Tod Lindberg
CONTINETTI, MATTHEW
The Friends of Tom DeLay What was the staff of the former majority leader up to anyway? BY MATTHEW CONTINETTI Every member of this House knows how important it is to have good staff. These are...
...On June 8, less than a week after returning from Scotland, Rudy sent a wireless message to Abramoff that read: "911 gaming," according to Schmidt and Grimaldi...
...Family Network, the largest donation in the group's history and an extraordinary amount for a nonprofit with only one full-time staff member...
...Frankly, what it sounds like from what I read in the media was that they were trading off of knowing that I would already be in those positions," DeLay said...
...Later, Rudy himself would write the email to Chris Petras, the Saginaw Chippewa representative, requesting a donation of $25,000 to the Capital Athletic Foundation...
...Last week, DeLay told the group of conservative journalists that he had nothing to do with the letter, according to National Review's Byron York...
...But there was an important difference...
...But others would spring up in its place...
...You don't need polls, but we ran a poll anyway...
...There are 13 FBI field offices across the country where some two dozen full-time (and as many part-time) officers spend hours unraveling the threads connecting Abramoff's power networks, according to reports in Time magazine...
...In April 2000, after Roll Call reported on the Safe House's location and tenants, ARMPAC and the Alexander Strategy Group vacated the property...
...We would sit and talk about opera...
...The U.S...
...Shortly after Mills's departure, Buckham chose his replacement: Brooke Gambrell, a 27-year-old former beauty queen...
...Lisa Rudy was the sole employee...
...In one sense, however, Rudy never actually left DeLay's side...
...But there were other rewards...
...Buckham was listed as the founder...
...The financial relationship between the Buckhams and the U.S...
...Jack wants this," Rudy wrote...
...I didn't spend a lot of time lobbying Tom for things, because the things I worked on were usually consistent with the conservative philosophy, and I knew Tom would be supportive...
...The allegations and materials I reviewed," says the text of the letter, signed by DeLay, "point to serious corruption...
...The problem was that an outsider had learned about Abramoff's side projects...
...In one fundraising letter, Tom DeLay described the outfit as a powerful grassroots organization committed to social change...
...But he had a way out...
...A trip where...
...For the most part, the social conservatives were unaware of who was funding their efforts, as Abramoff passed eLottery's money through a variety of nonprofit conduits...
...And these donations were often directly linked to trips Abramoff arranged for DeLay and his staff...
...political machine were dispersed around the capital, finding shelter on K Street, where lobbyists ply their trade, and in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs...
...On December 15, 2000, the congressman entered remarks on Rudy's departure into the Congressional Record...
...But his star rose quickly...
...In February 2001, Boulis was shot and killed on his way home from a business meeting...
...Family Network ends and the Alexander Strategy Group begins...
...You get a sixth sense about this stuff," DeLay said, according to Byron York's account of the interview in National Review Online...
...In 1996, a $15,000 donation established the network, according to tax records obtained by the Post...
...wage and labor regulations, according to Rudy's plea agreement...
...On January 3, 2001, DeLay entered the text of an editorial from the December 27, 2000, issue of Indian Country Today into the Congressional Record...
...To date, there is no evidence that DeLay compiled a list of 535 charities...
...He is here because he believes in what he is doing and because of his desire to make America a better place...
...So you know this one's coming up, DeLay's going to be against it, so I'm going to make some money off of it, telling so-and-so and so-and-so that I can get DeLay to be against it...
...Some of this money was passed through yet another nonprofit...
...By the summer of 2000, DeLay had still not said how he would vote on the gambling prohibition bill...
...Kidan denies this, and has not been charged in connection with the homicide...
...Abramoff wrote...
...A nonprofit, the National Center for Public Policy Research, on whose board Abramoff sat, nominally paid for the trip...
...Safavian denies the charges...
...This landscape of human wreckage, littered with the careers of former employees and associates, is central to Tom DeLay's legacy...
...Technically, the U.S...
...Smith's people didn't get us the approps for Choctaw," Abramoff responded...
...I recommend we hit everyone who cares about Tom's requests...
...That month, Abramoff began to pay Rudy's Liberty Consulting a monthly stipend of $5,000...
...We're all sinners," he said...
...to investigate these matters," Abramoff went on, "should have a major impact on the election next week...
...Over a period of several years, Abramoff defrauded six Indian tribes operating casinos of tens of millions of dollars, directing the tribes to donate to shell companies and nonprofits and hire close business associates, with whom he would split the graft...
...DeLay, who awaits trial, says Earle, a prominent Democrat, is playing politics, and he denies all the charges...
...Family Network's records...
...Rudy had worked with Ney before...
...Abramoff forwarded Rudy's suggestion to his staff...
...he faces numerous opponents, including DeLay's preferred replacement, Sugar Land mayor David Wallace...
...Rudy, DelRosario went on, was a "superhero...
...Tax records indicate the network paid for a $27,000 GMC truck that was registered to Buckham's home in suburban Maryland...
...DeLay laughed...
...Rudy, DeLay went on, had many qualities: One of the things that I have always admired about Tony is his real commitment to the conservative agenda...
...a few months after his return (he flew back on the Concorde), the DeLays, Abramoff, and others went to Russia, where they played golf, saw the sights, and attended a banquet hosted by NaftaSib...
...On December 20, 2000, the Saipan Tribune, owned by Willie Tan, reprinted excerpts from DeLay's remarks, under the headline "A Tribute to Tony Rudy, a Good Friend and a True Believer...
...In his plea agreement, Rudy also admits much else...
...Rent for his apartment at the RitzCarlton in Washington's West End was $17,000 a month...
...He was born in Brooklyn and grew up in New Jersey, a talented athlete who loved to play hockey...
...Also beginning that month, and lasting through October 2002, Rudy arranged for clients to pay "a nonprofit public policy organization" a total of $55,000—$17,000 of which was then kicked back to Liberty Consulting...
...Family Network booked a $150,000 donation from the Choctaws...
...He found some, and in May 2000 Congress passed an appropriations bill that made the construction of an airport on the Marianas island of Rota— home to Rep...
...Last October, federal prosecutors informed Ney that an indictment on charges of bribery was being prepared against him in connection with statements he entered into the Congressional Record in the fall of 2000, according to Susan Schmidt and James Grimaldi of the Washington Post...
...Rudy never got his "thank you...
...We want to know if there is any way to get Tom to call for an investigation of the misuse of federal funds on Guam by this governor," Abramoff wrote in the email, which was first obtained by the Wall Street Journal...
...Later, Rudy and Scanlon reportedly were to clash, but in 1998 they shared a common goal: impeaching President Clinton...
...Together, the two concocted a scheme by which Abramoff would direct his Indian casino clients to hire Scanlon's firm for "grassroots" consulting...
...But good try!:)" Rudy was unpersuaded...
...Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas and majority whip of the House of Representatives, frequently visited the townhouse his former aides had bought in January 1999 as a place to make fundraising calls and confer with advisers, according to news accounts...
...In 2001, after the SunCruz debacle, Abramoff faced terrible debt...
...After emphasizing the important role staff members play in American politics, DeLay continued: I am very lucky...
...In October 2000, in a separate appropriations bill, Congress directed $150,000 to a breakwater project on the Marianas island of Tinian, home to Rep...
...I salute Chief Martin for all he has done to further the cause of freedom—for his people and for our nation...
...Now that machine will likely disappear for good...
...We would sit and talk about golf...
...Last December, two sources told Washington Post reporter R. Jeffrey Smith that the donation had come from Russian energy interests, probably executives of NaftaSib, a Russian oil company and Abramoff client...
...Further, according to the letter—obtained by National Journal's Peter Stone—"a percentage of high-dollar fundraising not to exceed 15 percent" would flow to Buckham's company...
...Smith further discovered that Dorothy Joan Morris is the 79-year-old mother of Roger Albanese, who was formerly Ed Buckham's assistant...
...His job was to look around the commonwealth for opportunities for pork...
