Hot off the
AP comes a story featuring additional info connecting Senator Conrad Burns to corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Beyond the previous reports of Burns' switched vote, letter to the Interior Department and thousands in donations received comes word that Burns' staff took a Super Bowl trip arranged by Abramoff. Burns' staff also met repeatedly with Abramoff's associates on both indian gaming and CNMI issues.
The 2001 donations to Burns, a Montana Republican, included
money directly from Abramoff and a key garment company executive in the Pacific islands who was part of the coalition paying Abramoff's firm to fend off stronger U.S. regulations on the islands.
In addition, two Burns staffers had accepted a trip arranged by Abramoff to attend the Super Bowl in Florida earlier that year.
These are the strongest suggestions that Burns is the most vulnerable member of the Senate involved in the ongoing Abramoff investigations.
More inside.
Whereas previous reports on Senators noted campaign contributions from tribes connected to Abramoff, this is the first account of a Senator receiving trips and funds directly from Abramoff. [Previously, this had been restricted to members of the House...DeLay, Ney, etc.]
Burns was an important Senator for Abramoff to target, sitting both on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Appropriations Subcommittee which handled the Interior Department's budget. Several members of the Interior Department, most prominently former deputy secretary J. Steven Griles, also had strong ties to Abramoff. Abramoff, who at one point offered Griles a K St. lobbying position, often used CREA head Italia Federici as a point person in attempts to influence the Interior Department.
Abramoff's billing records, which AP obtained from the U.S. territorial islands under an open records request, show that in the three months before the vote, the lobbyist's team met twice with Burns and several more times with his Senate aides to discuss Marianas issues.
One of those meetings, between Burns' staff and Abramoff associate Todd A. Boulanger, occurred just six days before the vote.
Abramoff donated $5,000 to Burns' political action committee in February, just before the meetings started. His firm, Greenberg Traurig, donated $2,000 to Burns in March and Eloy Inos of Saipan donated $5,000 in April.
The Inos donation was first reported by The Billings Gazette on Dec. 3. Inos listed his employer as Tan Holdings, a member of the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association, another Abramoff client.
Boulanger has deep ties to the GOP leadership and Abramoff. His wife was a former staffer to DeLay and went on to be Roy Blunt's press secretary. Boulanger worked with Abramoff at the lobbying firms Preston, Gates & Ellis, Greenberg Traurig and Cassidy & Associates. Each time, Boulanger seems to have followed Abramoff's move. When Abramoff made his move to Cassidy & Associates, a former Blunt staffer, Gregg Hartley, was responsible for bringing Abramoff aboard. Just days after Abramoff's move to Cassidy, Boulanger was hired.
Tan Holdings, run by the Tan family (as noted here and by many diaries by dengre), worked very closely with Tom DeLay in perpetuating its deregulated exploitative sweatshop industry. Forced labor, sex workers and slave workers were all par for the course.
Though Burns has yet to be contacted by DoJ investigators, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Burns is one of four Republican lawmakers currently being investigated for their ties to Abramoff (presumably along with Reps. DeLay, Ney and Doolittle).
Update [2005-12-6 20:35:47 by jorndorff]: A new article from The Hill notes that two staffers for Senator Burns, Will Brooke and Shawn Vasell, went on to work with Abramoff on K St. [Brooke was one of the two Burns staffers who went on the 2001 Super Bowl trip.]
[Will] Brooke and another Burns staffer flew on a SunCruz jet to the 2001 Super Bowl, where they each received $500 in casino chips to use on a SunCruz boat. Then DeLay staffer Tim Berry also came along, as did [former DeLay chief of staff turned Abramoff associate Tony] Rudy.