Jack Abramoff

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Jack Abramoff

Jack Abramoff, a long-time Washington insider whom Congressman Tom DeLay refers to as one of his “closest and dearest friends,” has been a Republican lobbyist and fundraiser and was a Bush Pioneer. According to the College Republican National Committee (CRNC) web site, he was Senior Director of Government Affairs for the Greenberg Traurig law and lobbying firm [1] and was CRNC National Chairman from 1981–85. He is also a Director of the National Center for Public Policy Research.

Early years

Abramoff was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where his father (who had ties to Ronald Reagan) worked with Arnold Palmer Enterprises. When he was 10, Jack's family moved to Beverly Hills, California, where he eventually became a high-school weightlifting champ who once squatted 540 pounds. He was raised in a secular Jewish household, but a viewing of Fiddler on the Roof at the age of 12 changed his life: "I made the decision that I would become religious in order to preserve the faith in our family," he said. He immediately bought books on Judaism with his own savings.

College years

In college, Abramoff organized Massachusetts campuses for Reagan's presidential campaign in 1980. A year later he graduated from Brandeis University and the Georgetown University Law Center.

Abramoff was soon elected chairman of the College Republican National Committee with the campaign being managed by Grover Norquist and aided by Ralph E. Reed, Jr.. "It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left," Abramoff was quoted as saying in the group's 1983 annual report, "Our job is to remove them from power permanently".

Abramoff "changed the direction of the committee and made it more activist and conservative than ever before," notes the CNRC. [2]

Abramoff spent ten years in Hollywood, producing such movies as Red Scorpion, an anti-communist film made just after his term with the College Republicans ended.

Abramoff next joined Citizens for America, a Reaganite group that helped Oliver North build support for the Nicaraguan contras and staged an unprecedented meeting of anti-Communist rebel leaders in 1985 in Jamba, Angola. "I spent Shabbos in Jamba, and when I went out to pray," he told me, the locals thought he was a "mystic." Things ended when the group's millionaire founder, Lewis Lehrman, concluded that Abramoff had spent his money carelessly.

Legal work

Abramoff joined the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, whose website described him as "directly involved in the Republican party and conservative movement leadership structures and is one of the leading fund raisers for the party and its congressional candidates." This page biography has since been removed from their website.

Timothy Flanigan acknowledged that in early 2003 he had day-to-day supervision of Jack Abramoff.

Among the work his team did for Tyco, Abramoff listed lobbying the White House.

In 1997, Abramoff gave $500 to the campaign of Republican Congressman Richard Norman "Doc" Hastings. The New York Times reported that Abramoff made an additional $500 donation to Hastings and that the Seattle law firm Abramoff worked for, Preston, Gates & Ellis, donated $13,000 to Hastings' campaign.

Jack Abramoff is also founder and former chairman of the International Freedom Foundation (IFF). [3]

SunCruz Casinos Fraud Indictment

On August 11, 2005, Abramoff was indicted by a federal grand jury on fraud charges arising from a 2000 deal to buy casino boats. He and an associate, Adam Kidan, allegedly used a fake wire transfer to defraud two lenders out of some $60 million to finance the deal for SunCruz Casinos. The deal fell apart after considerable legal wrangling and the seller, Konstantinos ``Gus Boulis, was shot to death five months later in what police called "a hit" which has never been solved.

Working over Guam

A U.S. grand jury in Guam opened an investigation of controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff in 2003 looking into Abramoff's secret arrangement with Superior Court officials to lobby against a court reform bill then pending in Congress.

Other Legal Problems

Starting around the year 2000 Abramoff and Michael Scanlon ran what has been called a modern version of the old Mafia protection racket.

According to e-mails, Reed and Norquist contacted Abramoff separately in 1999 to say they wanted to do business. Norquist complained about a "$75K hole in my budget from last year." Reed said he was counting on Abramoff "to help me with some contacts."

In 2000, Abramoff arranged for the Choctaws to give the Alabama Christian Coalition $1.15 million in installments. Norquist agreed to pass the money on to the Alabama Christian Coalition and another Alabama antigambling group, both of which Reed was mobilizing for the fight against the a propossed Alabama state lottery.

Joining Abramoff on a vacation was Tom DeLay, whose airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 was charged to an American Express card issued to Jack Abramoff, according to two sources who know Abramoff's credit card account number and to a copy of a travel invoice displaying that number. DeLay's expenses during the same trip for food, phone calls and other items at a golf course hotel in Scotland were billed to a different credit card also used on the trip by a second registered Washington lobbyist, Edwin A. Buckham, according to receipts documenting that portion of the trip.[4]

Documents showed that Jack Abramoff or his firm not only paid travel bills for Republicans like Tom DeLay but also for Southern Democrats like James Cyburn of South Carolina and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi.

David Grosh, now a construction worker, told senators of being a lifeguard on the Delaware shore in 2001 when friend Jack Abramoff asked him to head a think tank called the American International Center, based at his beach house.

