a person tells you to your face that you will have an opportunity to offer an amendment and then just absolutely ignores his word, that damages all the good will that has gone before in the committee," Thompson said. "Most of us come to conference with only our word, and when you violate your word to another member that damages relationships."

When asked for a response, a spokesman for King said only, "These comments don't warrant a response."

Democrats intended to offer amendments to the bill that would have boosted funding for rail and transit security and lifted the cap on the number of passenger and baggage screeners that the Transportation Security Administration can employ.

"All Chairman King had to do was give us an opportunity to present our amendments, and if we lost, then so be it," Thompson said.

Republican leaders convened one formal House-Senate conference meeting that allowed full Democratic participation, but the text of the pending port security conference agreement was not available. So, lawmakers gave their opening statements but were not allowed to offer amendments.

But the next day Republican conferees, at the behest of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., attached a bill to stop banks and credit-card companies from processing payments to the $12 billion online gambling industry. The online gambling measure was a legislative priority of the Family Research Council and other conservative Christian groups who play a critical role in the GOP presidential nominating process.

Though angered by this last-minute maneuver, Democrats ultimately voted overwhelmingly to approve the port security bill, saying it was too important to oppose. The bill was signed into law earlier this month.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=35325&dcn=todaysnews

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter

Specter: FBI investigating senate aide

October 12, 2006 WASHINGTON -- Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter has acknowledged the FBI is looking into allegations that one of his aides illegally helped her lobbyist husband get federal dollars for his clients.

The Republican lawmaker on Wednesday provided The Associated Press a copy of a letter sent by the FBI in August to his office that said staff member Vicki Siegel Herson is under investigation in connection with allegations reported earlier this year.

USA Today first reported in February that Specter helped direct $48.7 million in Pentagon spending over the past five years to clients of the staff member's lobbyist husband, Michael Herson. Specter has said the institutions that ultimately got the money were represented by people not associated with Herson. He added that he was never lobbied by Herson or his firm.

Siegel Herson was Specter's legislative assistant for appropriations at the time.

Specter said the FBI asked for and received the findings of an internal investigation of the matter conducted by his former chief of staff.

Specter, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has denied violating any Senate ethics rules.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_BRF_Specter_Lobbyist.html

Specter Says Staffer Didn't Steer Funds To Husband

February 17, 2006 Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) yesterday denied a published report that suggested that one of his staffers may have helped her lobbyist husband get federal appropriations for his company's clients.

Responding to a story in USA Today, Specter conducted a telephone news conference to defend the actions of his office and of his former appropriations aide, Vicki Siegel Herson. He added, however, that his chief of staff would ask further questions about the situation and that he would refer the issue to the Senate ethics committee.

The newspaper reported that Specter claimed credit for securing 13 narrowly focused allocations, called earmarks, worth $48.7 million over the past four years for six clients represented by Michael Herson and the firm he co-founded, American Defense International.

Herson's wife, Vicki Siegel Herson, had been an appropriations aide to Specter, but six months ago took a one-day-a-week job in Specter's office dealing with issues related to Israel.

The senator said the appropriations went to Pennsylvania institutions, including $11 million for bioterrorism research at Philadelphia's Drexel University. He added that neither Herson nor his firm had lobbied his office, but rather that other firms had done the lobbying. In addition, he said that as far as he knew, Vicki Siegel Herson had not been involved in recommending that the senator push for the earmarks.

In addition, Specter said he was not lobbied personally by Herson. "I don't know that I would recognize him if he was in a crowded room," Specter said.

But given the controversy now swirling on Capitol Hill over earmarked appropriations, Specter said he intended to ask more questions. He said he is making an inquiry to see what information his staff had on the appropriations, what the competitive factors were and why the recommendations were made.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/16/AR2006021602043.html

Sex

Congresswoman on page board buried file on husband's child abuse allegation

A file allegedly suppressed by Congresswoman Heather Wilson (R-NM) has been obtained by RAW STORY.

In 1995, just three days into her tenure as Secretary of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, Wilson removed a routine working file alleging that her husband had engaged in inappropriate contact with a minor. The file was then transferred to the department's attorney in her own Albuquerque office, where it soon went missing.

At the time, a local investigative news team learned about the swap, but could not confirm certain details of the file. They were not able to recover the document itself.

More than ten years later, RAW STORY has uncovered and confirmed the authenticity of the police incident report believed to be contained in the missing dossier. Filed as a case of child abuse in 1993, it contends that Wilson's husband Jay Hone, an Albuquerque attorney, touched a then-16 year old boy "in a manner that was not welcome."

Charges were never filed against her husband, but Wilson's handling of the affair drew the ire of Bob Schwartz who at the time served as district attorney in Bernalillo County. He described Wilson's actions to the news team as "absolutely inappropriate," citing her "obvious conflict of interest." He also admonished Wilson for not following official procedure for the removal of official documents. "If this file is behind Secretary Wilson's desk," Schwartz said, "then she shouldn't be behind this desk anymore. She should resign."

Wilson originally denied to the news team that she had removed the file. Footage from that investigation was available on the internet site YouTube as recently as several days ago, but has since been removed by the site over concerns regarding copyright infringment.

In that video, also uncovered by RAW STORY, Wilson flatly denies ordering the removal of the document. The Congresswoman ultimately admitted to doing so in a press conference just days later.

Six years after the incident, in 2001, Wilson began a three year term on the House Page Board, where she sat while rumors of Mark Foley's inappropriate behavior with underage men were reportedly widespread. Her campaign staff told the Albuquerque Tribune that she only became aware of the Congressman's behavior after an ABC news report on the matter prompted him to resign.

Wilson also currently serves on the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's caucus.

RAW STORY spoke with members of Wilson's legislative and campaign staffs, but neither office was able to provide comment before press time.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Congresswoman_on_page_board_buried_file_1019.html

Bush campaigns for Pennsylvania congressman enmeshed in sex scandal

Don Sherwood, (R-Pa) in 2001 courtesy of the Congressman's office

October 19, 2006 LA PLUME, Pa. - He said she was "a casual acquaintance." She said they were extra-marital lovers, but told police that he tried to choke her. His wife says she forgives him. So does President Bush.

CAMPAIGN_SEX_SCANDALS.sff_WX102_20061021001054.jpg

In fact, Bush traveled to northeastern Pennsylvania Thursday to help the wayward husband, Republican Rep. Don Sherwood, keep his seat in Congress. Perhaps it's a measure of the Republicans' plight that the president would throw his prestige behind a candidate whose marital misbehavior conjures memories of Bill Clinton.

Sherwood's five-year fling with a woman half his age has all the elements of a bad soap opera, but voter reaction to his performance could help decide whether Republicans keep control of the House of Representatives. Polls show Sherwood trailing Democratic challenger Chris Carney in a district that had been considered a lock for the GOP.

"It looks like he's in pretty serious trouble," said Jonathan Williamson, chairman of the political science department at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa. "If they didn't need the seat so much, the national Republicans would cut Sherwood loose. This may be one of the firewalls - they have to have this one, even though they're not all that thrilled with their guy."

Bush gave Sherwood his wholehearted endorsement as he helped the candidate raise more than $300,000 at a fundraiser at Keystone College. The president addressed Sherwood's adultery head-on by praising the candidate's wife, Carol, for standing by him.

In a letter to voters last weekend, Carol Sherwood accused Carney of exploiting her family's trauma by casting the congressional election as a referendum on moral values.

"Chris Carney might be trying to make himself look squeaky clean, but we have all made mistakes we regret over the years," she wrote. "I am certainly not condoning the mistake Don made, but I'm not going to dwell on it, either."

Bush said he was "deeply moved" by her comments.

"Carol's letter shows what a caring and courageous woman she is," he said as the Sherwoods and one of the couple's three daughters looked on.

The congressman's marital misdeeds have become a frequent topic of discussion in his conservative, rural district, where the mountains are now covered with trees in shades of yellow, orange and red. Sherwood's problems started in September 2004, when Cynthia Ore called police to the congressman's Capitol Hill apartment claiming that he'd choked her for no apparent reason.

She was 29 at the time; he was 63.

Sherwood was never charged, and the matter attracted little attention until the following spring, when Ore threatened legal action and provided details of a relationship that Sherwood had initially denied. The two met in 1999 at a gathering for young Republicans.

"We had such good chemistry," Ore told the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. "I saw Don as a small-town all-American. He has that pink, rosy skin. When I first met him, he had those big glasses."

Sherwood, a wealthy car dealer, settled Ore's $5.5 million civil suit for an undisclosed sum, but his indiscretion continues to haunt him. Carney's efforts to exploit the scandal and the furor over former Rep. Mark Foley's sexually explicit Internet messages to congressional pages have added fuel to the issue.

Sherwood has all but pleaded for voters to forgive him.

"I made a mistake that nearly cost me the love of my wife, Carol, and our daughters. As a family, we've worked through this," he said in one of his television ads. "Should you forgive me, you can count on me to continue to fight for you and your family."

But some Republicans aren't ready to forget or forgive. Former Sherwood supporter Joseph Lech of Tunkhannock, Pa., Sherwood's hometown, vented his anger in an ad for Carney.

"This incident with Don Sherwood just cuts right at the core values of our district. I've spoken to my daughter about that incident, and she's disgusted by it," Lech says in the ad. "I love my daughter tremendously. How can I tell her that I support Don Sherwood and feel good about myself?"

Carney's efforts to benefit from his opponent's failings mirror Bush's references to Clinton's infidelity during the 2000 presidential campaign. Bush presented himself as a morally upright alternative to the outgoing president by repeatedly assuring voters that he would "uphold the dignity of the office."

Sherwood admittedly fell short of Bush's pledge, but White House spokesman Tony Snow noted the congressman's contrition in explaining the president's decision to campaign for him.

"Mr. Sherwood has certainly admitted to what has gone on, and the president believes that we're all sinners, we all seek forgiveness," Snow said last week.

Pressed on the issue again Thursday, Snow seemed eager to change the topic. He defended the president's visit, then said: "I'm not going to go any further."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15800056.htm

The Redder They Are, The Harder They Fall

Republicans More Damaged by Scandals

October 03, 2006 Sex scandals involving politicians are as old as Thomas Jefferson, but the outcome seems to depend on which party you represent. In recent years, for the most part, Democrats have been able to survive their sordid escapades while Republicans have paid with their political lives.

