Last month, Italia Federici of Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA) pled guilty to charges of tax evasion.  Unlike her former boyfriend J. Steven Griles, she's cooperating with the authorities in ongoing Abramoff-related investigations.

Today, Greenwire (subscription only, sorry) is reporting that Federici CREA associate Jared Carpenter has also entered a guilty plea on tax evasion charges:

Jared Carpenter, CREA's vice president since 2000, admitted July 6 he failed to pay taxes for three years on about $238,000 worth of salary between 2001 and 2003 -- when the group was funded primarily by Abramoff's Indian tribal clients.

Both were caught in the same net - playing fast an loose with other people's money in the Republican Culture of Corruption.  They probably didn't worry about it, assuming that Tom Delay's Permanent Republican Majority would protect them from any consequences.

Cross-posted at ePluribusMedia

Tonight I raise a glass to those in and out of power, those in and out of the media and those in and out of Government who fight the Bush/Gingrich/Abramoff/Rove/DeLay Republican Kakistocracy.

It is a dirty job to track the lies, schemes and crimes of the arrogantly unprincipled people behind the Bush Administration, the Republican Party and the Right Wing Noise machine.

Cheers!

I want to give a big shout out to Josh Marshall and all the folks at TPM/TPM Muckraker. They smelled a scandal when some US Attorneys were fired. They dug. They asked questions and they did not let go.

Others joined them. Citizens, bloggers, the media, watchdog groups and elected officials are asking questions. This is putting great pressure on Bushies everywhere.

They are starting to crack, especially when they are asked to visit Capitol Hill, take an oath and tell the Truth.  

And to add to the stress on the Bushies, Italia Federici pleaded guilty this week.

Count Two is a warning shot.

To the jump...

I am going to keep this uncharacteristically short.

There were two BIG developments in the Abramoff scandal today.

First, Henry Waxman’s Committee is expanding the Abramoff probe:

House Democrats are expanding their investigation into ties between jailed G.O.P. lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House and have contacted several Abramoff associates recently about testifying to Congress.

Second, Italia Federici of CREA is pleading guilty and cooperating with the Feds:

The head of a Republican environmental advocacy group is set to plead guilty in the Jack Abramoff scandal and is cooperating with an FBI investigation into corruption involving Congress and the Bush administration, two people close to the case said Wednesday.

These are important developments. No wonder Doolittle voted with Jefferson today.

I’ll have more analysis when I have a moment.

Cheers

My friend Dengre emailed me yesterday, asking if I'd read the latest CREW announcement on my favorite criminal subject, Italia Federici.  Seeing that we'd spent Sunday travelling from Mojave NP back to the coast at Malibu, and then Monday running errands all day, I'd missed it.  Bad me.

I don't comment much here, but once in a while something in the news catches my eye and I can't resist.  This time, I was motivated by reading a post on Carl Pope's blog at the Sierra Club.  While not his main point, he does manage to remind us of Gail Norton.

Pope has once again reminded us that the detritus left behind by Jack Abramoff and his cronies has not composted into harmless topsoil, but still stinks.

--> I need to add a link to the related diary by MediaFreeze, which I have just read.  It is part of the same story, recent chapter.  Maybe my comments were the prequil.

Over the past few weeks, there have been a plethora of Abramoff goodies - first, the House Committee on Government Reform released a scathing, scathing report on over 400 contacts Abramoff and his crew at Greenberg-Traurig had with Bush Administration officials.  Then, last Friday, current White House, and former Rove and Abramoff "executive assistant" Susan Ralston resigned, apparently in response to the aforementioned report documenting contacts between Ralston and Abramoff while she was "assisting" Rove.

Today, came a report from the Senate Finance Committee that various Abramoff/Norquist related groups, including former Interior Secretary Gale Norton's pet project, the Council for Republicans for Environmental Advocacy and Amy Ridenour's National Center for Public Policy Research were, well, front groups.  Egads, say it isn't true!

This morning, while doing my daily trolling of news on Al Gore, I came across this opinion piece in the Salt Lake Tribune:

Democrats will err if they pick Gore
By Eric Peters

WASHINGTON -- It took three election losses as the Democratic presidential candidate to push William Jennings Bryan onto the Chataqua circuit expounding a version of fundamentalist Christianity that would make Pat Robertson seem as tame as the Archbishop of Canterbury.

It took only one presidential loss - although surely the most controversial one in U.S. history - to send Al Gore onto the true believer's lecture trail spreading the doctrine of catastrophic climate change.

Yesterday, jorndorff posted a diary about the anemic list of only two Abramoff White House visits.  And noting that the date of one of those visits - March 6, 2001 - was the same day the White House announced the appointment of an Abramoff associate, Patrick Pizella, to the Labor Department.

Today, I'd like to consider another Bush Administration appointment with a relevant time line:  That of J. Steven Griles as #2 in the Interior Department under Gale Norton.

Cross-posted to ePluribusMedia

On the evening of January 4, C-SPAN broadcast hearings into the Abramoff scandal, that had actually transpired a month earlier, before the holidays.
The revelations quite blew the socks off presiding Senator John McCain and Democrat questioner Byron Dorgin. MS Italia Federici, President of CREA, the Commitee of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, which of course is not at all pro environment, was questioned about e-mails between her and Abramoff, a major donor to her institution, in which she had agreed to contact staff at the Department of the Interior on his behalf. She saw nothing wrong with the arrangements.
But there was a larger issue  of respect for government. If the legislature is not getting respect, it had better start demanding it and acting in such a way that it is deserved.

Just days ago we learned that Michael Scanlon, a very close associate of Jack Abramoff, has agreed to testify in all future cases against the corrupt lobbyist. Now, the WaPo reports, 'Witness May Have Pivotal Role in Probe of Alleged Corruption', that a deal from Abramoff himself may not be far off.

More inside on Scanlon, the depth of his involvement in Abramoff's dealings and why Abramoff making a deal grows increasingly inevitable.

The Senate Indian Affairs Subcommittee held a hearing today with Italia Federici, the President of the Council for Republican Environmental Advocacy.  If you haven't been following the story, CREA is a front lobbying organization through which Jack Abramoff delivered nearly $500,000 in Indian Tribe contributions to get "juice" with Gail Norton and the Department of Interior.  The Department of Justice went looking for Federici who blew off her subpeona with the committee last week.  

She showed up today. Real Audio Clip.  I bet she wished she'd gone to the Caymans.  Listen to the hearing, it is captivating theater.

More....

Documents released today by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee again confirm the reach of Jack Abramoff and his associates in the White House.

A February 21, 2001 e-mail from CREA Director Italia Federici to Eric Ruff, then-Communications Director to Gale Norton at CREA notes Abramoff associate Ralph Reed's reach in the White House: