This Week in Corruption
This week in corruption: The Department of Justice flips Abramoff business partner Michael Scanlon, the Texas Republican Party settles with the Travis County DA, and two more Ohio elected officials are involved in Coingate.
Michael Scanlon is expected to plead guilty Monday to charges of conspiracy to defraud and become the star witness for the prosecution in the Justice Department's investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, lawmakers and their staffs, and executive branch officials. Scanlon, a former press aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, operated a public relations firm that Abramoff pressured his clients to hire as a compliment to his lobbying services. Abramoff did not disclose to those clients that he and Scanlon secretly shared Scanlon's fees, a kickback arrangement they termed "gimme five."
Scanlon is expected to help establish the storyline in a case that currently relies on a trail of e-mails and other documents. His cooperation is, for example, expected to be particularly damaging to Rep. Bob Ney. The indictment charges the Scanlon and Abramoff conspired to bribe Rep. Ney with numerous things of value, including a trip to Scotland, in return for a his assistance in inserting a line into the Helping Americans Vote Act favoring the Tiguas tribal gaming efforts and placing comments favorable to the SunCruz company in the congressional record. Ney denies wrongdoing, but Scanlon could have been privy to conversations that would establish quid pro quo.
Scanlon may also be able to testify about gifts to Rep. Tom DeLay's staff and dealings with his office. Scanlon testified before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that when he was attempting to secure funding for Rep. Ney's trip to Scotland, he mentioned that they had previously set up a similar trip for Rep. DeLay. Scanlon may also be able to testify about funds directed to organizations run by Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, a candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia.
In a matter unrelated to Rep. DeLay's indictment, the Texas Republican Party reached an agreement with the Travis County on Thursday not to use corporate funds for advertisements, GOTV efforts, or registration drives on behalf of candidates. The agreement stemmed from a complaint brought by three public watchdog groups that claimed the Texas GOP illegally spent $6 million in corporate cash in 2002, a watershed year for the party that included redistricting. In the agreement, the Party acknowledges raising and spending the money, but no wrongdoing.
The Toledo Blade uncovered new information in the Coingate scandal last week, obtaining a copy of an affidavit sworn out by an FBI agent in April that named 13 "conduits" who received checks from Tom Noe and in turn wrote new checks to the Bush campaign. On Monday, Rep. Chris Redfern, Ohio House Minority Leader, sent a letter to the chairman of the Ohio Republican Party asking for the resignations of City Councilman Betty Shultz and Lucas County Commissioner Maggie Thurber, two of the conduits. Neither woman has been indicted; prosecutors and defense lawyers have indicated that they may not be if they cooperate. The chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party said the two women have not yet had a chance to tell their side of the story.
Comments (10)
Dang, pretty slow week for such a corrupt group of evil doers...
November 21, 2005 3:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
The prosecuters no doubt had to catch their breath.
Although, if you think that Scanlon flipping is indicative of a "slow" news week, you're a whole lot more cynical than us liberals.
November 21, 2005 5:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
As I said elsewhere, this should be an enormous issue for the Democrats, but it probably won't be.
Conservative Christians are blandly indifferent to normal corruption and deception, but this involves personal betrayal. The gambling interests played the Christians for fools.
But the word's not going to get out. I've been checking on News Google, and the national media aren't giving this much play -- especially not Fox. And many conservative Christians get ALL their news from Dobson, Robertson, or one of the others.
Every conservative Christian should hear about Abramoff, DeLay, Reed, Scanlon, and the others. Especially this story, since it's personal to them.
Will they? My money says NO.
November 21, 2005 6:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Every conservative Christian should hear about Abramoff, DeLay, Reed, Scanlon, and the others. Especially this story, since it's personal to them. John Emerson
Wouldn't make much difference if they did. See Leon Festinger.
November 21, 2005 7:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
As I said, Ellen, Christians ignore ordinary politics but they respond to personal betrayal.
I can't tell from your short post quite what you intended are, but I do meet a lot of erudite, snobbish defeatism among Democrats, and I hate it. I am not normally an advocate of outreach to conservative Christians, but I see this as an opportunity.
The Republicans are always testing our defenses, and they occasionally have a little luck. We should be playing that game too. If we could just get 10% of the Christians to stay at home on election day, that could swing a few races.
November 21, 2005 8:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Toward Tradition is headed by Rabbi Daniel Lapin who is also on the board of the Jewish Policy Center in Washington and was appointed to an unnamed Senate commission. Toward Tradition's mission is to "advance our nation toward the traditional Judeo-Christian values that defined America's creation and became the blueprint for her greatness".
Jack Abramoff was a director on the Toward Tradition's board in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
Some other Toward Tradition directors in the past are somewhat well-known in conservative Republican circles. Gary Polland, a lobbyist, is or was the head of the Harris County TX Republican Party. Lenore Broughton of Vermont is a Republican donor and heads up Vermont For A Better Education.
Also in 2002, Capital Athletic Foundation paid $60,529 to Rabbi David Lapin of Santa Monica CA. I assume the two Lapins are related.
According to his bio, Rabbi Daniel Lapin emigrated from South Africa in 1973. From what I have read, Jack Abramoff at one time was funded by the intelligence agency of South Africa's anti-apartheid government in the 1980s. I wonder if Rabbi Lapin helped introduce Jack Abramoff to people in South Africa.
