Jack Abramoff corrupted our political system. He owes every single American an apology. Now, he’ll have plenty of time to think about his actions when he’s sitting in a jail cell for the next six years. He deserved more, but we’ll take what we can get.
Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist known for lavishing politicians with football tickets or whisking them away on exotic golf junkets, will start life Wednesday with a new identity: federal inmate No. 27593-112.
Abramoff is to report to federal prison to begin serving a nearly six-year prison sentence for a fraudulent deal to buy a fleet of casino ships in Florida. He also is awaiting sentencing for corrupting government officials and their staff members.
If it were up to the Justice Department, Abramoff wouldn’t be heading to prison — at least not yet. He could hold the key to a sweeping corruption case involving Congress, members of the Bush administration and their aides — and prosecutors said putting their star witness behind bars would impede the investigation.
But a Miami federal judge refused to delay the sentence, meaning Abramoff’s cooperation will have to continue from prison. Abramoff’s lawyers had no comment.
Abramoff was originally assigned to a federal prison in Pennsylvania about four hours away from Washington. Prosecutors wanted him assigned to a prison in Cumberland, Maryland, about two hours away.
The Justice Department said the issue has been resolved and, though the Bureau of Prisons will not comment on where Abramoff will report, prison officials began making preparations for a crush of reporters outside the Cumberland prison.
Abramoff enjoyed access and influence across Capitol Hill, from his close ties to congressmen, to his hundreds of contacts with White House officials. He kept his powerful friends flush with campaign cash, gifts and trips such as a $92,000 chartered jet to Scotland for a golf outing with Rep. Bob Ney, Bush administration official David Safavian and congressional aides.
Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), a powerful and VERY crooked Congressman, who is waiting any day to be indicted by the Department of Justice has just announced that he will NOT seek re-election in the fall. Rep. Ney is being out-fundraised and out-campaigned by Democrat Zack Space and the heat of this campaign and the pressure of the law has finally caught up with him.
U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, dogged by an influence peddling probe in Washington, will not seek re-election, state Sen. Joy Padgett said early Monday.
Ney called Padgett on Saturday and asked the fellow Republican to run in his place, saying that defending himself has been a strain on his family, she said.
“It’s a very sad time,” Padgett said of Ney’s decision, first reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on its Web site.
She said Ney told her, “that there’s only so much he can take. He said, ‘I have to do this.’”
Padgett told The Associated Press she would run for Ney’s seat.
Calls to Ney’s office and staff were not immediately returned. He has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing.
Padgett said Ney told her he intends to serve the remainder of his term.
The six-term congressman from Heath in central Ohio had insisted he would not resign even if indicted over his dealings with now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In his first primary test in a decade, Ney won 68 percent of the vote May 2 against a little-known opponent.
However, he faced a tough challenge in November from Democrat Zack Space, who had made the Justice Department’s investigation into Ney a focus of his campaign.
For the first three months of 2006, Ney’s campaign spent more than it raised, a deficit he blamed on mounting legal costs. In the past three months, it was unusually intense campaigning in his expansive rural district that caused the incumbent to spend $52,675 more than donors gave him, he said.
“I’m embattled and attacked; I understand that,” Ney told The AP last month after Space raised about $190,000 more than Ney for the quarter.
Ney, 52, told the Tribune-Review that his family had not asked him to drop out, but he wanted to spare them anyway.
I hate Ralph Reed. Americans from coast to coast should also hate Ralph Reed. He is a hypocritical, pseudo-religious, unethical shyster. He is all tied up in the Jack Abramoff scheme and he has brought nothing but shame to himself, his family, people of faith and most importantly, the Lord above.
Well, last night, Republican voters in Georgia rejected Reed; he lost a hard-fought primary to Georgia State Senator Casey Cagle. The final tally – 56.1% to 43.9%.
Ralph Reed can now focus solely on his mounting legal woes. The people of Georgia, specifically Republican voters who sent a strong message last night that you can have a pretty face and a nice website, but in the end, when you make a deal with the devil, the devil usually wins; those people can sleep peacefully tonight knowing that Ralph Reed’s rising political career is now dead on arrival. America thanks you!
Ralph Reed, the former head of one of the largest Christian activist groups, conceded defeat today in a Republican primary in his bid to become lieutenant governor of Georgia, the Associated Press reported.
Reed, 45, was hurt by disclosures that he once ran an anti- gambling campaign that was secretly financed by casino-owning clients of his friend, lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Reed has said he believed Abramoff’s assurances he wasn’t being paid with gambling funds.
official David Safavian has been convicted on four of five counts in connection with disgraced GOP lobbying Jack Abramoff. This trial is the first Abramoff related case to go to court and this conviction is a huge blow to the White House, Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) and the other crooked members of Congress who were influenced by Abramoff. Read More…
ABC News is now reporting that Speaker of the House, and DeLay pool boy, Dennis Hastert (R-IL) is now “in the mix” in the ever widening Jack Abramoff scandal. Hastert is of course denying the claims, and even the Justice Department has denied the story, but Brian Ross and ABC continue to insist that multiple sources have told them that Hastert is under the microscope too. ThinkProgress has the transcript.
ROSS: Good morning Robin. Despite flat and repeated denies from the Department of Justice, federal law enforcement officials insist to ABC news the FBI investigation of capitol hill corruption has widened to include potentially Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Officials describe the 64-year-old Illinois republican as “very much in the mix†of the corruption investigation. Something the speaker told ABC News he was unaware of.
HASTERT: I know nothing about it.
ROSS: Part of the investigation is said to involve a letter Hastert wrote three years ago urging the Secretary of Interior to block a casino on an Indian reservation that would have competed with other tribes. The other tribes were represented by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who reportedly has provided details of his dealings with Hastert as part of his plea agreement with the government. The letter was written shortly after a fund-raiser for Hastert at a restaurant owned by Abramoff. Abramoff and his clients contributed more than $26,000 at the time.
Knowing this now it seems particularly suspicious that Hastert was so quick to denounce the raid on Rep. William Jefferson’s office earlier in the week.
Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) is also going down. Rep. Ney is one of the key players in the Jack Abramoff/Tom DeLay corruption scandal. He should resign from Congress today.
in prison for fraud reports MSNBC.com. The sentences were the minimum under the plea agreement for Abramoff and associate Adam Kidan who will stay out of prison momentarily while they “continue cooperating in a Washington corruption investigation….” We’re gonna miss you Jack.