The latest example: Mark Foley, a Republican congressman from Florida, who abruptly became an ex-congressman from Florida last week amid revelations that he had sent sexually explicit e-mails to teenage boys who were serving as House pages.

Foley's creepy behavior might have done him in even if he'd been the most liberal of Democrats. But that's not assured. With a Republican at the center of the seamy scandal, however, it was almost a slam-dunk that Foley would have to quit.

That's how it usually turns out for members of the conservative, traditional-family-values party. Just ask Bob Livingston, Jack Ryan, Bob Packwood, Dan Crane or others in the GOP who've watched their careers go pffft! with salacious disclosures. Or ask Bill Clinton, Gerry Studds, Barney Frank and other Democrats who've withstood embarrassing revelations to govern another day.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/02/AR2006100201302.html

List of political sex scandals

http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=display&tsn=15&tid=21102&webtag=ab-usconservatv

Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.)

Committee Says GOP Left Foley Unchecked

Ethics Panel Faults Many, Punishes None

Now former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.)

December 09, 2006 The House ethics committee concluded yesterday that House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and his top staff probably knew for months, if not years, of then-Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate contact with former House pages but did nothing to protect the teenagers.

Top GOP House leaders also "failed to exercise appropriate diligence" in the matter, the committee's report found, and tried "to remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences of Foley's conduct." The ensuing scandal contributed to the Republicans' losses in the midterm elections. The report speculated that some officials were reluctant to act too aggressively for fear of exposing Foley's homosexuality or for political reasons.

But the ethics panel, officially known as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, decided against taking any action against the leaders, aides or House officials involved in the saga, declining even to describe their actions as bringing ill repute on the House.

"The requirement that Members and staff act at all times in a manner that reflects creditably on the House does not mean that every error in judgment or failure to exercise appropriate oversight and sufficient diligence establishes a violation" of House rules, the long-awaited report concluded.

The committee's bipartisan probe was launched two months ago after reports by ABC News that Foley, a Florida Republican, had sent sexually explicit online messages to male former House pages. The 89-page report is sharply critical of Hastert and his chief of staff, Scott Palmer, and chief counsel, Ted Van Der Meid.

The report also chides House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) for not showing sufficient curiosity in the matter, and retiring Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) is criticized for failing to divulge Foley's actions, both years before they were exposed and after they came to light.

Democratic aides are also criticized, for shopping around inappropriate Foley e-mails to media outlets as far back as November 2005, apparently for political gain.

To critics of Congress, the report's release in the final hours of the session is a fitting end to a Congress tainted by scandal, indictments and resignations. Next month, Hastert will take a seat in a new, Democratic-controlled House as a back-bench member of the minority.

"It is unfathomable that the ethics committee has held no member or staff member individually accountable for the manner in which the Foley scandal was handled in the House," said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a watchdog group.

Two former pages whose revelations added to the scandal expressed disappointment with the committee's decision not to discipline those who knew about Foley's behavior. One of the pages, involved in providing the first questionable e-mails to the media, said, "I'm surprised they aren't doing anything, but it's not shocking, given the lack of real accountability we've seen in Congress in general."

The other former page, whom Foley propositioned after the boy had left the page program, said, "My fear is that by not holding anyone accountable it sets a precedent that political fallout is more important than young people's safety."

Committee members of both parties defended their conclusions. "This is not the jerry-rigged result of a series of compromises," said Rep. Howard L. Berman (Calif.), the committee's ranking Democrat.

Hastert issued a statement late yesterday stressing that the investigation had uncovered no evidence that any House member, officer or employee, or any member of the media, knew of the overtly sexual instant messages that led to Foley's sudden resignation.

Much about Foley's courting of male pages has been made public, but the committee's report breaks new ground. As far back as 1995, the year Foley took office as part of the Republican takeover, Jeff Trandahl, then assistant clerk of the House, saw Foley as a nuisance for lavishing inordinate attention on pages. Trandahl, who would be elected clerk in 1999, testified that he thought of Kolbe, an openly gay House Republican who is retiring this year, the same way.

Peggy Sampson, the Republicans' chief page supervisor, said Foley's behavior gave her a "creepy feeling" for years. Evidence emerged that on two separate occasions, Foley went to the page dormitory late at night. In the first incident, before 2000, he was suspected of being intoxicated and was turned away by Capitol Police. In another incident, in June 2000, he reportedly appeared in his convertible during the pages' end-of-semester "all-night party" and sped off with at least two pages before supervising staff could react.

Perhaps the biggest revelations involved Kolbe. The Washington Post reported in October that one of his former pages had received a sexually explicit instant message from Foley, which the former page had shown to Kolbe as long ago as 2000. After the story appeared, Kolbe said that the contact was with his staff, not him, that he did not see it and that he was unaware it was explicit.

Kolbe's assistant, Patrick Baugh, told the committee that the former page had contacted Kolbe directly and that the former page revealed the explicit nature of the message.

Moreover, after the Foley matter exploded in the media, the former page contacted Kolbe again to ask whether he should divulge the instant message. He testified that Kolbe responded: "It is best that you don't even bring this up with anybody. . . . There is no good that can come from it if you actually talk about this."

In a statement, Kolbe said, "The report demonstrates that members of my office and I took prompt action in 2001 to address the complaint," by a college student from his district who had previously served as a House page. "I did not review a copy of the communication Congressman Foley sent . . . and I never knew whether or not it was sexually explicit," Kolbe said. "The simple fact that Foley had made the student feel uncomfortable was enough for me to take action by, among other things, notifying the Clerk of the House."

Another incident was also brought to light in the report. After the Foley matter became public on Sept. 29, The Post quoted Boehner saying that he had told Hastert that spring of concerns about Foley and that Hastert had said the matter was being taken care of. When the story appeared on The Post's Web site that night, Palmer, Hastert's chief of staff, contacted Boehner's chief of staff to discuss what the report called "the perceived inconsistency" between Boehner's story and Hastert's statement denying all knowledge of the concerns.

That led to a late-night strategy session of House GOP leaders in Boehner's office, which some members at the time feared was inappropriate because the case had been referred to the ethics committee.

Democrats receive their share of scrutiny in the report. In August 2005, a former page of Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) sent Alexander aide Danielle Savoy e-mails he had received from Foley asking him for a picture and asking what he wanted for his birthday. Savoy passed them on to a friend, who showed them to her boyfriend, Justin Field, who worked for the House Democratic Caucus.

Democratic Caucus communications director Matt Miller saw the e-mails as inappropriate, but rather than taking them to authorities, he shopped them to the press, first to the Miami Herald and the St. Petersburg Times that November, then to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. He also gave the e-mails to the communications director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, a point apparently validating Republican charges that senior Democrats were behind the revelation of Foley's conduct.

On the central question of Hastert's involvement, the committee firmly sided with Trandahl and former Foley chief of staff Kirk Fordham, who testified that they brought Foley's behavior to the attention of Palmer and of Hastert counsel Van Der Meid years ago. Fordham also testified that Palmer assured him he had brought the issue directly to the speaker in late 2002 or early 2003.

Trandahl said Palmer had told him: "I've talked to Kirk Fordham. I understand the problem. I'm on it." He said he remembered it "vividly."

Palmer testified repeatedly that he remembered no such meeting, and Hastert said he did not remember learning anything of the Foley matter.

But the committee found "the weight of the evidence supports" Fordham and Trandahl. Moreover, "the weight of the evidence supports the conclusion that Speaker Hastert was told, at least in passing, about the e-mails" by Boehner and Reynolds in spring 2006.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/08/AR2006120800908.html

Lawmaker Saw Foley Messages In 2000

Page Notified GOP Rep. Kolbe

October 09, 2006 A Republican congressman knew of disgraced former representative Mark Foley's inappropriate Internet exchanges as far back as 2000 and personally confronted Foley about his communications.

A spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) confirmed yesterday that a former page showed the congressman Internet messages that had made the youth feel uncomfortable with the direction Foley (R-Fla.) was taking their e-mail relationship. Last week, when the Foley matter erupted, a Kolbe staff member suggested to the former page that he take the matter to the clerk of the House, Karen Haas, said Kolbe's press secretary, Korenna Cline.

The revelation pushes back by at least five years the date when a member of Congress has acknowledged learning of Foley's behavior with former pages. A timeline issued by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) suggested that the first lawmakers to know, Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-Ill.), the chairman of the House Page Board, and Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), became aware of "over-friendly" e-mails only last fall. It also expands the universe of players in the drama beyond members, either in leadership or on the page board.

A source with direct knowledge of Kolbe's involvement said the messages shared with Kolbe were sexually explicit, and he read the contents to The Washington Post under the condition that they not be reprinted. But Cline denied the source's characterization, saying only that the messages had made the former page feel uncomfortable. Nevertheless, she said, "corrective action" was taken. Cline said she has not yet determined whether that action went beyond Kolbe's confrontation with Foley.

In interviews with The Post last week, multiple pages identified Kolbe as a close friend and personal confidante who was one of the only members of Congress to take any interest in them. A former page himself, Kolbe offered to mentor pages and kept in touch with some of them after they left the program, according to the interviews.

Kolbe once invited four former pages to make use of his Washington home while he was out of town, according to an instant message between Foley and another former page, Jordan Edmund, in January 2002. The pages planned to attend a first-year reunion of their page class. But because of a snowstorm, they did not take Kolbe up on his offer, according to one of the four pages.

Kolbe, the only openly gay Republican in Congress, is retiring at the end of the year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/08/AR2006100800855.html

Mark Foley claims being molested as teen

Roth, who spoke for Foley while the congressman is in rehab for alcohol abuse and mental illness, said Foley denied having inappropriate sexual contact with minors and said he was under the influence of alcohol when he wrote the notes.

The lurid communications were first reported last week by ABC News, which released more instant messages Tuesday that indicate Foley allegedly interrupted a vote on the House floor to chat online with a teen.

"I miss you," Foley said in one message, according to ABC.

"ya me too," the teen replied.

"we are still voting," Foley responded.

Roth said Foley was never under the influence of alcohol while conducting business on Capitol Hill. He could not explain his previous comments that Foley was intoxicated at the time he sent all the messages.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153AP_Congressman_E_Mails.html

Foley Saga No Shock to Some

The Florida Republican was known to have an interest in younger men, Capitol Hill workers say.

