The
AP reports new court filings linking Jack Abramoff and indicted former White House official David Safavian to three GOP members of Congress. Reps. Don Young (R-AK), Steven LaTourette (R-OH), and Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV) are all alleged to have taken actions favorable to Abramoff at a time when he was lobbying the General Services Administration, headed by David Safavian.
Safavian is said to have edited a draft of a letter which was later sent by Reps. Young & LaTourette to the GSA.
As for Capito, Abramoff associate Neil Volz said of her involvement:
"We can't ask the most vulnerable Republican incumbent member of Congress in the House to put something in writing that can be made public," Volz wrote. "The congresswoman's office has already put the request in and you would think that would be enough!!!"
Don Young has been under increasing scrutiny as of late. In two recent Talking Points Memo posts here and here, research shows that in February of 1999 Young himself took a trip to the Marshall Islands organized by Jack Abramoff.
Additional members included:
According to Congressional travel records filed by the House Committee on Resources, these included John Doolittle (R-CA) and Ken Calvert (R-CA), as well as Eni Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa), Bob Underwood (D-Guam), and Donna Christenson (D-Virgin Islands). Eight congressional staffers came along too. (The records do not show the cost of the taxpayer-funded trip.) Though not mentioned in congressional travel records, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) was also part of the delegation, according to the former RMI official. (Rohrabacher's attendence was later confirmed by his spokesperson Rebecca Rudman.)
Doolittle & Rohrbacher have appeared elsewhere in the Abramoff web of corruption.
Young was certainly in a position which made his inclusion in the trip logical:
At the time of the trip, Rep. Young was Chairman of the House Resources Committee, which handles issues pertaining to U.S. territories and freely-associated states like the RMI.
Rep. LaTourette was a chairman of one of Young's subcommittees, also making him a natural target choice. Though, it should be noted, no campaign contributions were ever given to LaTourette by Abramoff, Greenberg Traurig or any of Abramoff's tribal clients.
The Anchorage Daily News noted in a column last week:
[Young] in 2002 signed a letter prepared by Mr. Abramoff, urging a federal agency to change its bidding rules on a building lease -- a change that would help steer the lease toward one of the lobbyist's clients. Five weeks later, two of Mr. Abramoff's Indian tribal clients gave Rep. Young's leadership political action committee $7,000.
Another
Daily News article details the letter:
According to FBI documents supporting the charges, Safavian assisted Abramoff in his plans for the Old Post Office, which ultimately went nowhere. In July 2002, Abramoff emailed Safavian a draft letter to the GSA that was purportedly going to be signed by two or more members of Congress on the issue of business preferences in bidding for the Post Office lease.
"Does this work, or do you want it to be longer?" Abramoff asked Safavian in the e-mail, according to the FBI document.
A few days later, Safavian forwarded to Abramoff an e-mail describing opposition from the White House Office of Management and Budget.
"I suspect we'll end up having to bring some Hill pressure to bear on OMB," Safavian wrote.
In August 2002, Abramoff took Safavian along on a $150,000 golfing junket to Scotland.
The second half of the TPM story suggests even more problematic actions:
Now, that's a full service firm! Abramoff and Co. actually drafted and ushered through three bills on behalf of the RMI. Not advised on them - drafted them.
The specific bills aren't mentioned in the article, so I'll have to do some digging. If I find anything, I'll be sure to make an update.
The WaPo has more on Abramoff's motivation in lobbying the GSA. The article, penned by Susan Schmidt & James Grimaldi, adds:
The e-mails show how Abramoff and members of his team were strategizing among themselves and with Safavian about how to acquire or lease part of 600 acres of the Naval Surface Warfare Center-White Oak in Montgomery County. Abramoff wanted the property for a Jewish school he operated. He also wanted to gain use of the Old Post Office for a tribal client. A key strategy involved getting members of Congress, at Safavian's suggestion, to press the GSA on the issue.
At one point, Abramoff asked a member of his lobbying team, Neil G. Volz, if he could get a provision inserted into an election-reform bill to advance the acquisition of the land. The bill was sponsored by Ney, Volz's former boss.
...
"If we were to craft something oblique, any chance of slipping into the election reform bill?" Abramoff asked Volz. "I know we are loading that up, but I thought I'd ask." Volz replied by saying he wanted to call Safavian at home to discuss it.
Rep. LaTourette recently told the
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
"There is nothing about the letters that I feel bad about, although who wants to be connected to Jack Abramoff?"
Indeed...
The Hill also reported in 2003 that LaTourette asked for a divorce after he admitted to an affair. The profession of the woman LaTourette was sleeping with? A lobbyist, of course. You can't make this stuff up, folks. He was quite literally in bed with a lobbyist.