This week's issue of the National Journal has a short piece that adds a new dimension to the story of Dana Rohrabacher's connections to the Jack Abramoff scandal. The key grafs:
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who famously provided a personal reference for Jack Abramoff in 2000 when the lobbyist was seeking financing to buy SunCruz Casinos, took a six-day trip to Malaysia in January 2002, accompanied by his wife and two of Abramoff's then-partners at the firm Greenberg Traurig. One of the lobbyists was Rohrabacher's former aide Tony Rudy.
The article then indicates that the trip cost $21,000 and the nature of the meetings that took place. The article continues (below the fold):
The federal task force that is probing Abramoff's lobbying activities is said to be scrutinizing his and Greenberg Traurig's work for the Malaysian government. The firm never registered with the Justice Department's Foreign Agents Registration unit to lobby for Malaysia. Instead, as first reported by National Journal, records and sources indicate that, in 2001 and 2002, the Malaysians paid a total of almost $1 million to the American International Center in Rehoboth Beach, Del., a think tank set up by Abramoff's partner Michael Scanlon. The center, in turn, paid Greenberg about $1.5 million for lobbying assistance.
This failure to register for FARA is a big deal, and if the media has any sense of fairness and consistency, should be getting the same kind of scrutiny that "fundraising at Buddhist temples" received a few years back, because it's the same underlying charge: lawmakers selling access to foreign interests.
The article then concludes by mentioning Rohrabacher's support on behalf of the Northern Mariana Islands (an Abramoff client) around this time as well, and the fact that Dana was a regular at Abramoff's restaurant in DC.
Not a smoking gun...but still, another brick in the wall.