October 03, 2006 WASHINGTON — Years before sexually explicit electronic messages sent by Rep. Mark Foley to teenage House pages became public last week, some on Capitol Hill say, the Florida Republican was known to have a special interest in younger men.

In interviews with the Los Angeles Times, several current and former congressional employees and others said they recalled Foley approaching young male pages, aides and interns at parties and other venues.

"Almost the first day I got there I was warned," said Mark Beck-Heyman, a San Diego native who served as a page in the House of Representatives in the summer of 1995. "It was no secret that Foley had a special interest in male pages," said Beck-Heyman, adding that Foley, who is now 52, on several occasions asked him out for ice cream.

Another former congressional staff member said he too had been the object of Foley's advances. "It was so well known around the House. Pages passed it along from class to class," said the former aide, adding that when he was 18 a few years ago and working as an intern, Foley approached him at a bar near the Capitol and asked for his e-mail address.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-foley3oct03,0,7011268.story?track=mostviewed-homepage

Foley's Exchange With Underage Page

e-mail http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Congressman_accused_of_sending_sick_emails_0928.html

im http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/BrianRoss/story?id=2509586&page=1

Hastert's staff first knew of Foley emails in 2005

SGE.TPB62.041006002139.photo02.quicklook.default-167x245.jpg

October 01, 2006 House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-Ill.) staff was first informed of Rep. Mark Foley’s (R-Fla.) unusual email exchange with a 16-year old page in the fall of 2005, according to a timeline released by the Speaker’s office Saturday afternoon.

Hastert’s chief of staff Scott Palmer and outside counsel Randy Evans initiated an internal investigation Friday shortly after Foley announced his resignation. The timeline is based on their preliminary report, according to the release.

The release of the timeline comes on the heels of a statement by National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.) on Saturday that the campaign chief first told the Speaker about the email exchange earlier this year, shortly after the race to succeed former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

The Speaker’s office does not dispute that conversation in its own release.

"While the Speaker does not explicitly recall this conversation, he has no reason to dispute Congressman Reynolds’ recollection that he reported to him on the problem and its resolution," states the release.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) learned of some "contact" this spring between Foley and the page. The paper quoted Boehner as saying he told Hastert and that the Speaker assured him "we’re taking care of it."

http://hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/092806/foley2.html

Amid growing scandal, Rep. Foley resigns

September 29, 2006 Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) announced Friday that he has resigned from Congress amid allegations that he exchanged sexually explicit e-mails and instant messages with a former 16-year-old page.

"Today I have delivered a letter to the Speaker of the House informing him of my decision to resign from the U.S. House of Representatives, effective today," Foley said in a statement issued by his congressional office. "I thank the people of Florida's 16th Congressional District for giving me the opportunity to serve them for the last twelve years; it has been an honor. I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent."

Foley, who served on the Ways and Means Committee, also chaired the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus. Earlier this year, he sponsored legislation overhauling sex offender and notification laws that passed Congress and was signed into law.

http://hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/092806/foley.html

ABC News reported Friday that Foley also engaged in a series of sexually explicit instant messages with current and former teenage male pages. In one message, ABC said, Foley wrote to one page: "Do I make you a little horny?"

In another message, Foley wrote, "You in your boxers, too? … Well, strip down and get naked."

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2510058&page=2

The first e-mail messages to one male page, sexually suggestive but not explicit, were reported by ABC News on Thursday. Mr. Foley, a member of the House Republican leadership, dismissed them as “overly friendly” but not inappropriate.

But by Friday, other pages had come forward with more blatant instant messages. “What ya wearing?” Mr. Foley wrote to one, according to the network. “Tshirt and shorts,” the teenager responded. “Love to slip them off of you,” Mr. Foley replied.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/us/30foley.html?hp&ex=1159588800&en=46724e8fe6d64c22&ei=5094&partner=homepage

The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released its second annual report on the most corrupt members of Congress.

http://www.beyonddelay.org/

California's `Big 6': Masters of the New Lobbying Game

Welcome to the new world of congressional committee chairs, their aides, friends and lobbyists.

It is a cozy world where personal relationships count for millions of dollars and a latter-day "Triangle Trade" has developed among powerful committee chieftains (who are expected to raise vast sums in campaign contributions), business and other interests (which seek favorable treatment), and lobbyists (who can make a fortune bringing the two parties together).

It is also a world dominated by a few California Republicans.

Despite the state's predilection for voting Democratic, six of its 20 Republican Congress members are chairmen of major committees. Their rise has brought millions of federal dollars and other benefits to parts of the state. Thomas snagged about $755 million for his district in last year's highway bill. Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, tucked $4.25 million for his district into one recent spending bill — more than the individual allocations for 11 states.

Some congressional leaders, however, have grown so close to well-connected lobbyists and have been so aggressive in channeling tax dollars to favored interests that their activities have sparked scrutiny and calls for reform. One California chairman, Lewis, is the subject of a federal grand jury investigation.

The November elections will decide whether five of California's "Big Six" chairmen — Thomas is retiring at the end of the year — continue to hold their powerful positions. The others are: Lewis; Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) of Armed Services; Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) of Education and the Workforce; Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas) of Rules; and Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy) of Resources.

dog trainer

Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands

House ethics panel okays Shockey buyout

September 23, 2006 The House ethics committee has ruled that Jeffrey Shockey, the deputy chief of staff of the House Appropriations Committee, did not violate the law or House rules by accepting a $1.96 million severance package from his former employer, the lobbying firm Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez, Denton & White. But it also warned him to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

The firm has since broken up into two groups under the pressure of allegations that it had improper ties to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.). The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles is reportedly examining the relationship between Lewis and the firm, which specializes in winning federal spending earmarks for clients.

Shockey made headlines earlier this year when he revealed in a financial disclosure report the size of his compensation package he agreed to in January of 2005 as he was preparing to work on the Hill.

http://hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/092106/ethics.html

A close-knit circle of money, power. Contractor adds layer to Rep. Lewis' sphere

When defense contractor Nicholas Karangelen launched a political action committee directed by the stepdaughter of the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, he added another dimension to a tight circle of Capitol Hill relationships that is under federal investigation.

The relationships revolve around Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, who leads the Appropriations Committee and has extraordinarily close ties to lobbyists Letitia White and Bill Lowery.

White worked for Lewis for 21 years before joining Lowery's lobbying firm in 2003. Lowery, a former San Diego congressman who sat on the Appropriations Committee, is one of Lewis' closest friends and his principal fundraiser. Companies that hire the two lobbyists, including Karangelen's Virginia-based Trident Systems Inc., follow a pattern that has become common Capitol Hill practice in recent years.

They make substantial investments in lobbying fees and campaign contributions to key legislators, then wait for their projects to be tucked into bills in line-items known as earmarks. Trident's projects involve software programs that Karangelen's engineers develop for military use.

In Karangelen's case, the contractor-lobbyist-legislator connection has taken on several more layers of financial ties and political connections.

White became Trident's lobbyist in February 2003, a month after she left Lewis' office, where she had helped Lewis shape the earmarking of the Pentagon's budget.

In April, $8.4 million in earmarks for a Trident project were inserted into an emergency spending bill to fund the war in Iraq. The project used digital maps and laptop computers to improve troops' ability to monitor changing battlefield conditions.

Just eight months later, Karangelen and White bought a $1 million Capitol Hill townhouse together. The house eventually became the address for a political action committee they launched to encourage congressional support for small businesses like Trident that seek Pentagon contracts.

They chose Lewis' stepdaughter, former Las Vegas wedding planner Julia Willis-Leon, to be director of the Small Biz Tech Pac. The PAC has paid Willis-Leon $42,000 of the $115,000 it has raised. Meanwhile, it has directed just $15,600 to political campaigns.

The PAC's biggest contributors have been Letitia White and her husband, who also lobbies on behalf of defense contractors. They contributed $15,000, while Karangelen kicked in $10,000, and other White clients added $11,500.

According to Trident's former chief financial officer, Karangelen has yet another financial tie with White: He has arranged to pay her a bonus based on the company's profitability. The former executive spoke on the condition that her name not be used, saying publicity would complicate her job search given the controversy swirling around the company.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060624/news_1n24cozy.html

FBI widens Lewis probe

Former defense contractor Tom Casey, who accused Rep. Jerry Lewis this week of trying to trade his influence for favors and stock options, is either a subject of the same federal investigation or should be, a former employee said Thursday. Meanwhile, the FBI has widened its probe of Lewis' ties to lobbyists Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White to include Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona.

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3916048

In San Diego, an engineer who used to work for Casey at Audre Recognition Systems Inc., said Casey violated campaign contribution law in his efforts 13 years ago to gain favor with Lewis and the House appropriations panel.

"If I was the federal government, I'd be investigating him," Dirk Holland said of Casey. "I worked with him six years. He used to encourage employees to make campaign contributions, and the company refunded them. That's illegal ...

"It was always suspicious why a small company like ours, 60 people at most, got so much attention from congressmen. (Randy "Duke") Cunningham, Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine), Jerry Lewis, even Pete Wilson, the governor at the time. They all came to visit."

Casey also landed a $3 million contract through Hunter and General Dynamics that was unusually profitable, Holland said.

"He got the money, but he never delivered any software," Holland said. "There was never an investigation."

Holland worked with Casey in the 1990s when another defense contractor, Brent Wilkes, came to Audre Inc. Wilkes has ties to former Rep. Cunningham, R-San Diego, who was sentenced to eight years in prison in March after he pleaded guilty to accepting $2.4 million in bribes.

While federal investigators attempt to go quietly about their business in a criminal probe of D.C.-based California lawmakers and deep-pocket lobbyists, elected leaders and influence peddlers are still openly proclaiming mutual admiration for each other.

The 2006 executive committee for California State Society, a social organization that gives parties in the nation's capital, includes representatives for several lawmakers and lobbyists who have gained unwanted attention in recent months.

Among those maintaining a presence on the executive committee are:

Lewis, whose ties to a lobbying firm are a focus of an investigation that grew out of the probe that eventually sent Cunningham to prison.

Copeland Lowery, the influential K Street (Washington) lobbying firm, whose founder, Lowery, is close friends with Lewis.

Calvert, whose finances are under investigation in the same federal probe examining ties between Lewis and Copeland Lowery.

Platinum Advisors, a Sacramento lobbying firm contracted by San Bernardino County. Last year, an independent investigator found Platinum Advisors lobbyist Brett Granlund involved himself in negotiations for the county's $28 million purchase of a privately-owned jail facility. Granlund represented both the buyer of the jail -- the county -- and the seller of the jail -- Terry Moreland of Bakersfield.

