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Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Florida

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Tue Jan 03, 2006 at 06:27:36 PM EST
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CNN reports receiving an email from Jack Abramoff's attorney, Neal Sonnett, stating that Abramoff will plead to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud tomorrow in Miami, while other charges would be dropped as part of the plea deal.

These are five year counts. Assuming he pleads to two counts,as reported here, the maximum he could get is ten years. Because he is cooperating, he will get less. As I analyze here, in D.C., the sentence could be as little as four to five years. The same is probably true of the Florida sentence. With the sentences to run concurrently, Abramoff did very well. Good work by Neal and Abbe Lowell.

The Washington Post recaps the Florida Indictment here.

On a related note, Jane and Digby are very skeptical of Chief of DOJ's Criminal Division Alice Fisher's ability to be impartial in the investigation of congressional wrongdoers that results from Abramoff's cooperation. As I reported here, Bush snuck Fisher in as a recess appointment after Senators had blocked her confirmation. At the time, The Houston Chronicle reported:

President Bush has used a constitutional provision to bypass the Senate and fill a top Justice Department slot with an official whose nomination stalled over tactics at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval facility. Bush used a "recess appointment" Wednesday to name Alice Fisher to lead the agency's criminal division. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., had blocked the nomination because he wants to talk to an agent who named Fisher in an e-mail about allegedly abusive interrogations at the U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo. Fisher can serve until January 2007.

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    Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Florida | 13 comments (13 topical)
    Re: Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Flori (none / 0) (#1)
    by ras on Tue Jan 03, 2006 at 09:00:13 PM EST
    R's & D's alike will be convicted on this. As they should be.

    Re: Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Flori (none / 0) (#2)
    by joejoejoe on Tue Jan 03, 2006 at 10:03:54 PM EST
    1) The criminal information states that the tribes themselves were victims of fraud. Their contributions to 'R's & D's' were legal, it was the misrepresentation of Abramoff and others that was criminal. You would have to believe every dollar John Warner received from Newport News Shipping or Joe Lieberman from Sikorsky was corrupt to apply that standard to the Indian tribal contributions because they are the same under the law. Legal. 2) Abramoff himself gave not one dime to Democratic candidates. 100% of his personal contributions were to Republicans.

    Re: Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Flori (none / 0) (#3)
    by scarshapedstar on Tue Jan 03, 2006 at 10:10:07 PM EST
    R's & D's alike will be convicted on this. As they should be.
    Do you mean "alike" as in equal numbers, equal political clout? Hate to burst your bubble, but it's going to be a bunch of big Republicans and one obscure Democrat heading to the pen. But that's something R's & D's alike can cheer!

    Re: Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Flori (none / 0) (#4)
    by scarshapedstar on Tue Jan 03, 2006 at 10:15:52 PM EST
    Or, rather, no Democrats at all. From firedoglake:
    Appearing on the December 16 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Kornblut falsely claimed that Abramoff had given contributions to Democrats. Yet a Media Matters for America search of the Center for Responsive Politics database of campaign contributions did not find any contributions from Abramoff to Democrats or Democratic leadership political action committees. Although Kornblut amended her statement to claim that Abramoff "had his clients donate to Democrats," her comment falsely suggests that Republicans and Democrats are equally enmeshed in the scandal surrounding Abramoff. In fact, while Democrats have received contributions from Abramoff's lobbying groups and his clients, Kornblut's statement ignores the difference between accepting contributions from groups linked to Abramoff, which is legal and proper, and taking contributions in exchange for official actions, which is illegal, and which is at the heart of the ongoing investigations. ... Between 2001 and 2004, Abramoff gave more than $127,000 to Republican candidates and committees and nothing to Democrats, federal records show.
    Surely Ras must have something specific in mind, though. Please, inform us.