...In the summer of 2002, Abramoff wanted Ney to accompany him on his annual golf sojourn to Scotland...
...Open in Pebble Beach, California, alongside Adam Kidan and employees of Foothill Capital, Abramoff and Kidan's lenders...
...One day in January 2001, the network held its final board meeting...
...Christopher Geeslin, a Maryland pastor who was associated with the U.S...
...In 1997, the network paid Buckham's wife, Wendy, a salary of $53,000...
...Roll Call had uncovered documents showing that Mills had admitted embezzling $35,000 from the council, however, which resulted in his leaving the house at 132 D Street...
...I have always been blessed with great staff...
...Speaker," DeLay said, "I rise today to pay tribute to a friend and colleague who, after eight years of service to the House of Representatives, is moving on...
...Later this year, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the legality of DeLay's plan...
...In June, he paid $10,000...
...Message from Tony Rudy," Abramoff wrote...
...Was he unable to detect that he was a pawn in a criminal enterprise that netted its conspirators millions of dollars...
...Where the money came from is a mystery...
...Released on a $5 million bond, Scanlon agreed to cooperate with investigators, pay $19.7 million in restitution to the tribes, and face a jail sentence of up to five years...
...In March of 2002, Scanlon, engaged to another former DeLay staffer, spent $4.7 million (in cash) on a mansion in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware...
...I wish him the best in his new career and I wish him and his family all the joy and happiness in the world...
...David Sarch, one of the partners, is dead...
...They were there to help Abramoff's favored candidate win election as speaker of the commonwealth's House of Representatives...
...In addition to the guilty pleas of Scanlon, Abramoff, and Rudy, Abramoff's business partner in the SunCruz fiasco, Adam Kidan, has also pleaded guilty in Florida to wire fraud and conspiracy...
...The Mississippi Choctaw, a tribal client of Abramoff's, donated the $15,000...
...he awaits sentencing for the crimes he confessed to in Washington...
...For his part, DeLay famously called Abramoff one of his "closest and dearest friends in Washington...
...For his part, Abramoff expended vast amounts of energy trying to keep all the parts of his empire from flying apart and crashing to the ground...
...Attempts to reopen the Tiguas' casino failed...
...Meanwhile, Republican representative Bob Ney of Ohio appears in Abramoff's, Rudy's, and Scanlon's plea agreements, where he is referred to as "Representative #1" or "Legislator #1...
...Bob Ney's office to insert a provision into an election reform bill that would allow the Tigua to restart their business...
...On January 3, in Washington, Abramoff pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy...
...Family Network and a slew of other Abramoff fronts like the Capital Athletic Foundation, the American International Center, and KayGold Inc., had highfalutin names but produced little or no actual work...
...A refuge for DeLay, the Safe House was also a hub of activity...
...There was another encomium to Rudy...
...Together, over several years, the two convinced six tribes to pay them a total of over $60 million...
...Then he moved to Washington, where he found a job as legislative correspondent with California Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher...
...And last week, when DeLay announced his retirement, analysts were still chewing over the implications of Rudy's deal with prosecutors...
...The next day, he flew to Miami, where he pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy and wire fraud in connection with his 2000 purchase of the SunCruz casino company...
...Family Network, Robert Mills, resigned...
...The race has "become a referendum on me," DeLay said...
...In August 2002, the golf trip went ahead on schedule...
...Family Network came under attack after it took a $500,000 check from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC...
...Yet the money kept rolling in...
...Rudy's job was to arrange funding for the trip...
...The first cracks in his armor were beginning to appear...
...In the end, however, like many of Abramoff's lobbying efforts, the Guam campaign went nowhere...
...In March 2001, he secured Ney's assistance in supporting legislation that would have allowed the Marianas to continue labeling their clothing "Made in the USA" without being subjected to U.S...
...The implication was that the official was DeLay...
...immigration, wage, and labor laws...
...I mean, we talked about philosophy and politics...
...I have always opposed postal rate increases...
...Abramoff asked Rudy if he would like to join him at the new firm...
