Italia Federici Gets Target Letter in Griles - Abramoff Probe

By Jeralyn, Section Corruption Cases
Posted on Tue Apr 03, 2007 at 11:54:05 AM EST
Tags: Italia Federici, Stephen Griles, Jack Abramoff (all tags)

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On March 23, Stephen Griles, former Deputy Secretary of the Interior during Gale Norton's tenure, pleaded guilty to providing misleading information to Senate investigators about his relationship with Jack Abramoff.

Now, Italia Federici, Griles former girlfriend who "co-founded CREA, a conservative-leaning environmental-advocacy group, in 1997 with Gale Norton, who became secretary of the Interior Department in 2001" has received a target letter.
CREA stands for Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy,

“The investigation is focused on the allegedly illegal manner in which you operated the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy,” wrote Stephanie Evans, a trial attorney in the department’s Tax Division.

Griles acknowledged at the time of his plea,

... that because of his romantic relationship with Federici, he “gave Abramoff more credibility as a lobbyist” and “distinguished him from other lobbyists.”

Federici is under investigation for potentially violating five statutes:

More...

conspiracy to defraud the United States, tax evasion, impeding the Internal Revenue Service, and obstructing proceedings and making false statements before the Senate. The letter makes no mention of Abramoff or Griles.

Federal officials also informed Federici that they believe she “may have assisted others in depriving the American Public of honest services of at least one administration official,” the letter states.

The letter advised Federici to seek an attorney and asked if she would be willing to plead guilty and cooperate with investigators. Whether she is currently cooperating or played a role in Griles’ plea is unknown.

Federici has applied for a public defender to represent her.

The Abramoff tally is now up to ten.

In addition to Abramoff and Griles, other officials who have pleaded guilty include Roger Stillwell, former Mariana Islands desk officer at Interior; former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and his former chief of staff, Will Heaton; and one-time Abramoff associates Michael Scanlon, Tony Rudy, Neil Volz, and Adam Kidan. David Safavian, the former top procurement officer at the Office of Management and Budget, was convicted on four charges of making false statements and obstructing justice stemming from his dealings with Abramoff.

For way more on Italia Federici, check out Mary Beth at Wampum who has been chronicling her involvement since 2004.

Here's Mary Beth's post today at Daily Kos.

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Italia Federici Gets Target Letter in Griles - Abramoff Probe | 7 comments (7 topical)

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John Nowacki- Political Operative in the DOJ (none / 0) (#1)
by MisterApologist on Tue Apr 03, 2007 at 01:08:26 PM EST

I have analyzed the entire transcript of Kyle Sampson's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in regard to the "aggregating" of information by the Executive Office of the Department of Justice. There were some startling revelations: (This story plus updates can be found at http://misterapologist.blogspot.com )
John Nowacki, Principal Deputy Director as well as the Acting Counsel to the Director in the Executive Office of the Justice Department, is the go-between for most of the Justice Department and all 93 US Attorney's.(He used to work for the Wingnut group the Free Congress Foundation) He is the guy that gets letters, emails, phone calls, and other bits of information that he then passes up the chain of command. The documents contained on my website demonstrate his central role in important meetings, his role in gathering information on prospective US Attorney's, and organizing complaints of current US Attorney's. The final document (a portion of Nowacki's schedule) demonstrates that his informants (Investigator Warren Hamilton) help to fulfill his obligation to the other members of the Justice Department by supplying information that fits with a specific agenda. It is extremely important that the House and Senate Judiciary Committee's interview John Nowacki in order to establish the links
between the Justice Department officials, the US Attorney's in the field, and the political operatives who helped remove the targeted US Attorney's.
(This story plus updates can be found at http://misterapologist.blogspot.com )

: What does this have to do with Italia Federici? (none / 0) (#2)
by Jeralyn on Tue Apr 03, 2007 at 01:09:51 PM EST

Please remove your comment and post it on a thread pertaining to the firing of U.S. Attorneys. Thanks.

Very interesting. And what a name she has! (none / 0) (#3)
by oculus on Tue Apr 03, 2007 at 01:32:27 PM EST

Federici is a very accomplished liar (none / 0) (#4)
by tworivers on Tue Apr 03, 2007 at 01:59:13 PM EST

I recently saw her 2005 testimony before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee replayed on CSPAN. Ms. Federici can prevaricate with the best of them.

sorry for wrong thread (none / 0) (#5)
by MisterApologist on Tue Apr 03, 2007 at 01:59:55 PM EST

wow I didn't even read which thread I clicked on. It was supposed to go into another window. I apologize for mucking this up..

: that's okay (none / 0) (#6)
by Jeralyn on Tue Apr 03, 2007 at 03:31:19 PM EST

I just wanted to point out that comments should relate to the topic of the thread. Not all blogs require that.

who the heck is (none / 0) (#7)
by cpinva on Wed Apr 04, 2007 at 12:59:06 AM EST

italia federici, and is that her real name? aside from being someone's girl friend, what were her bona fides? is she a lawyer, or just a hanger-on who saw an opportunity to make some easy money?