GOP senator expects seven lawmakers headed to prison after corruption probes

RAW STORY
Published: Saturday April 15, 2006

A Republican senator told a town hall meeting on Friday that he expects at least seven lawmakers will go to jail in the wake of investigations related to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and others, according to an Oklahoma newspaper, RAW STORY has found.

Speaking in Wagoner, Oklahoma, Senator Tom Coburn (OK-R) said that "if you've been keeping up with things, you've got a pretty good idea" who the unnamed lawmakers might be.

Tulsa World reports that Coburn indicated that six congressman and a senator would end up being convicted on corruption charges and that "members of both parties have been involved in questionable dealings."

Last month, Senator Coburn voted against the lobbying reform bill after an amendment was rejected "that would have given Senators greater power to block egregious earmarks."

"Earmark abuse was at the center of the Jack Abramoff and Duke Cunningham scandals yet the Senate failed to clamp down on what Abramoff described as the 'earmark favor factory' in Congress," Coburn explained afterward in a press release. "This bill will not change how members of Congress and lobbyists interact."

"In the wake of the Abramoff and Cunningham scandals Congress could have crafted serious reform legislation," Coburn continued. "Unfortunately, the Senate put public relations ahead of real reform and chose to wash the outside of the cup while leaving the inside filthy."

Does that include Delay since he is leaving Congress or does that make it 8?

Doolittle hired lawyer for advice on Abramoff

By David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau
Published 2:52 pm PDT Monday, April 17, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Three weeks after Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to three federal felony crimes, Rep. John Doolittle turned for legal advice concerning his own association with Abramoff to a former associate of special prosecutor Ken Starr whose legal specialties now include white-collar crime and public corruption.
According to a report filed by Doolittle's re-election campaign with the Federal Elections Commission over the weekend, the campaign on Jan. 27 retained for $10,000 the legal services of the Virginia law firm of Williams Mullen.

A Doolittle aide, Richard Robinson, said the attorney handling Doolittle's inquiry is David G. Barger. Barger is the former president of the Virginia Bar Association's criminal law section and a former assistant U.S. attorney, who later was an associate of Starr's in the Whitewater investigation.
Doolittle has said he was a close personal friend of Abramoff, who as part of his Jan. 3 plea agreement in U.S. District Court here agreed to cooperate with the continuing federal investigation.

Doolittle's wife, Julie, operates a company that did work for Abramoff; her company's records were subpoenaed by a grand jury early in the investigation. Doolittle used the former lobbyist's sports box for a fundraiser and accepted more than $130,000 in campaign contributions from Abramoff, his associates and his clients, most of them Indian tribes.

But Doolittle has steadfastly maintained he has done nothing wrong, and that he has not hired a lawyer in connection with the ongoing probe.

Robinson said Monday that none of that has changed -- that Doolittle has not been contacted in any manner by federal investigators.

Robinson said that the campaign hired Barger to address the congressman's concerns about how he should respond to questions from the press as he contemplated having to talk about the scandal as part of his campaign for re-election.

"Because he wanted to be as up front and forthcoming as possible about the Abramoff investigation, the congressman retained a law firm to review public statements that he made to make sure that everything he said was not only accurate, but that it would in no way hinder the Justice Department's ongoing investigation," Robinson said in a prepared statement.

"The congressman has not retained an attorney to respond to any Justice Department inquiries as there have been none," he said. "Given the amount of media attention that has surrounded this issue, it is understandable that the congressman wants to be as prudent as possible when making public statements as to ensure their accuracy and not compromise the ongoing investigation."

The payment was disclosed in a campaign finance report showing that Doolittle raised almost $287,000 during the first three months of the year, far outdistancing his Republican challenger, Auburn Mayor Mike Holmes.

Holmes reported raising just $14,967 during the three-month period ending March 31.

In the three-way battle for the Democratic nomination for Doolittle's seat, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Charlie Brown of Roseville led the pack, raising more than $61,000 during the three-month period that left him with a month-end cash balance of nearly $60,000.

All of the candidates running to unseat Doolittle have cited his close ties to Abramoff and his engulfment in the lobby scandal as their top reason from challenging him.

Charles Taylor: It Depends on Your Definition of "Fundraiser"

By Paul Kiel - April 20, 2006, 1:29 PM

Rep. Charles Taylor (R-N.C.) has shown a talent for creative cop-outs - well, here's another.

On April 9, 2003, Taylor sat down for a lunch with several lobbyists from Greenberg Traurig. Reliable sources say they met at Signatures, although we couldn't confirm it. Two days later, Taylor's campaign deposited checks from six members of Team Abramoff for $500 each, along with a $2,000 check from Jack Abramoff himself and $1,000 from his client, the Saginaw Chippewa tribe of Michigan. One month later, Taylor wrote a letter to the Interior Department to help the Saginaw land a hefty school construction grant.

But Taylor, trying desperately to deny that he's ever done anything for Abramoff, is not admitting the fundraiser took place - and since this is Charles Taylor we're talking about here, you can be sure that it's not a straight denial.

Taylor admits sitting down with at least six members of Team Abramoff on the date in question. But he's questioning whether the event could be called a "fundraiser." Why? Because he doesn't recall getting any money on the spot - he says he "received no checks there."

Of course, Taylor can't plead ignorance that his campaign actually received checks - but since they weren't waved under his nose then and there, it's an open question for him whether this was a fundraiser. Maybe it was a coincidence. But the AP saw no room for ambiguity in their story about Taylor's work for Abramoff,
reporting that "Abramoff's firm threw Taylor a fundraiser."

But the cop-out doesn't stop there.

According to Joel Burgess, the Ashville Citizen-Times reporter who interviewed Taylor, he also won't admit that the event was held at Abramoff's restaurant Signatures... but he won't deny it, either.

And Taylor says he can't remember why he met with the lobbyists. But (it's funny the way memory works) he can remember why he didn't meet with them: it was "not to raise money or discuss the tribe." And yet he ended up raising money, some of it from the tribe.

Taylor's in for a really tight race this November and will be hit hard on his shilling for Abramoff - seems to me that his story could use some improvement between now and election day.