...What right does he have to put that in my name...
...So, rather than risk losing a reliably Republican district to former Democratic congressman Nick Lampson, DeLay decided to change his legal residence to his Alexandria, Virginia, condominium, allowing Texas Republicans to choose another candidate...
...Apparently that was a referendum he worried he would lose...
...Republican victories in those elections enabled DeLay and his allies in the statehouse to push through a controversial redistricting plan that led to a historic GOP pickup of House seats in the 2004 elections...
...See my "Money, Mobsters, Murder," November 28, 2005...
...In December 1999, Buckham and Scanlon—who was still DeLay's press secretary—went to the Marianas...
...He owned five properties, including two other homes in Washington worth $1.2 million, the $1.6 million beach house that served as the "headquarters" of the American International Center—a "think tank" that existed only on paper—and a beachfront property in St...
...He has pledged his cooperation, voluntarily delivering to the FBI task force some 1,000 emails...
...Those statements, critical of South Florida gambling impresario Gus Boulis and supportive of Abramoff business partner Kidan, aided Abramoff and Kidan's attempt to purchase SunCruz, which Boulis owned...
...The SunCruz deal was an unmitigated catastrophe...
...Curious about what the Dorothy Joan Morris Foundation was, Post reporter Smith tracked down its incorporation papers, which said the foundation was located in a Frederick, Maryland, strip mall...
...That candidate, Ben Fitial, had previously worked for Willie Tan, the factory tycoon who employed Abramoff...
...By the end of 2000, Rudy was angling for a job outside government...
...He awaits sentencing...
...A few weeks after that trip, Rudy arranged for DeLay's office to send SunCruz's owner, Boulis, a U.S...
...And Rudy lent more than his name...
...Just people who see eye to eye...
...Family Network's ledgers, Buckham's wife Wendy was paid $10,000 of the Tan donation as part of her "commission...
...Four days later, on July 17, 2000, the gambling ban was defeated, 25 members short of the two-thirds majority required for passage under House suspension rules...
...It is unclear what services, if any, the firm performed for that money...
...In May 2000, Abramoff arranged for DeLay and Rudy to accompany him on his annual trip to St...
...He had high regard for Rudy, and had come to trust him as a friend and ally...
...The payments were made in monthly installments from February to July...
...Rudy was not shy in selling his access to DeLay," a former aide told National Journal's Peter Stone in January...
...On March 25, 1997, Buckham and Rudy visited the Choctaw reservation in Philadelphia, Mississippi, which today sports two casinos, a spa, and a golf course...
...Such a connection had its benefits...
...He earned people's trust...
...Morris said, referring to Buckham...
...The suit was filed under the federal government's RICO Act, used to combat racketeering and extortion...
...Sheldon told DeLay that he opposed the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act...
...Rudy answered that members of New Hampshire senator Bob Smith's staff had "expressed an interest in" a "hunting and fishing resort 3 hours south of Texas...
...The eLottery campaign was a triumph of Abramoff's lobbying style, coupling high-powered connections on Capitol Hill with the grassroots contacts he had fostered in over two decades of conservative activism...
...But Rudy's sympathies were well known to the Preston Gates lobbyists: He wanted to help Abramoff defeat the measure...
...Rudy told his client that the foundation was DeLay's favorite charity...
...Even less is known about the firm's operations between the day of Rudy's arrival and January 9, 2006, when the firm closed shop...
...It's a tax deductible foundation doing some issues education (they do NO lobbying at all), so it's easier (though it did not matter to the tribes...
...He wrote back: "But how would Coushatta know...
...On October 3, 2005, a Texas grand jury empaneled by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle indicted DeLay on charges of money laundering...
...The nexus between the U.S...
...But the legal and public relations fight had a profound effect on the U.S...
...What is this...
...And it is likely that we will learn more about what DeLay's staff was up to in the coming months...
...flag that had been flown above the Capitol...
...Since public relations firms, unlike lobbying firms, do not have to disclose their clients or revenues, no one would be able to see Abramoff and Scanlon's profits, which they split under an arrangement they called "Gimme Five...
