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The Biggest Congressional Scandal in Over a Century? GOP
Lobbyist Jack Abramoff Pleads Guilty to Three Felony Counts
Congress on Edge As Abramoff Agrees to Testify About Widespread
Corruption on Capitol Hill
Native American Tribes Attempt to Recover After Being Defrauded
of Tens of Millions by Abramoff
Forced Abortions & Sweatshops: A Look at Jack Abramoff's
Ties to the South Pacific Island of Saipan & How Tom DeLay
Became An Advocate for Sweatshop Factory Owners
The Biggest Congressional Scandal in Over a Century?
GOP Lobbyist Jack Abramoff Pleads Guilty to Three Felony Counts
Lobbyist Jack Abramoff admitted to defrauding at least four
Native American tribes of tens of millions of dollars, bribing
government officials and evading taxes. Abramoff has reportedly
agreed to testify against several members of Congress who
received favors or donations from him or his clients. Washington
analysts say the corruption scandal could take down as many
as twelve lawmakers. We speak with Peter Stone, a staff reporter
for the National Journal, about the details of the case.
Jack Abramoff became a Washington lobbyist after the Republicans
won control of the House in 1994. He has ties that reach to
all parts of Washington. He played a key role in what was
called the K Street Project -- a Republican attempt to essentially
take control of the D.C. lobbying world. By 1995 he would
befriend Tom Delay -- who would later call Abramoff "one
of his closest and dearest friends.” He became a key
fundraiser for President Bush and served on Bush’s transition
team in 2000. His former assistant became Karl Rove’s
personal assistant. He was accused of offering Congressional
staffers lucrative jobs in exchange for legislative help.
Abramoff ordered lobbying clients to give millions in political
contributions to key lawmakers. The Wall Street Journal reports
Abramoff could implicate as many as 60 lawmakers in the corrupion
inquiry.
On Tuesday, Alice Fisher, the assistant attorney general
of the criminal division of the Justice Department, announced
Abramoff had pleaded guilty.
Alice Fisher: "Government officials and government
action are not for sale. The Justice Department will aggressively
investigate and prosecute these types of cases which have
a devastating impact on the public's trust of government.
We will not shy away from that responsibility no matter where
the trail leads. I will note that, while Abramoff engaged
in the business of lobbying, his activities went far beyond
lawful lobbying to the illegal practice of paying for official
acts. Lawful lobbying does not include paying a public official
a personal benefit with the understanding -- explicit or implicit
-- that a certain official act will occur. That's not lobbying;
that's a crime."
Today we will spend the hour examining the rise and fall
of Jack Abramoff and examine the state of lobbying in Washington.
Later in the show we will speak with a Native American tribal
leader bilked of millions of dollars from Abramoff and his
business partner Michael Scanlon – the former Tom DeLay
aide. We will also speak with former Colorado Senator Ben
Nighthorse Campbell who chaired the Senate Committee on Indian
Affairs when the Abramoff scandal first broke.
But we begin with Peter Stone a staff reporter for the National
Journal. He has written extensively on Jack Abramoff over
the years.
- Peter Stone, a staff reporter for the National Journal.
He has written extensively on Jack Abramoff over the years.
Congress on Edge As Abramoff Agrees to Testify About
Widespread Corruption on Capitol Hill
We take a closer look at who benefited from their ties to
Jack Abramoff inside Congress. The Wall Street Journal is
reporting Abramoff says he has information that could implicate
60 lawmakers. One Republican lawmaker -- Congressman Robert
Ney of Ohio -- has already been subpoenaed. We speak with
researcher Judd Legum about the lawmakers involved. But many
other Republicans face possible corruption inquiries including
former House Majority Leader Tom Delay and House Speaker Dennis
Hastert. Some Democrats -- including Senate Minority Leader
Harry Reid -- have also received donations from clients of
Abramoff. While Abramoff has been a lifelong Republican activist,
the White House is attempting to paint the scandal as a bipartisan
affair. But advocates for campaign finance are warning that
the Abramoff scandal is only the tip of a more widespread
problem in Washington.
- Chellie Pingree, president of the watchdog group Common
Cause said, “"I don't think anyone does buy,
you know, one single vote or every decision for a dinner.
But the cumulative influence of every night a different
dinner, and a different set of lobbyists, and, you know,
a golfing trip, and, making sure your staff is, you know,
taken to a casino. The spread of this influence permeates
the decision-making process here, and you have to step back
again and say 'does the average citizen get to sit down
with a member of Congress and let them know how they feel
about health care or education or the war in Iraq?' And
if not, they why should someone who is able to buy them
a 150 dollar have that level of access and influence?"
To review which lawmakers have been implicated in the Abramoff
scandal, we are joined in our Washington studio by Judd Legum,
director of research at the Center for American Progress.
Native American Tribes Attempt to Recover After Being
Defrauded of Tens of Millions by Abramoff
Former U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who served
as chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that investigated
the scandal, and Tigua tribal governor Arturo Senclair, of
one of the Indian tribes defrauded by Abramoff, discuss the
Native American tribes embroiled in the Abramoff scandal.
They hired Abramoff to represent them in Washington regarding
casino and gambling issues. As their lobbyist, Abramoff instructed
the tribes to make political donations to certain politicians
and recommended they hire former aide of Tom DeLay, Michael
Scanlon, as their publicist.