Also on the society's executive committee are representatives for:

Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, a leader of California's 53-member Republican delegation in Congress.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, one of the Democratic Party's most outspoken critics of the Bush administration.

House Majority Leader John Boehner

A White House aide who was once chief of staff to House Majority Leader John Boehner helped plan a 1996 trip to the Northern Mariana Islands that was organized by fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff, billing records from Abramoff’s firm show.

Barry Jackson, now chief deputy to White House adviser Karl Rove, accepted an invitation to travel to the island of Saipan in April 1996 but later decided not to go, White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said Tuesday.

Boehner spokesman Don Seymour said Tuesday that Boehner now does recall meeting Abramoff once, in “a brief, incidental conversation at a widely attended event that he estimates was about five years ago.”

In an e-mail to the AP, Seymour also said Boehner did not intentionally downplay Jackson’s role on his staff.

Boehner has declined to give up more than $30,000 he got from Abramoff’s Indian tribe clients, saying his own work on tribal issues justifies the contributions. He did not receive any money from the tribes until Abramoff represented them.

Rep. William Jefferson

In January, former Jefferson aide Brett Pfeffer pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges, saying Jefferson demanded money in exchange for help in brokering two African telecommunications deals.

Vernon Jackson, chief executive of iGate Inc., a Louisville, Ky., telecommunications firm, subsequently pleaded guilty to bribery, admitting he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to Jefferson and his family members in exchange for the congressman's help obtaining business deals in Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon.

The House Ethics Committee has opened an inquiry into the case.

http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20060522v

Kenneth Starr

Kenneth Starr failed to bring the Whitewater Tax Scam to resoulotion. He failed to in his bid to impeach Clinton for his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.

political contributions

Alleged misconduct

Though his judicial reputation earned him popularity for three and a half years after his appointment[citation needed], particularly after his aggressive emphasis on confronting political corruption in Arkansas - culminating in the successful fraud prosecution of then-sitting Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker and Clinton real estate investment partners James and Susan McDougal.

Starr was accused of doing the bidding of Richard Mellon Scaife, who had funded a position at Pepperdine University that Starr first accepted but later relinquished. (He now holds a different position at Pepperdine.) Rumors began spreading that members of Starr's staff were gay, and Doug Ireland alleged in The Nation that White House aide Sidney Blumenthal was spreading them.[7] Susan McDougal, in the book and film documentary The Hunting of the President, alleges that Starr's office pressured her to lie under oath in order to back up its allegations against Clinton.

Most importantly, the now-defunct monthly magazine Brill's Content accused Starr's office of leaking grand jury testimony in violation of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, based in part on editor Stephen Brill's interview with Starr himself. Acting on motions of Clinton defense attorneys, US District Court Judge Norma Holloway Johnson ordered an investigation into whether Starr's office had improperly leaked grand jury information (July 1998). She further authorized President Clinton's lawyers to conduct the investigation, by subpoenaing and questioning Starr and members of his staff under oath. The federal appeals court in Washington reversed Judge Johnson's decision and said that any investigation would have to be conducted by a court-appointed Special Master, not by President Clinton's lawyers. Throughout, Starr's office maintained that the information alleged to have been leaked was not uniquely available to it, but was also possessed by Clinton's lawyers, who monitored the grand jury through witnesses' lawyers participation in a joint defense arrangement, and who may have strategically leaked it in order to neutralize the damage and at the same time to blame Starr. After an investigation, a Special Master concluded that no evidence indicated that Starr's office had unlawfully leaked grand jury information. During the leak investigation, however, Charles Bakaly, spokesman for Starr's office, resigned (March 11, 1999). He was later charged with having signed a false affidavit, but acquitted at trial (Oct. 6, 2000). Critics such as Joe Conason and Gene Lyons maintain that the Starr office systematically leaked grand jury information to the press.

Starr's investigation eventually led to the impeachment of President Clinton, with whom Starr shared Time Magazine's Man of the Year designation for 1998. President Clinton was acquitted on both articles of impeachment by the Senate and continued to serve the rest of his term.

Starr's lengthy investigations forced Clinton and his staffers to devote many days and hours responding to requests from the Office of Independent Counsel. Critics of Starr's investigations charged that that years of depositions, subpoenas and court hearings demanded by Starr's office distracted the Clinton White House from devoting full attention to the problem of terrorism and the growing threat of the Al Qaeda organization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Starr

From Whitewater to Blackwater: Ken Starr, the Mercenaries' New Lawyer

Blackwater USA, the private military contractor in the Bush Administration's "war on terror," has a new lawyer working to defend it against a ground-breaking wrongful death lawsuit brought by the families of four of its contractors killed in Iraq. The new "counsel of record" for the North Carolina-based company is none other than former Whitewater investigator Kenneth Starr--the independent counsel in the 1999 impeachment of President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Starr was brought in last week by Blackwater to file motions in front of the US Supreme Court in a case stemming from the killing of four Blackwater contractors in the Iraqi city of Fallujah on March 31, 2004.

"I think that Blackwater has brought in Kenneth Starr to somehow leverage a political connection to help them succeed in a case where they can't win on the merits," says Marc Miles, an attorney for the families of the Blackwater contractors. Starr takes over from Blackwater's previous counsel, Greenberg Traurig, the influential Washington law firm that once employed lobbyist Jack Abramoff. "They bring in all these big-time lawyers from nationwide firms with hundreds of attorneys. Blackwater is really painting this David and Goliath picture themselves."

In the lawsuit, originally filed in January 2005 in state court in North Carolina, the families of the men argue that Blackwater cut corners in the interest of profits, and sent the men into Fallujah without proper personnel, armored vehicles and adequate weapons. The men were ambushed, their vehicles burned and their charred bodies hung from a bridge. The incident sparked the first US siege of Fallujah, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Iraqis and the destruction of the city.

Since the suit was first filed, Blackwater has fought rigorously in various courts to have the case dismissed or moved to federal court. On August 24 the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Blackwater's appeal, paving the way for a trial in state court in North Carolina. Lawyers for the four families believe they will have a more favorable playing field in state court, where there is no cap on damages and the families would not need a unanimous decision to win.

Starr's name first appeared in connection with the case in Blackwater's October 18, 2006, petition to US Chief Justice John Roberts asking for a "stay" in the state case while Blackwater prepared to file its petition for writ of certiorari, which if granted would allow Blackwater to argue its case for dismissal before the US Supreme Court, now dominated by Republican appointees. Starr and his colleagues argued that Blackwater is "constitutionally immune" from such lawsuits and said that if the Fallujah case is allowed to proceed, "Blackwater will suffer irreparable harm." In the eighteen-page petition to the Supreme Court, Blackwater argued that there are no other such lawsuits against private military/security companies in state courts "because the comprehensive regulatory scheme enacted by Congress and the President grant military contractors like Blackwater immunity from state-court litigation."

Blackwater asserts that its mercenaries, and other private contractors, are part of the US "Total Force" constituting "its warfighting capability and capacity...in thousands of locations around the world, performing a vast array of duties to accomplish critical missions." Therefore, the company says, the only remedy available to the families of security or military contractors killed or injured in Iraq is the federal government's taxpayer-funded insurance program, known as the Defense Base Act. The actual number of private contractors killed in Iraq is impossible to verify because there is no official tally. According to the Labor Department, at least 647 private contractors died in Iraq between March 1, 2003, and September 30, 2006. Under the government insurance program, the maximum death benefits available to the families of the contractors is limited to $4,123.12 a month. The lawsuit against Blackwater could result in much greater payments to the families of the four men killed in Fallujah--but from Blackwater, not US taxpayers. Attorney Miles says that Blackwater has attempted to use the federal Defense Base Act as "essentially insurance to kill."

Citing the numerous court battles Blackwater has lost in this case--from attempting to get it dismissed to fighting for a change of jurisdiction--Starr and his colleagues appealed to Justice Roberts, writing, "This Court is therefore Blackwater's last resort." On October 24 Justice Roberts simply wrote "denied" on Blackwater's application, providing no reasoning for his decision.

This outcome was not unpredictable, and it is not the last appeal Blackwater will make before the Supreme Court. The company is expected to file its full motion for a review of its case at the Court, possibly within days. In their petition, Starr and his colleagues also alluded to a fear that this lawsuit, similar to early tobacco litigation, could send shock waves through the war-profiteering community: "[I]f companies such as Blackwater must factor the defense costs of state tort lawsuits into the overall costs of doing business in support of US 'public works' contracts overseas...American taxpayers will pay more for less operational results." Blackwater has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars a year in federal contracts, and was accused in a 2005 government audit of trying to include profit in its overhead and its total costs, which would have resulted "not only in a duplication of profit but a pyramiding of profit since in effect Blackwater is applying profit to profit."

There are undeniable benefits to having Starr, the US Solicitor General under President George H.W. Bush, represent Blackwater--a highly partisan GOP company--in front of a Supreme Court stacked with Bush appointees. Starr also has a personal connection to Blackwater. Starr and Joseph Schmitz, the general counsel and chief operating officer of Blackwater's parent company, the Prince Group, have both worked closely with the arch-conservative Washington Legal Foundation. Since 1993 Starr has served on the legal policy advisory board of the organization for which Schmitz has frequently acted as a spokesperson and attorney.

In April 2006, in the midst of the battle over whether Blackwater could remove the Fallujah case to federal court, the foundation issued a "legal backgrounder" arguing that "regulating conduct on a foreign battlefield is a matter of foreign affairs where state law should not interfere.... Both the Courts and Congress can play a role...by affording battlefield contractors the procedural protection of removal to a federal venue when faced with a tort action alleging negligence while supporting our Armed Forces overseas." Schmitz, whom Blackwater also listed for the first time as an attorney on the Fallujah case in its Supreme Court filing, is the former Pentagon Inspector General once responsible for overseeing companies operating in Iraq, including Blackwater. He left the Pentagon in 2005 amid mounting accusations that he stonewalled investigations.