In 2002, after Abramoff worked with Christian activist Ralph E. Reed, Jr. to close the casino of the Tigua tribe, he persuaded the tribe to hire him to lobby Congress to reopen the casino. Shortly after Abramoff met with Rep. Bob Ney to ask him to push the legislation, the Tigua (by overnight mail) sent three checks to Ney's political committees, totaling $32,000. The apparent exchange of campaign contributions in return for Ney's support of an amendment to reopen the Tigua's casino could constitute bribery.

E-mails between Abramoff and the Tigua's political consultant show that Ney solicited the Tigua to pay for part of a 2002 golf trip to Scotland, knowing full well that solicitation of travel is specifically prohibited by House rules. Shortly after Ney returned from Scotland, he was scheduled to meet with members of the Tigua tribal council. Prior to that meeting, Abramoff reminded the Tigua that "for obvious reasons" the golf trip would not be mentioned at the meeting, but that Ney show his appreciation "in other ways," which was, Abramoff pointed out, just what the tribe wanted. Although the tribe never ended up paying for the golf trip, Ney's attempt to tie the gift of the trip to the legislative assistance the tribe was seeking appears to violate federal criminal law.

In 2003 Jack Abramoff gave Richard Pombo's PAC $5,000. Abramoff also gave $2,000, the maximum allowed, to Pombo's congressional campaign committee that same year.

In 2004, Abramoff resigned from Greenberg Traurig amid a scandal related to spending irregularities in his work as a lobbyist for Native American tribes involved in gambling, namely The Mississippi Choctaw, the Louisiana Coushatta, the Agua Caliente, Sandia Pueblo, the Saginaw Chippewa and the Tigua of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo.

The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians paid $15 million dollars to Abramoff and Scanlon's organizations. The funds were diverted to a number of projects, including the Eshkol Academy, an all-boys Orthodox Jewish school setup by Abramoff in Maryland, and to a friend who ran sniper workshops for the Israel Defence Forces.[5]

The Louisiana Jena Band of Choctaws offered testimony accusing Louisiana Sen. David Vitter of being in cahoots Abramoff and his attempts to stymie the tribe's casino plans.[6]

The E-mail Trail

In emails now made public by the FBI, who is investigating him, Abramoff repeatedly refers to Native Americans as "monkeys" and "idiots."

In 2000, Abramoff warned Reed on February 7 that the initial payment for antilottery radio spots and mailings would be less than Reed thought. "I need to give Grover something for helping, so the first transfer will be a bit lighter," Abramoff wrote.

The transfer was apparently lighter than even Abramoff expected. In a note to himself on February 22, Abramoff wrote, "Grover kept another $25K!" Norquist claims he had permission.

Abramoff via email once asked his conspirator Michael Scanlon to meet a client. The reason Mr. Abramoff couldn't do it because as put it "I have to meet with the monkeys from the Choctaw tribal council. You need to close the deal... with the client..."

In 2001 Jack was making millions on fees of up to $750 per hour; he was the proprietor of two city restaurants. His BMW was outfitted with a computer screen. He had private skyboxes at sports stadiums from which he could watch Redskins and Orioles and Wizards games.

On November 12, 2001, Reed sent Abramoff an e-mail stating, "get me details so I can alert cornyn and let him know what we are doing to help him" [sic]. Similarly, on November 13, 2001, Reed wrote "I strongly suggest we start doing patch-throughs to perry and cornyn [sic]. We're getting killed on the phone." Also, on January 7, 2002, Reed sent Abramoff an e-mail stating "I think we should budget for an ataboy for cornyn" [sic].

When Cornyn ran for Senate, Abramoff contributed $1,000, the maximum amount legally allowed. The allegedly anti-gambling Cornyn also received $6,250 in contributions from Las Vegas casino interests who oppose Indian gaming, some of which were made at the same time Cornyn was pushing to close the Tigua's casino.

Of the $7.7 million Abramoff and fellow lobbyist Michael Scanlon charged the Choctaw for projects in 2001, they spent $1.2 million for their efforts and split the rest in a scheme they called "gimme five".

Hoping for a contract with the tribe that owned the the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort, Jack Abramoff describing his relationships with Indian tribes wrote to his partner Scanlon. "Can you smell money?!?!?!"

"Did we win it?" Scanlon wrote back.

"The [expletive] troglodytes didn't vote on you today," Abramoff responded.

"What's a troglodyte?" Scanlon asked.

"What am I, a dictionary? It's a lower form of existence, basically," Abramoff wrote. "I like these guys, he hastened to add, yet then continued: "They are plain stupid... Morons."

About one tribal client (date unknown) Abramoff wrote to Scanlon, These mofos are the stupidest idiots in the land for sure." In another e-mail message he wrote, "we need to get some money from those monkeys!!

Abramoff also wrote "Da man! You iz da man! Do you hear me?! You da man!! How much money coming tomorrow? Did we get some more money in?"

John McCain has said of the Abramoff theft, "Even in this town, where huge sums are routinely paid as the price of political access, the figures are astonishing."

In 2002 Abramoff came to see Reed as competition. "He is a bad version of us! No more money for him," Abramoff wrote to Scanlon.

All together Abramoff allegedly took about $80 million from multiple tribes.

References

The original version of this article is derived from material at Sourcewatch, and released to Wikipedia under the GFDL license