    Re: Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Flori (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 03, 2006 at 10:18:38 PM EST
    good catch, scar

    Re: Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Flori (none / 0) (#6)
    by ras on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 12:00:25 AM EST
    I am so gonna enjoy this... Huzzaba Clyburn & Thompson, for example, who accepted free trips from Abramoff and falsely reported that they were paid for by a different (non-profit) group. Or would you prefer Harry Reid? Here's how WAPO, that notorious right-wing rag, put it:
    But Abramoff did hire as one of his lobbyists Edward P. Ayoob, a veteran Reid legislative aide. Manley acknowledged that Ayoob helped raise campaign money for his former boss. Lawyers close to the Abramoff operation said that Ayoob held a fundraising reception for Reid at Greenberg Traurig's offices here.
    And let us not forget ol' Byron Dorgan. I'll quote yahoo news this time:
    A lawyer for the Louisiana Coushatta Indians told The Associated Press that Abramoff instructed the tribe to send $5,000 to Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record)'s political group just three weeks after the North Dakota Democrat urged fellow senators to fund a tribal school program Abramoff's clients wanted to use. . The check was one of about five dozen the Coushattas listed in a tribal ledger as being issued on March 6, 2002, to various lawmakers' campaigns and political causes at the instruction of Abramoff, tribal attorney Jimmy Fairchild said Monday.
    And we're just scratching the surface so far. Hey Charlie, I'll be sure to remind you of your comments later on, when D's go down, too. Thx so much for putting them on record. Maybe your analytical framework - that run-of-the-mill corruption is confined to a single party, har har - needs revising ... or are you just having a fookin' hard time keeping up w/the Mighty Ras? Well anyway, you do your best and that's what counts. And we all enjoy watching; I know I sure do.

    Re: Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Flori (none / 0) (#7)
    by scarshapedstar on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 01:05:20 AM EST
    But Abramoff did hire as one of his lobbyists Edward P. Ayoob, a veteran Reid legislative aide. Manley acknowledged that Ayoob helped raise campaign money for his former boss. Lawyers close to the Abramoff operation said that Ayoob held a fundraising reception for Reid at Greenberg Traurig's offices here.
    Wow, he hired a guy who used to work for Harry Reid. Boy, is my face red! Clearly the Democrats are far, far more corrupt. Anyway, don't see a crime here.
    A lawyer for the Louisiana Coushatta Indians told The Associated Press that Abramoff instructed the tribe to send $5,000 to Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record)'s political group just three weeks after the North Dakota Democrat urged fellow senators to fund a tribal school program Abramoff's clients wanted to use. . The check was one of about five dozen the Coushattas listed in a tribal ledger as being issued on March 6, 2002, to various lawmakers' campaigns and political causes at the instruction of Abramoff, tribal attorney Jimmy Fairchild said Monday.
    Sounds illegal enough. But somehow I don't think 5 grand is going to go down in history quite the way Tom Delay's piggy bank will.

    Re: Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Flori (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 07:34:20 AM EST
    About two-thirds of the more than $4.4 million in political donations from Abramoff, his clients, and associates since 1998 went to Republicans, according to records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign-finance watchdog group. A search of FEC records since 1998 found no personal donations from Abramoff to Democrats, only to Republicans. I guess bribes are a Republican Value.

    Re: Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Flori (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 07:34:30 AM EST
    Charliedontsurf... What party did all direct Abramoff contributions go to? Apparently Charlie doesn't think either... The whole point of a "lobby" is to deal with the party "in power". Seeing how the Repugs are there now... a vast majority of his time (& money) would go to that party. However, if you are so naive to think that the Dems are all squeaky clean here... I have a bridge to sell you.

    Re: Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Flori (none / 0) (#10)
    by kdog on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 07:47:37 AM EST
    The Dems aren't clean...but they are cleaner than the Republicans.

    Re: Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Flori (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 08:33:51 AM EST
    The Dems aren't clean...but they are cleaner than the Republicans. Tell that to the Buddhist monks, Kdog. Or the Chinese military complex. Or Bob Torricelli's contributors. Both parties are so covered in mud and slime that the only way to distinguish them is by who got caught most recently.

    Re: Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Flori (none / 0) (#12)
    by kdog on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 08:49:48 AM EST
    I was referring specifically to the Abramoff case jpaul. In this case, the Repubs are holding the vast majority of the dirty money. In general, I agree with you though. Utterly corrupted is an apt description of both parties.

    Re: Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Flori (none / 0) (#13)
    by scarshapedstar on Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 09:44:06 AM EST
    Abramoff was among the lobbyists most closely associated with the K Street Project, which was initiated by his friend Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), now the former House majority leader, once the GOP vaulted to power. It was an aggressive program designed to force corporations and trade associations to hire more GOP-connected lobbyists in what at times became an almost seamless relationship between Capitol Hill lawmakers and some firms that sought to influence them.
    Just thought I'd remind people what this case is really about.

    Abramoff to Plead to Five Year Counts in Florida | 13 comments (13 topical)