Stephen Gillers, a professor of legal ethics at New York University, says that the fact that Starr is a "Republican lifelong supporter of the party and perhaps even a friend of some of the justices is not going to help" in the case. (In the 1980s, Starr served with Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.) "Ken's Republican credentials and his friendships are not going to help him in this court," Gillers says. "What's going to help them is their respect for his intelligence and his creativity in trying to persuade them to do what his client wants." Despite Blackwater's new high-profile lawyer and the conservative dominance of the Supreme Court, attorney Marc Miles predicts that Blackwater's appeals will be rejected and that ultimately the company will face trial. "The real irreparable damage to Blackwater is that the truth will come out," Miles says. Starr did not immediately return calls requesting comment.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061113/whitewater_to_blackwater

Bogus letters sent to governor asking to spare client's life

Lawyers for a death row inmate, including former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr, sent fake letters from jurors asking California's governor to spare the man's life, prosecutors said Friday.

The jurors denied they thought Michael Morales deserved clemency because some of the testimony at his trial may have been fabricated, said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

Kenneth Starr is best known as the special prosecutor in the Monica Lewinsky affair during President Bill Clinton's administration.

"We showed each person the declaration on their behalf and they all said they didn't say that," Barankin said.

San Joaquin County prosecutor Charles Schultz also said the letters sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week were "untrue" and "pure fiction."

White Water Tax Scam

Monica Lewinsky affair

Religious related

also see Mt. Soledad Cross

'Dr. Dino' guilty on all counts

Couple could get more than 200 years

Pensacola evangelist and tax protester Kent Hovind winked at his wife and gave her a reassuring smile as he was led away to jail.

Jo Hovind clutched the necktie he had been wearing. She kept her eyes on her husband until he was out of sight.

A 12-person jury deliberated for 2½ hours on Thursday before finding the couple guilty of all counts in their tax-fraud case.

Kent Hovind, founder of Creation Science Evangelism and Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola, was found guilty of 58 counts, including failure to pay $845,000 in employee-related taxes. He faces a maximum of 288 years in prison.

Jo Hovind was charged and convicted in 44 of the counts involving evading bank-reporting requirements. She faces up to 225 years in prison but was allowed to remain free pending the couple's sentencing on Jan. 9.

Kent Hovind briefly held onto her arm as the verdict was read. Neither reacted at first. But minutes later, she held her face in her hands.

"Nobody likes to pay taxes," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Heldmyer said in her closing argument. "But we do because it's the law, and he is not above the law."

The jury also granted the prosecution's request for the Hovinds to forfeit $430,400. That amount equals the value of the checks signed and cashed by Jo Hovind in the 44 counts.

U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers released Jo Hovind until sentencing but denied Kent Hovind's request to be released. He most likely will be detained at either Escambia County Jail or Santa Rosa County Jail until sentencing.

Heldmyer said Kent Hovind was a flight risk and a "danger to the community."

His attorney, Alan Richey, argued that the Internal Revenue Service pursued his client because of his religious beliefs.

Kent Hovind, whose life's mission is to debunk evolution, says he and his employees are workers of God and therefore exempt from paying taxes. He pays his employees in cash and does not withhold their taxes or pay his share as an employer.

"There's a difference between wrong and committing a crime," Richey said in his closing argument. "You can do all the wrong things you want and still not commit a crime."

Jo Hovind's attorney, Jerold Barringer, argued that his client was a simple piano teacher and grandmother who was not aware of bank-reporting regulations concerning large amounts of cash. Any cash transaction at a bank more than $10,000 triggers a currency-transaction report forwarded to the IRS. She was found guilty of using several methods to take out just enough money to avoid triggering the report.

The Hovinds and their attorneys declined comment. Their supporters, who took up most of the six rows in Rodgers' courtroom, dwindled in number as the day went on.

Jo Hovind's son, Kent Andrew Hovind, and two women escorted her out of the U.S. District Courthouse in downtown Pensacola.

Richard Hogan, an acquaintance of Kent Hovind who observed the last day of the two-week trial, said he felt especially bad for Jo Hovind.

"He was the leader, and she probably went along with him," said Hogan, 53. He first met the Hovinds when their children were homeschooled.

"It's pretty tough to fight Goliath," Hogan said. "The first time the IRS calls, you should go ahead and deal with it. It didn't have to come down to this."

http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061103/NEWS01/611030338/1006

Pat Robertson

The Christian Coalition founder and former GOP presidential candidate has said American agents should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for pulling Israel out of the Gaza Strip.

Robertson started out as a Southern Baptist, but today he is a charismatic evangelical and believes that God is involved in guiding world events, said Barry Hankins, professor of history and church-state studies at Baylor University. He tries to interpret contemporary events as "being part of the drama of God's activity in the world."

"He puts the most fantastic spin on things to have a gripping quality about them to keep the ground troops alert," Hankins said.

On the other hand, Brian Britt, director of the Religious Studies Program at Virginia Tech, said Robertson's remarks aren't just "off-the-wall, crazy uncle stuff" but part of a strategy that earns him headlines.

When people attack Robertson, he wins sympathy for appearing to be an underdog, Britt said.

"It reinforces an image of Christianity as a persecuted religion, a religion that is being hounded by the secularists out of the public square, rather than a dominant and hegemonic force," Britt said.

Brent Wilkes

Lawmaker steered wasteful contracts to friends

Congressman in prison for bribery

October 18, 2006 THE NEW YORK TIMES -- WASHINGTON -- Former Congressman Randy Cunningham pressured and intimidated staff members of the House Intelligence Committee to help steer more than $70 million in classified federal business to favored military contractors, according to a congressional investigation made public Tuesday.

The investigation found that Cunningham, a Republican from California who is serving an eight-year prison sentence for bribery, repeatedly abused his position on the Intelligence Committee to authorize money for military projects, often over the objections of committee staff members who criticized spending as wasteful.

The report also found that despite numerous "red flags" about the propriety of a particular contract for work on a controversial Pentagon counterintelligence program, committee staff members for three years "continued to accept and support Cunningham's growing requests for this project."

Cunningham resigned from Congress in November after pleading guilty to accepting more than $2 million in bribes from military contractors. His plea was mainly related to his activities as a member of the House Appropriations Committee.

The report released Tuesday lays out for the first time how Cunningham won secret contracts for two friends, Brent R. Wilkes and Mitchell J. Wade, both contractors.

Lawyers for Cunningham and Wade declined to comment on the report. A lawyer for Wilkes could not be reached.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/289039_duke18.html

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061018/news_1n18duke.html

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/cunningham/images/061017commiteereport.pdf

Contractor tells how he learned to lobby

Brent Wilkes

06 August, 2006 – In 1992, Brent Wilkes rented a suite at the Hyatt Hotel a few blocks from the Capitol. In his briefcase was a stack of envelopes for a half-dozen congressmen, each packet containing up to $10,000 in checks.

Wilkes had set up meetings with the lawmakers hoping to win a government contract, and he planned to punctuate each pitch with a campaign donation. But his hometown congressman, Rep. Bill Lowery, R-San Diego, told him that presenting the checks during the sessions was not how things were done, Wilkes recalled.

Instead, Wilkes said, Lowery taught him the right way to do it: Hand over the envelope in the hallway outside the suite, at least a few feet away.

That was the beginning of a career built on what Wilkes calls “transactional lobbying,” which made him rich but also landed him in the middle of a criminal investigation.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060806/news_1n6wilkes.html

Duncan Hunter

“John Karpovich, who helped run the document conversion program at the Defense Department before his retirement, said Wilkes infuriated Pentagon staff by claiming that the document conversion money belonged to him,” reported the Washington Post.

"Brent came in and said, 'That's our money,"' Karpovich recalled. "He said, 'The congressmen put the money in there for us."'

Karpovich was reluctant to talk with us, but conceded he’d watched the deal being put together by Bent Wilkes, House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, and the just-deposed No. 3 man at the CIA, Dusty Foggo.

“Brent called me said he heard the product was great, and asked me to meet him in Washington. He had a suite at the Watergate. We met there and went to dinner with Dusty Foggo. He seemed like a sharp guy, at least he knew the inside of the government pretty well. We went to dinner with Dusty, and he and Brent talked about old times.”

Karpovich had been castigated by Hunter, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, he told us, for trying to sell the software to the Pentagon too cheaply.

“In the meeting Duncan Hunter pointed to me and said to Wilkes, 'Your boy doesn’t know how to play the game,'" said Karpovich.

“They took a $6000 product, gave it another name, and sold it to the defense department for $32000 a pop. Later on we began to get calls from military bases around the country," Karpovich stated. "They were saying, hey, we just got this expensive software. What are we supposed to do with it?"

The deal now worked for everyone… except maybe U.S. taxpayers, and dead U.S. servicemen in Iraq whose Humvee’s didn’t get armor plating until it was too late because there wasn’t enough money for it in the Pentagon budget.

http://www.madcowprod.com/05112006.html

Cozying Up to Power

Brent Wilkes' businesses grew along with his political ties. He is 'co-conspirator No. 1' in the Cunningham case, his lawyer says. He has not been charged.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wilkes8may08,0,6220306,full.story?coll=la-home-business

Committee chairman comments on new allegations in Cunningham case

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday he's not surprised by allegations of prostitution in the corruption case involving former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a former committee member.

Chairman Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., said he has discussed the matter with authorities and expected to raise the issue with an independent investigator he has hired to review Cunningham's committee work.

"If I'm trying to connect dots, this is not a surprising outcome," Hoekstra said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"It's unsavory, it is pathetic, it is sickening, but not surprising."

FBI agents are investigating whether defense contractor Brent Wilkes provided prostitutes, limousines and hotel suites to Cunningham, federal officials told The Associated Press last week. Cunningham, a California Republican, is serving a prison term of eight years and four months after pleading guilty in November to taking $2.4 million in homes, yachts and other bribes mostly from defense contractors in exchange for steering government contracts.

Wilkes' attorney, Michael Lipman, didn't immediately return a call for comment Thursday. In an interview earlier this week, he said Wilkes denied the allegations of prostitution, which were raised by a second defense contractor who has pleaded guilty in the case.

Hoekstra declined to elaborate on his suspicions or discuss reports that CIA Executive Director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, a longtime friend of Wilkes, attended poker parties at the hotel rooms.

http://www.pe.com/ap_news/California2/CA_Congressman_Bribery_235914CA.shtml

Mr. Cunningham periodically phoned him to request a prostitute

Mr. Wilkes, of Poway, Calif., founded a series of companies that obtained federal contracts, including ADCS Inc., which won contracts to convert paper military records to computer images.