Yesterday Abramoff admitted to defrauding four Indian tribe
clients out of millions of dollars. Those tribes include the
Louisiana Coushatta, the Mississippi Choctaws, the Saginaw
Chippewas of Michigan and the Tigua of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo
in Texas. The tribes hired Abramoff to represent them in Washington
regarding casino and gambling issues. As their lobbyist, Abramoff
instructed the tribes to make political donations to certain
politicians and recommended they hire a former aide of Tom
DeLay named Michael Scanlon as their publicist. Scanlon charged
hugely inflated rates. What Abramoff didn’t tell the
tribes was that Scanlon was secretly his business partner
and that in some cases Abramoff was also working for groups
with competing policy goals.
In all, Abramoff and Scanlon received more than $66 million
in fees. Some of this money was secretly diverted to a variety
of Abramoff’s personal projects including an Orthodox
Jewish academy and an Israeli sniper school. Some money also
went to pay off a personal debt.
In 2002, Abramoff and Scanlon quietly worked with conservative
religious activist Ralph Reed to persuade the state of Texas
to shut down the Tigua tribe’s Standing Rock casino
on the grounds that the casino violated Texas’ limited
gambling laws. Abramoff then went to the Tiguas and promised
to use his influence to reopen the casino, charging the tribe
$4.2 million.
Meanwhile, Abramoff and Scanlon collected millions of dollars
from a Louisiana tribe to oppose all gaming in the Texas Legislature.
During the 2004 Senate Indian Affair Committee hearings, emails
were made public in which Abramoff referred to tribal members
as “trogdolytes” and “morons”. In
one email released by the Senate committee, Abramoff wrote
to Scanlon, “I have to meet with the monkeys from the
Choctaw tribal counsel.” Former Senator Ben Nighthorse
Campbell was the chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee
in 2004 when it took up investigating Abramoff. He was also
the first Native American Senator in more than 60 years. Campbell
wrote in a statement at the time, “It is a story of
greed run amuck. It is a story of two already powerful, wealthy
men lining their own pockets with the hard-earned money of
people whom they held in contempt and disregard.”
- Ben Nighthorse Campbell, former Senator of Colorado and
former chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
- Arturo Senclair, tribal governor of the Tiguas of Ysleta
del Sur Pueblo in Texas.
Forced Abortions & Sweatshops: A Look at Jack
Abramoff's Ties to the South Pacific Island of Saipan &
How Tom DeLay Became An Advocate for Sweatshop Factory Owners
We speak with ABC News' Brian Ross who exposed in 1998 the
horrific labor conditions in the U.S. territory of Saipan.
At the time, Jack Abramoff was Saipan's hired gun on K Street
and Tom DeLay was one of the island's chief advocates on Capitol
Hill. DeLay backed the sweatshop owners even though it was
exposed that the factory was forcing women to have abortions
and treated workers like indentured servants.
Controversy is nothing new to Jack Abramoff. The Los Angeles
Times reports Abramoff’s first political scandal dates
back to 1972 when he ran for student council president at
the Hawthorne School, an elementary and middle school in Beverly
Hills California. Abramoff was reportedly disqualified for
exceeding the spending limit in the race. In college Abramoff
teamed up with two students who would become household names
in Washington to take over the College Republican National
Committee. They were anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist and
Ralph Reed, founder of the Christian Coalition. After college
Abramoff’s resume was diverse, from his brief Hollywood
career to his secret dealings with the South African apartheid
regime.
A 1995 investigation by Newsday revealed that Abramoff helped
run a think–tank called the International Freedom Foundation.
The organization was set up in 1986 and its goal was to improve
the white South African apartheid government’s image
in the West while demonizing Nelson Mandela and the African
National Congress as communist tools. The Newsday report also
quoted sources saying that the South African military helped
finance the 1988 movie "Red Scorpion" which Abramoff
wrote and produced. The movie was a sympathetic portrayal
of an anti-communist African guerrilla commander and loosely
based on Jonas Savimbi, the Angolan rebel leader who was an
ally of both South Africa’s apartheid government and
the U.S government.
We turn now to Abramoff’s special relationship with
the South Pacific island of Saipan and how it connects to
his ties to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Saipan is an
American territory in the South Pacific also known as the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. In the mid-1990s
Abramoff was on the payroll of Saipan officials aiming to
stop legislation that would crack down on sweat shop conditions,
which run rampant on the island. In 1997, Abramoff arranged
a lavish trip to the island of Saipan for Delay.
The Delay trip was originally reported by Brian Ross, Chief
Investigative Correspondent for ABC News. We are going to
play 2 excerpts from the report that aired on ABC’s
20/20 on March 13th, 1998. In this first excerpt, Ross interviews
Allan Stayman, a Clinton administration official in the Department
of Interior who was investigating labor conditions in Saipan.
Brian also talks to a worker in one of the factories and ends
with Eric Gregoire, a human rights worker. Most of the workers
in these factories are from mainland China. {Thanks to WITNESS/Oxygen
for providing addittional footage.)
We are joined on the phone by ABC News' Brian Ross.
- Brian Ross, Chief Investigative Correspondent for ABC
News
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
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Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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