If Jack Abramoff is on your board of directors, you have to expect a lot of questions.
Toward Tradition links to a number of other organizations on its website including the Catholic League of America and the Family Research Council.
The Toward Tradtion web page with the links to other organization is a little strange. If you are on the page and click "Leadership", then "Founder", you get an error message for MKTUSA.com. MKTUSA.com is MarketPlace America which you just know by looking at the website is a scam of some sort.
Also in 2002, Capital Athletic Foundation gave $300,000 to a 501(c) tax-exempt organization listed as P'Tach, NY. The only 501(c) P'Tach in New York I found was American Friends of P'Tach on Coney Island Ave, Brooklyn. According to its 2003 990, American Friends of P'Tach only took in $180,000 in 2003.
I hope that the FBI and whoever else is investigating Jack Abramoff is thorough and looks under every rock. Nobody in the media has even mentioned the cash that ran through Sun Cruz while Abramoff owned it. I suspect that Abramoff picked Adam Kidan to be his partner because of his mob connections.
BTW, I don't think conservative Christians are indifferent to corruption and deception one bit. I'm sure that they are following the Abramoff story every bit as closely as liberals and they are waiting to see where it all ends up.
November 21, 2005 6:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
In my first comment here, I noted that Jack Abramoff was on the Toward Tradition board of directors between 2001 and 2003. Rabbi Daniel Lapin is the president of Toward Tradition.
In its 2002 990, Toward Traditon recorded a note payable of $56,750 due to the John Uhlmann Foundation of Kansas City Missouri dated 7/2/02. The $55,000 note bears interest at 7% and is due 2/2/04.
John Uhlmann is chairman and co-founder of Access Communications Group. Last year, Access Communications produced a controversial ad about black people and Social Security for GOPAC, a Republican PAC.
Uhlmann is a big Republican donor and has been active in the party for many years. He also on the board of advisors of the American Alliance of Jews and Christians which was founded by Rabbi Daniel Lapin. Other members of the board of advisors include Dr. James Dobson, Gary Bauer and Charles Colson.
The problem with the $55k note is that the John Uhlmann Foundation never recorded a note due from Toward Tradition. The Uhlmann Foundation did record contributions to Toward Tradition of $5,000 in fiscal 2000, $15,000 in fiscal 2001 and $61,500 in fiscal 2002. The foundation's year end is June 30 so the note should have been recorded in fiscal 2002.
Total contributions paid by the Uhlmann Foundation in fiscal 2002 were only approximately $201k so the donation and/or note to Toward Tradition is significant. Did Toward Tradition receive $116,500 or $61,500 from the Uhlmann Foundation?
Another problem is that one cannot tell from the Toward Tradition 990s if the note was ever paid. After 2002, there was no more disclosures in the 990s about notes payable even though there were balances due of $88,722 in 2003 and $83,000 in 2004.
Jack Abramoff was on the Toward Tradition board of directors in the years in question.
Looking at the recipients of contributions paid by the Uhlmann Foundation in the last few years, anyone would have questions. In fiscal 2003, there is a contribution of $20,000 listed as being given to a bank account with no name, for pete's sakes.
Yup, I hope the Feds look under every rock in the Jack Abramoff investigaton.
November 21, 2005 11:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
The prosecuters no doubt had to catch their breath.
I think you mean "re-evaluate thier cases" DeLay's case will be dismissed before Christmas and Woodward's source will turn out to be George Tenant, who overheard Plame telling Bill Clinton that she was a secret agent while she was getting the "Presidential treatment" in the Oval office.
November 22, 2005 2:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Cheney to Speak at DeLay Fundraiser
Houston Chronicle
November 22, 2005 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Austin Bonner
One guy I have been curious about in the whole web of Tom deLay corruption is his former chief of staff Drew Maloney.
Here is a partial bio on Maloney:
http://www.federalistgroup.com/d_maloney.htm
What got my attention about the guy is that the state of Texas who hired him to be the state's lobbyist in DC for a handsome sum of $360,000...which I kind of thought was why we bothered to have Senators.
The state's Office of State/Federal Relations (OSFR) quietly put the bid out and got 2 responses - one from Maloney and the other from a former Kay Bailey staffer. The OSFR is overseen by a committee of Gov Perry, Lt Govenor Dewhurst and Speaker Craddick - all Republicans.
Maloney's most recent bid renewal came at about the time of deLay's visit with Perry and Craddick in Jan 2003 about redistricting. Both Perry and Craddick have since blamed the other for making the hire.
The concerns are many:
1) Implies that our esteemed Senators are not up to their jobs of representing the state's interests fully.
2) deLay had so much swat that his people can walk into the Gov's office and get $360,000 of state money with little fuss.
3) In the larger sense, if all states do this, the state's with the most money get the best lobbyists, and the party in power (a la the K Street Project) can get lobbyists to squeeze out the interests of the blue states - the Senate becomes a farce...taking the matter to the extreme.
In any event, I can't help but feel there is something to investigating this guy as well.
Check it out if you are so inclined.
November 30, 2005 12:44 PM | Reply | Permalink