Mr. Wade in February pleaded guilty to giving bribes of more than $1 million to Mr. Cunningham, including cash, antiques and payment for yachts. Mr. Wade, who hasn't been sentenced yet, is cooperating with prosecutors. According to people with knowledge of the investigation, Mr. Wade told investigators that Mr. Cunningham periodically phoned him to request a prostitute, and that Mr. Wade then helped to arrange for one. A limousine driver then picked up the prostitute as well as Mr. Cunningham, and drove them to one of the hotel suites, originally at the Watergate Hotel, and subsequently at the Westin Grand.

Mr. Wade told investigators that all the arrangements for these services had been made by Mr. Wilkes and two employees of Mr. Wilkes's company, according to people with knowledge of his debriefing. He said Mr. Wilkes had rented the hotel suites and found the limousine driver, who had "relationships" with several escort services. Mr. Wade told prosecutors that sometimes Mr. Cunningham would contact him to request these services, and he would pass on the request to Mr. Wilkes or his employees, who then made the actual arrangement. Mr. Wade said that other times Mr. Cunningham called Mr. Wilkes directly to make the requests.

If investigators find that any other members of Congress or their staffs received services at so-called hospitality suites, that could help make a case that they had illegally taken action to benefit Mr. Wilkes in return for favors from him. Mr. Wilkes, his family members and his employees were heavy campaign contributors to several members of Congress. But prosecutors so far apparently haven't found any evidence that other members of Congress had been bribed.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114610728002837324.html

House Panel Probes Limo Firm's Deal

The Department of Homeland Security came under renewed scrutiny Thursday as a House panel sought to determine how it awarded $25 million in contracts to a transportation company whose selection was recommended by Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the former San Diego-area congressman convicted of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from defense contractors.

After receiving bids from three companies, agency officials said, they chose Shirlington Limousine and Transportation Inc. of Washington, based on both price and the company's ability to perform the needed services.

But Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, noted that the company's president, Christopher Baker, had done business with Brent R. Wilkes, a San Diego defense contractor identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Cunningham case.

"Then we find out that the congressman at the center of all of this sends a letter on behalf of this limousine company," he said. "If that doesn't raise issues, if that isn't more than a series of coincidences, I don't know what is."

Cunningham was the only member of Congress to support Shirlington's selection, King said.

The government is investigating allegations that Wilkes provided Cunningham, and perhaps other officials, with prostitutes and limousines. Citing an ongoing grand jury investigation, Baker did not testify Thursday.

dog trainer

Affidavit says Cunningham intervened on limo firm's behalf

Limo letter is found at Homeland Security

A day after Homeland Security officials denied knowing about former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham's attempts to gain a contract for a limousine service, Cunningham's letter praising the company surfaced in the department's files.

In the letter, Cunningham wrote of his “full support of (Shirlington Limousine's) wish to provide transportation services for the Department of Homeland Security,” or DHS.

FBI agents have been investigating whether the company – while working for Brent Wilkes, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Cunningham corruption case – helped Wilkes arrange for prostitutes for Cunningham while Wilkes was vying for federal contracts.

Wilkes and Shirlington founder Christopher Baker have denied any involvement with prostitutes. But Baker has said through his lawyer that he provided transportation for “entertainment” at Wilkes' hospitality suites in Washington from 1990 to the early part of the decade.

Although Baker is a convicted felon, Cunningham gave him a character reference Jan. 16, 2004.

“I have personally known Mr. Baker since the mid-1990s,” Cunningham wrote to Homeland Security. “He is dedicated to his work and has been of service to me and other Members of Congress over the years.”

At the time, the department had no plans to hire a limousine service. But within three months, the department gave Baker a $3.8 million contract. A year later, he got a contract worth up to $21.2 million.

Until recently, Homeland Security officials have denied that any legislators were involved in the contract. In May, department officials twice told Congress that they had no record of Cunningham's letter.

On Thursday, however, Baker gave Congress a sworn affidavit that he had sent the letter to the department. Homeland Security officials said they found an e-mail mentioning the letter but had no other evidence of its existence.

Yesterday the department produced the letter, saying it had been misfiled.

“This is yet another example of DHS incompetence – and I think it may have been more than just bad record-keeping,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who leads the House Homeland Security Committee. “This letter certainly . . . raises further questions about political manipulation in the contracting process.”

bird cage liner

The power of persuasion

Poway businessman Brent Wilkes funneled campaign donations to key lawmakers as he tried to build a defense empire

Long before he was identified as a co-conspirator in former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham's corruption case, Poway businessman Brent Wilkes boasted of his prowess in persuading powerful lawmakers to help him push contracts through Congress.

To get a $25 million contract for a start-up defense company, Wilkes said he needed about $1.5 million for lobbying and related expenses, according to a lawsuit filed against him by a former business partner. He allegedly told his partner that about half the $25 million would be pure profit.

When Wilkes made that boast, he already had been awarded about $80 million in contracts through the congressional process known as earmarking, which allows lawmakers to slip projects into the federal budget to benefit particular causes or companies.

Cunningham admitted directing federal contracts to Wilkes in exchange for more than $630,000 in bribes. Cunningham and his political action committee also received at least $76,500 in legal campaign contributions from Wilkes and his associates.

But Cunningham wasn't the only lawmaker who benefited from Wilkes' war chest.

From 1995 to 2005, as Wilkes got federal funding for his family of small defense companies, he steered more than $600,000 in contributions to lawmakers and their political action committees.

The biggest beneficiary was House Appropriations Committee member John Doolittle from the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay, who received at least $82,000 from Wilkes, his close relatives, employees and business partners. Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis of Redlands received $60,000. Rep. Duncan Hunter of Alpine, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, got $39,200.

In recent years, Wilkes focused on former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who got $57,000 from 2002 to 2004. In September, DeLay was indicted in Texas, accused of funneling corporate donations into elections in violation of state law. Wilkes has been subpoenaed in the case.

There is no indication that any legislator other than Cunningham made illegal deals with Wilkes. But the timing of Wilkes' many political donations closely parallels the approval of earmarks for ADCS, PerfectWave Technologies and other businesses in his corporate family.

“It almost looks like a legalized laundering of money: 'You give us $1 million for a contract and we'll make sure you'll get your share,' ” said Keith Ashdown, vice president for policy and communications at Citizens for Taxpayer Common Sense, a nonpartisan group in Washington that monitors federal spending.

ADCS probed in 2000 by Defense Department

More than five years before former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham pleaded guilty to taking millions in bribes, the Department of Defense sent the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego an investigative report on a Poway defense company that was later linked to Cunningham.

The 2000 report discussed alleged overbillings by ADCS Inc., a defense firm that in 2005 became a focal point of the Cunningham bribery scandal, Gary Comerford, a spokesman for the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, said Wednesday.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/04/21/news/top_stories/20_39_534_20_06.txt

Kyle (Dusty) Foggo

Foggo has decided to retire

CIA Executive Director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo already was under investigation by the agency's inspector general in connection with his relationship to San Diego businessman Brent Wilkes.

The FBI recently opened its own probe of Foggo, a longtime and close friend of Wilkes, the official said, speaking only on condition of anonymity because the investigation is under way.

Foggo has decided to retire from the CIA following the resignation last Friday of CIA Director Porter Goss, an intelligence official said Monday, also speaking on condition of anonymity. The official noted that new CIA directors have traditionally chosen their own executive directors, who run the agency's day-to-day operations.

Last week, the CIA released a statement on Foggo's behalf in which he denied any improprieties. "Mr. Foggo maintains that government contracts for which he was responsible were properly awarded and administered," the agency said.

Wilkes has been described in court papers as an unindicted coconspirator in a plot to bribe then-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, now serving a federal prison term for taking $2.4 million from government contractors.

FBI agents also have been looking into whether Wilkes supplied Cunningham with prostitutes, limousines and hotel suites. Foggo sometimes attended poker parties at the hotel rooms, but he said there was nothing untoward about his presence.

"If he attended occasional card games with friends over the years, Mr. Foggo insists they were that and nothing more," the CIA statement said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cia_foggo;_ylt=Aic2pybJRf7SjrHVDcFEM7us0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

CIA Director Porter Goss resigns

A little-known White House advisory board convinced a reluctant President Bush to launch yet another high-profile shakeup of the nation's intelligence community and can CIA Director Porter Goss, sources said yesterday.

Bush had already gotten an earful from Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte on the shortcomings of Goss, but the final push came from the "very alarmed" President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, intelligence and Congressional sources said.

Alarms were set off at the advisory board by a widening FBI sex and cronyism investigation that's targeted Kyle (Dusty) Foggo, the No.3 official at the CIA, and also touched on Goss himself.

The 16-member bipartisan board, now headed by former Goldman Sachs executive Stephen Friedman, has the mandate to conduct periodic assessments on "the quality, quantity and adequacy of intelligence collection."

The investigations have focused on the Watergate poker parties thrown by defense contractor Brent Wilkes, a high-school buddy of Foggo's, that were attended by disgraced former Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham and other lawmakers.

Foggo has claimed he went to the parties "just for poker" amid allegations that Wilkes, a top GOP fund-raiser and a member of the $100,000 "Pioneers" of Bush's 2004 reelection campaign, provided prostitutes, limos and hotel suites to Cunningham.

Cunningham is serving an eight-year sentence after pleading to taking $2.4 million in bribes to steer defense contracts to cronies.

Wilkes hosted regular parties for 15 years at the Watergate and Westin Grand Hotels for lawmakers and lobbyists. Intelligence sources said Goss has denied attending the parties as CIA director, but that left open whether he may have attended as a Republican congressman from Florida who was head of the House Intelligence Committee.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/415620p-351086c.html

logistics chief at the CIA's main base near Frankfurt, Germany

As logistics chief at the CIA's main base near Frankfurt, Germany, Kyle (Dusty) Foggo sat at the crossroads of agency operations. Operatives and VIPs passed through, and former top spies say Foggo was customarily on hand to greet them. After Porter Goss took over as CIA director, many agency veterans were astonished when the former House intel chair chose Foggo, a midranking bureaucrat, to become CIA executive director, the agency's third-ranking official, responsible for day-to-day operations. Insiders attributed his rise to his mastery of office politics. But Foggo's glad-handing has raised awkward questions. Federal prosecutors have accused (as an unindicted co-conspirator) one of Foggo's closest friends, San Diego businessman Brent Wilkes, of participating in a scheme to bribe Randall (Duke) Cunningham, the GOP congressman from San Diego who resigned his seat after pleading guilty to federal corruption and tax charges.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11570067/site/newsweek/

Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham

Cunningham taken into custody, ordered to repay $1.8 million

Mitchell Wade

Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham

Cunningham taken into custody, ordered to repay $1.8 million

Congress aides ignored bribery signs: report

October 17, 2006 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional aides ignored numerous warning signs about disgraced former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham's cozy relationship with contractors who paid him millions in bribes, a report released on Tuesday said.

