Even the Bush Interior Department leaks...

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Tuesday April 11, 2006 · 4:18 PM PDT

2006/04/11 · 16:18

Just when you think the media is bored with the Abramoff scandal, new goodies appear. TPM Muckraker points out a new AP report on emails they "obtained" (no indication how) regarding communications between Abramoff and his GT associates, GOP politicos and Congressional staff over approval of the Sag-Chip school project.

But buried, way way down, in fact, the 34th paragraph, was the real meat of the matter:

The blunt letter has caught federal investigators' interest because it referenced correspondence that had been drafted inside Interior but never delivered. Federal agents are investigating whether an Interior official leaked the draft to Abramoff's team so it could be used by the lawmakers to pressure the department.

Remember, Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior, just resigned less than two weeks ago to "spend more time with her family/friends/mining lobbyists." Her #2, the Chief Operating Officer for the Department J. Steven Griles, is in particular implicated in earlier Abramoff emails for his purported part in attempting to influence tribal gaming policy, specifically for Abramoff's six tribal clients. While it's tintilating to think of scads of Republican Senators and Congressmen accepting bags of Sag-Chip cash in exchange for signed letters of support, the reality is that the leaking may be easier to prosecute than any suspected quid-pro-quo.

Of course, this fits into the whole theme of this weeks posts, since if DoJ leaked these emails to the AP, it's a signal we should spend some time trying to decode.

Cross-posted at Wampum, along with many other Abramoff-related articles this week.

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Even the Bush Interior Department leaks...

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