Officials widen inquiry on Abramoff ties
WASHINGTON – In a burst of activity over the past eight days, FBI agents and federal prosecutors have won a guilty plea from a former congressional aide, implicated two more House of Representatives members and put the scandal surrounding onetime super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s influence-peddling back into the headlines.
The pace of the inquiry, which now has bagged a congressman, a deputy Cabinet secretary, a White House aide and eight others, appears to be accelerating.
And it portends to be a major new headache for the Bush administration and congressional Republicans still reeling from a furor over the Justice Department’s firing of eight U.S. attorneys and from last fall’s election, which put Democrats back in command on Capitol Hill.
The newest figure to face serious FBI scrutiny is Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., who said bureau agents have asked for details of a 2003 golf trip to Scotland that he took with Abramoff – a trip that the House ethics committee recently found violated House rules. Last week, FBI agents raided the home of Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif.
And on Tuesday, former congressional aide Mark Zachares pleaded guilty to helping Abramoff obtain government business and inside information in exchange for cash, gifts and job favors. Zachares was an aide to Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, when Young chaired the House transportation committee.
Abramoff may have provided the impetus for the flurry of public activity by cooperating extensively with investigators in return for promises of leniency as he tries to wriggle out of a prison sentence that theoretically could jail him for up to 30 years.
“He’s talking so much he doesn’t have time to eat,” one lawyer involved in the matter quipped, insisting upon anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. “Everybody who had business dealings with the guy should be nervous.”
Abramoff pleaded guilty in January 2006 to conspiring to defraud casino-rich Indian tribes of more than $20 million and to defrauding his former law and lobbying firm. He also pleaded guilty to three criminal charges in Florida for defrauding lenders when he and an associate purchased SunCruz casinos, a fleet of gambling boats.
Abramoff has yet to be sentenced in Washington, and prosecutors last month asked a federal judge in Miami to lighten the Florida sentence of five years and 10 months because of his continuing cooperation.
Already, with Abramoff’s help, former Ohio Republican congressman Bob Ney got a 30-month jail sentence after pleading guilty to conspiracy and making false statements. Aides to Ney and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, of Texas, also pleaded guilty to felonies.