The report by the U.S. House Intelligence Committee found no evidence that staffers benefited from any of the bribes taken by Cunningham, the California Republican now serving an eight-year prison term after pleading guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes.

But staffers ignored several warning signs as they helped Cunningham obtain funding for a project earmarked for MZM, a company run by Mitchell Wade, who has pleaded guilty to bribing Cunningham.

"Over time, (committee) staff learned of numerous 'red flags' associated with the counterintelligence project, including frequently expressed questions about the ethics and integrity of Wade, doubts about the value of the project and MZM's performance, and grave concerns about the propriety of the Cunningham-Wade relationship," the report said.

Committee staff helped Cunningham avoid competitive bidding rules to steer at least $70 million to Wade and another contractor, the report said.

The outside investigator who wrote the report for the committee said the Defense Department and the House Appropriations Committee have so far declined to cooperate.

The report was completed in May but has been kept under wraps while committee members argued whether Cunningham should be subpoenaed.

It was finally made public by California Rep. Jane Harman, the committee's top Democrat, who has pushed for Cunningham to appear before the committee, even if he refuses to testify.

"Our committee must examine why 'red flags' did not trigger greater scrutiny of Cunningham's activities and what can be done to prevent this type of abuse in the future," Harman said in a statement.

The Republican chairman of the committee, Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, said Cunningham has offered to testify and blasted Harman for releasing the report without his permission.

"The unilateral decision by Harman to break our bipartisan, written agreement ... by releasing an incomplete, internal committee document that has not been reviewed by the other committee members is disturbing and beyond the pale," Hoekstra said in a statement.

http://reuters.myway.com/article/20061017/2006-10-17T192621Z_01_N17241900_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-CONGRESS-CUNNINGHAM-DC.html

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061018/news_1n18duke.html

Once-honored name now tops list of infamy

The former Republican lawmaker's sentence of eight years and four months edges out Democrats James Traficant of Ohio, with whom Cunningham served in Congress, and Mario Biaggi of New York.

In 2002, Traficant was sentenced to eight years in prison for conspiracy to commit bribery, obstruction of justice and other charges.

In 1988, Biaggi was sentenced to eight years for racketeering, bribery, conspiracy and other charges for directing federal contracts to a military contractor. Biaggi extorted stock worth about $1.8 million in the case.

Other top sentences include the case of Mel Reynolds, D-Ill., who was sentenced to five years in prison in 1995 for criminal sexual assault, soliciting child pornography and obstruction of justice.

In the celebrated Abscam scandal in 1980, seven members of Congress were convicted of accepting bribes in an FBI sting investigation, but the average amount for each was $45,000. Traficant was convicted of accepting a few thousand dollars.

Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., was charged in 1995 in the congressional check-kiting scandal. He was convicted and sentenced to 17 months. His take for that and other crimes totaled less than $1 million in cash and services.

Thomas Kontogiannis

April 15, 2006 ROSEDALE, N.Y. – In 1996, multimillionaire businessman Thomas Kontogiannis threw a party for a Queens school superintendent, who was planning a run for Congress.

The star of the party was Randy “Duke” Cunningham, then a Republican congressman from San Diego.

Today, Cunningham is serving eight years and four months in prison for taking more than $2.4 million in bribes, most of it from two defense contractors.

His old friend Kontogiannis, meanwhile, has emerged as the mystery man – co-conspirator No. 3 – in the continuing investigation.

According to Cunningham's plea agreement, Kontogiannis gave the former congressman $328,000, most of it through an overpayment for Cunningham's boat, the Kelly C.

Kontogiannis and one of his relatives, identified as co-conspirator No. 4, also allowed Cunningham, 63, to use one of the family's mortgage companies to make favorable property deals.

What Kontogiannis, 59, got from the relationship with Cunningham remains unclear.

“It's not the standard bribe scenario,” said a Justice Department official who declined to be identified because the investigation is ongoing. “He had a lot of money. What went to Duke was chump change.”

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20060415-9999-1n15tommyk.html

Katherine Harris

Group files criminal complaint against Rep. Katherine Harris

We believe the Public Integrity Division of the Department of Justice should conduct an investigation to determine if Representative Katherine Harris (R-FL) has violated U.S. Code 18§201: Bribery of public officials and witnesses.

The Chief Executive of MZM, Inc., Mitchell Wade, recently plead guilty to conspiracy, tax evasion, corrupting defense officials, and election fraud as a result of the investigation into former Representative Randolph "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA). MZM, Inc. is described as a homeland security and counterintelligence company. The statement includes references to other members of Congress in addition to Rep. Cunningham. According to the Statement of Offense, U.S.A. vs. Mitchell J. Wade, filed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia on February 23, 2006:

In early 2005, Wade dined with Representative B in Washington DC restaurant. At this dinner, Wade and Representative B discussed, among other topics, the possibility of MZM's hosting a fundraiser for Representative B later in the year, and the possibility of obtaining funding and approval for a Navy counterintelligence program in Representative B's district and locating an MZM office in that district.

Rep. Harris has been identified publicly as "Representative B." According to The Washington Post:

Washington defense contractor Mitchell J. Wade admitted yesterday in federal court that he attempted to illegally influence Defense Department contracting officials and tried to curry favor with two House members…

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Group_files_criminal_complaint_against_Rep._0501.html

Ties to Mitchell Wade

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris may have given her dirty campaign money to a charity, but she can't pretend to have cleansed herself. "Representative B," as she is called in a federal prosecutor's account of bribery and election fraud by Washington defense contractor Mitchell Wade, is too close to this scandal to brush it off. Voters deserve more answers than the vague statement she released Thursday night.

Leave aside the fact that, in March 2004, Wade personally placed 16 $2,000 campaign checks with the same date in Harris' hands. Now comes the disclosure that one of her aides, Mona Yost, left last May to work for MZM Inc., the company Wade owned. Further, Harris dined with Wade in early 2005 and then asked her Defense Appropriations subcommittee to set aside $10-million for an MZM facility in Sarasota. The subcommittee refused.

This is past the point where Harris can credibly claim ignorance. She claimed in her statement Thursday night that she requested the money to bring jobs to Sarasota, not in exchange for contributions she says she did not know would be illegally reimbursed. Let's get this straight: Harris is handed $32,000 in checks by an executive who wants a $10-million defense contract, she dines with him to discuss the request and then she writes a letter specifically for his project after her other appropriations requests were submitted? And she is unclear about the intent?

The strange case of supernatural water

Florida's citrus crop contributes billions of dollars to the state's economy, so when that industry is threatened, anything that might help is considered. Back in 2001, when citrus canker was blighting the crop and threatening to reduce that vital source of revenue, an interesting — if not quite scientific — alternative was considered.

Katherine Harris, then Florida's secretary of state — and now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives — ordered a study in which, according to an article by Jim Stratton in the Orlando Sentinel, "researchers worked with a rabbi and a cardiologist to test ‘Celestial Drops,' promoted as a canker inhibitor because of its ‘improved fractal design,' ‘infinite levels of order,' and ‘high energy and low entropy.'"

The study determined that the product tested was, basically, water that had apparently been blessed according to the principles of Kabbalic mysticism, "chang[ing] its molecular structure and imbu[ing] it with supernatural healing powers."

Rep. John T. Doolittle

A week before former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham was sentenced to prison, he stressed to the court that a number of other lawmakers also helped arrange federal funding for the defense contractors who bribed him.

None of the lawmakers Cunningham mentioned by name – Reps. Katherine Harris of Florida, Virgil Goode of Virginia and John Doolittle from the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay – has been accused of criminal wrongdoing. But each has admitted assisting either Mitchell Wade or Brent Wilkes, co-conspirators in the Cunningham case, at a time when the two businessmen were giving them tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions.

And at least one of the lawmakers, Doolittle, received a direct monetary benefit from those contributions through commissions paid to his wife, Julie.

Acting as her husband's campaign consultant, Julie Doolittle charged his campaign and his Superior California Political Action Committee a 15 percent commission on any contribution she helped bring in.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20060319-9999-1n19dolittle.html

Military, Iraq War, Graft and Fraud

see Scandals, Military, Iraq War, Graft and Fraud

Iraq War, Torture, Rape and Abuse

see Scandals, Iraq War, Torture, Rape and Abuse

Reagan Regime scandals

More Executive branch appointees were indicted and convicted of felonies during the Reagan Administration than any other administration.

More than likely the Bush 43 regime will push Reagan to second place in the 'Most Corrupt' rating.

Iran Contra

#26: Michael Ledeen: Improving on Mussolini

Ledeen has been called the driving philosophical force behind the neoconservative movement and (by me) "the most influential and unabashed warmonger of our time." A resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (#7), contributing editor at National Review and former Pentagon, State Department and White House consultant under Reagan (when his Israeli intelligence contacts were used to help broker the illegal Iran-contra affair), Ledeen is often quoted by top Bush officials, including Cheney, Rumsfeld and former Under Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. But they don't quote quotes like these--at least not in public: In March 2003, Ledeen, a leading and longtime proponent of the invasion of Iraq--and of Iran, Syria and no doubt other countries yet to be named--told a forum that "the level of casualties [in Iraq] is secondary" because "we are a warlike people...we love war."

He has written that "Change--above all violent change--is the essence of human history"; "the only way to achieve peace is through total war"; and "The purpose of total war is to permanently force your will onto another people." He was quoted approvingly by National Review Online editor Jonah Goldberg as saying, "Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business."

In April 2003--one month into the Iraq war--Ledeen gave an address titled "Time to Focus on Iran," and declared, "the time for diplomacy is at an end." Ledeen's attacks on Iran, even when Iran was assisting the US, "helped keep the Bush administration from seeking any rapprochement with Tehran," wrote William Beeman of the Pacific News Service in 2003. "Were it in Ledeen's hands, we would invade Iran today."

Most Americans have never heard of Michael Ledeen, Beeman noted, but if the US "ends up in an extended shooting war throughout the Middle East, it will be largely due to his inspiration."

scroll down

Nixon Era scandals

Watergate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal

Retrieved from "http://www.beachblogger.net/bwtm/index.php?title=Scandals"

Categories: BWTM

 http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2006-10/25686250.jpg
-=====Lawmaker Saw Foley Messages In 2000======
+=====Committee Says GOP Left Foley Unchecked=====
+Ethics Panel Faults Many, Punishes None
+:http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/congress/members/photos/228/H000323.jpg
+:Now former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.)
+[[December 09, 2006]] The House ethics committee concluded yesterday that House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and his top staff probably knew for months, if not years, of then-Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate contact with former House pages but did nothing to protect the teenagers.
+Top GOP House leaders also "failed to exercise appropriate diligence" in the matter, the committee's report found, and tried "to remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences of Foley's conduct." The ensuing scandal contributed to the Republicans' losses in the midterm elections. The report speculated that some officials were reluctant to act too aggressively for fear of exposing Foley's homosexuality or for political reasons.
+But the ethics panel, officially known as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, decided against taking any action against the leaders, aides or House officials involved in the saga, declining even to describe their actions as bringing ill repute on the House.
+"The requirement that Members and staff act at all times in a manner that reflects creditably on the House does not mean that every error in judgment or failure to exercise appropriate oversight and sufficient diligence establishes a violation" of House rules, the long-awaited report concluded.
+The committee's bipartisan probe was launched two months ago after reports by ABC News that Foley, a Florida Republican, had sent sexually explicit online messages to male former House pages. The 89-page report is sharply critical of Hastert and his chief of staff, Scott Palmer, and chief counsel, Ted Van Der Meid.
+The report also chides House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) for not showing sufficient curiosity in the matter, and retiring Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) is criticized for failing to divulge Foley's actions, both years before they were exposed and after they came to light.
+Democratic aides are also criticized, for shopping around inappropriate Foley e-mails to media outlets as far back as November 2005, apparently for political gain.
+To critics of Congress, the report's release in the final hours of the session is a fitting end to a Congress tainted by scandal, indictments and resignations. Next month, Hastert will take a seat in a new, Democratic-controlled House as a back-bench member of the minority.
+"It is unfathomable that the ethics committee has held no member or staff member individually accountable for the manner in which the Foley scandal was handled in the House," said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a watchdog group.
+Two former pages whose revelations added to the scandal expressed disappointment with the committee's decision not to discipline those who knew about Foley's behavior. One of the pages, involved in providing the first questionable e-mails to the media, said, "I'm surprised they aren't doing anything, but it's not shocking, given the lack of real accountability we've seen in Congress in general."
+The other former page, whom Foley propositioned after the boy had left the page program, said, "My fear is that by not holding anyone accountable it sets a precedent that political fallout is more important than young people's safety."
+Committee members of both parties defended their conclusions. "This is not the jerry-rigged result of a series of compromises," said Rep. Howard L. Berman (Calif.), the committee's ranking Democrat.
+Hastert issued a statement late yesterday stressing that the investigation had uncovered no evidence that any House member, officer or employee, or any member of the media, knew of the overtly sexual instant messages that led to Foley's sudden resignation.
+Much about Foley's courting of male pages has been made public, but the committee's report breaks new ground. As far back as 1995, the year Foley took office as part of the Republican takeover, Jeff Trandahl, then assistant clerk of the House, saw Foley as a nuisance for lavishing inordinate attention on pages. Trandahl, who would be elected clerk in 1999, testified that he thought of Kolbe, an openly gay House Republican who is retiring this year, the same way.
+Peggy Sampson, the Republicans' chief page supervisor, said Foley's behavior gave her a "creepy feeling" for years. Evidence emerged that on two separate occasions, Foley went to the page dormitory late at night. In the first incident, before 2000, he was suspected of being intoxicated and was turned away by Capitol Police. In another incident, in June 2000, he reportedly appeared in his convertible during the pages' end-of-semester "all-night party" and sped off with at least two pages before supervising staff could react.
+Perhaps the biggest revelations involved Kolbe. The Washington Post reported in October that one of his former pages had received a sexually explicit instant message from Foley, which the former page had shown to Kolbe as long ago as 2000. After the story appeared, Kolbe said that the contact was with his staff, not him, that he did not see it and that he was unaware it was explicit.
+Kolbe's assistant, Patrick Baugh, told the committee that the former page had contacted Kolbe directly and that the former page revealed the explicit nature of the message.
+Moreover, after the Foley matter exploded in the media, the former page contacted Kolbe again to ask whether he should divulge the instant message. He testified that Kolbe responded: "It is best that you don't even bring this up with anybody. . . . There is no good that can come from it if you actually talk about this."
+In a statement, Kolbe said, "The report demonstrates that members of my office and I took prompt action in 2001 to address the complaint," by a college student from his district who had previously served as a House page. "I did not review a copy of the communication Congressman Foley sent . . . and I never knew whether or not it was sexually explicit," Kolbe said. "The simple fact that Foley had made the student feel uncomfortable was enough for me to take action by, among other things, notifying the Clerk of the House."
+Another incident was also brought to light in the report. After the Foley matter became public on Sept. 29, The Post quoted Boehner saying that he had told Hastert that spring of concerns about Foley and that Hastert had said the matter was being taken care of. When the story appeared on The Post's Web site that night, Palmer, Hastert's chief of staff, contacted Boehner's chief of staff to discuss what the report called "the perceived inconsistency" between Boehner's story and Hastert's statement denying all knowledge of the concerns.
+That led to a late-night strategy session of House GOP leaders in Boehner's office, which some members at the time feared was inappropriate because the case had been referred to the ethics committee.
+Democrats receive their share of scrutiny in the report. In August 2005, a former page of Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) sent Alexander aide Danielle Savoy e-mails he had received from Foley asking him for a picture and asking what he wanted for his birthday. Savoy passed them on to a friend, who showed them to her boyfriend, Justin Field, who worked for the House Democratic Caucus.
+Democratic Caucus communications director Matt Miller saw the e-mails as inappropriate, but rather than taking them to authorities, he shopped them to the press, first to the Miami Herald and the St. Petersburg Times that November, then to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. He also gave the e-mails to the communications director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, a point apparently validating Republican charges that senior Democrats were behind the revelation of Foley's conduct.
+On the central question of Hastert's involvement, the committee firmly sided with Trandahl and former Foley chief of staff Kirk Fordham, who testified that they brought Foley's behavior to the attention of Palmer and of Hastert counsel Van Der Meid years ago. Fordham also testified that Palmer assured him he had brought the issue directly to the speaker in late 2002 or early 2003.
+Trandahl said Palmer had told him: "I've talked to Kirk Fordham. I understand the problem. I'm on it." He said he remembered it "vividly."
+Palmer testified repeatedly that he remembered no such meeting, and Hastert said he did not remember learning anything of the Foley matter.
+But the committee found "the weight of the evidence supports" Fordham and Trandahl. Moreover, "the weight of the evidence supports the conclusion that Speaker Hastert was told, at least in passing, about the e-mails" by Boehner and Reynolds in spring 2006.
+http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/08/AR2006120800908.html
+=====Lawmaker Saw Foley Messages In 2000=====
 Page Notified GOP Rep. Kolbe

Scandals

From Bwtm

Revision as of 15:06, 9 December 2006

Contents

Scandals Alone Could Cost Republicans Their House Majority

Bush Whitehouse and Administration

Ex-FDA Chief Crawford to Plead Guilty to U.S. Charges (Update2)

Bush 'Faith-Based' Initiative Was Used For GOP Campaigns

Why a Christian in the White House Felt Betrayed

Breach of faith

White House, NSA staff said to be buyers from online diploma mill

Trial that could out feds alleged to have bogus degrees delayed

White House, NSA staff said to be buyers from online diploma mill

Laura Callahan resigns from DHS

Alberto Gonzales

Karl Rove

Susan Ralston

Irwin Lewis "Scooter" Libby

Plame suit makes political waves

Irwin Lewis "Scooter" Libby indicted

Cheney authorized leaks

Cheney Says He Has Power to Declassify Info

George C. Deutsch

Tom Noe coin dealer and prominent GOP fundraiser

GOP fundraiser gets 18 years in prison

Trial of coin dealer comes at a bad time for Ohio GOP

Noe indicted in coin scandal

Abramoff

Lobbyist Abramoff to report to prison

Sweeney trip in question

Displease a Lobbyist, Get Fired

Richard Pombo (R-Tracy), and John T. Doolittle (R-Roseville)

Abramoff case dogs Pombo

Doolittle attorney, Justice talk

Lobbyist donated cash to Doolittle

Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio)

Ney pleads guilty, says he'll resign

Ney admits guilt in lobby scandal

Rep. Ney faces more than 2 years in prison

Effect of Ney's guilt could weigh heavily

Rep. Bob Ney Will Not Seek Reelection

Guilty plea sharpens focus on Ney

Senate Questions Nonprofits' Tax Status

Abramoff's use and misuse of nonprofits

Sen. Conrad Burns

J. Steven Griles

David Safavian

Ex-procurement chief gets 18 months in prison

E-Mail Said to Link Abramoff, Safavian

3 more lawmakers tied to Abramoff

House of Representatives

Speaker J. Dennis Hastert

Investigators Say Speaker’s Aide Hindered Inquiry of Hill Security Contracts

Dem says GOP's port bill tactics hurt bipartisan relations

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter

Specter: FBI investigating senate aide

Specter Says Staffer Didn't Steer Funds To Husband

Sex

Congresswoman on page board buried file on husband's child abuse allegation

Bush campaigns for Pennsylvania congressman enmeshed in sex scandal

The Redder They Are, The Harder They Fall

List of political sex scandals

Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.)

Committee Says GOP Left Foley Unchecked

Lawmaker Saw Foley Messages In 2000

Mark Foley claims being molested as teen

Foley Saga No Shock to Some

Foley's Exchange With Underage Page

Hastert's staff first knew of Foley emails in 2005

Amid growing scandal, Rep. Foley resigns

The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress

California's `Big 6': Masters of the New Lobbying Game

Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands

House ethics panel okays Shockey buyout

A close-knit circle of money, power. Contractor adds layer to Rep. Lewis' sphere

FBI widens Lewis probe

House Majority Leader John Boehner

Rep. William Jefferson

Kenneth Starr

Alleged misconduct