...dinner...
...DeLay was devastated by the news...
...In January, one source told Time magazine that, "for all intents and purposes, Tony worked for Jack...
...But questions remain...
...Shortly after meeting with Sheldon, DeLay decided that he would also oppose the bill...
...But there is no need to tell [Choctaw] Chief Martin that fact...
...She never saw any money...
...There are a few Senate staffers I would like to help reward," he wrote...
...That month, Rudy used his connections to secure DeLay's support for "legislation providing for reparations payments to certain U.S...
...We'z gonna make a bundle here...
...In 1988, he graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a degree in finance...
...Family Network raised over its relatively short life came from Abramoff's clients...
...Barts in the Caribbean...
...Earlier that same day, Abramoff wrote Rudy: "Did you get the message from the guys that Tom [DeLay] wants us to raise some bucks for the Capital Athletic Foundation...
...Last week, at one point in his exclusive interview, Mike Allen asked DeLay whether he had ever done anything immoral...
...Family Network closed shop, and a few weeks before going to trial, both plaintiff and defendants agreed to withdraw the RICO suit against DeLay...
...In April 2001, a few months after the U.S...
...The money, according to U.S...
...He contacted Scanlon, who had left his employ to start a public relations firm, Capitol Campaign Strategies...
...The NRCC had also hired Buckham as a consultant...
...But life goes on...
...I don't see how we can sell them on that," Abramoff shot back, referring to the tribes...
...And at its epicenter—and the place where the Abramoff investigation is almost certainly headed—is the townhouse at 132 D Street...
...Family Network owned the residence...
...Later, Rudy suggested that Abramoff arrange for a meeting with Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas...
...It was Rudy who worked with Rep...
...The agreement fails to specify who exactly paid for the trip, listing either "Abramoff, clients of Abramoff and clients of Lobbyist B"—who is Buckham—or "Abramoff's business interests...
...Explaining the decision, NRCC deputy chairman Dan Mattoon told Roll Call, "Ed is a well-known person on Capitol Hill...
...There, Rudy and Buckham continued to share clients with Abramoff...
...Tax records show that $300,000 of the $500,000 check from the NRCC was rerouted to another group, Americans for Economic Growth, which used the funds to pay for radio ads in battleground House districts during the 2000 election season...
...Last October, the former director of the White House's procurement office, David Safavian, was indicted on five counts of making false statements and obstruction of justice...
...In one story, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, a friend of Abramoff's who runs Toward Tradition—a nonprofit "independent coalition of Jews and Christians seeking to advance America toward traditional, faith-based principles," according to its website—made the introductions...
...In all, the firm took in $86,000 while Rudy remained on DeLay's staff...
...and while Gutierrez did eventually stand trial on corruption charges, he was acquitted...
...DeLay's political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC), was headquartered there...
...The Interior Department took no action...
...DeLay had founded the political action committee in the years prior to the Republican Revolution...
...On Guam, Rudy and Abramoff also worked with Scanlon, who was then 27 years old...
...It is something our friends are raising money for...
...Tony's departure is a personal loss for me," DeLay concluded...
...Could DeLay not see what was happening around him...
...And Buck-ham's consulting firm, the Alexander Strategy Group, which he ran with the help of his wife, Wendy, was there too...
...territory exempt from U.S...
...In 2003, the Hill newspaper called him a "lobbyist extraordinaire...
...Scanlon's literary style would later haunt him, when the Senate Indian Affairs Committee released thousands of emails he had sent to Abramoff in which he pilloried his tribal clients and referred to social conservatives as "wackos...
...As part of the deal, the NRCC agreed to pay a $280,000 fine to the FEC...
...A press release and letter requesting an Inspector General (I guess from Interior...
...The constituent parts of DeLay's Matthew Continetti is a staff writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD and the author of The K Street Gang, available April 18...
...And the poll showed, basically, that I had a 50-50 chance of winning...
...The irony was that, unbeknownst to the Tigua, Abramoff and Scanlon had colluded to shut down the casino in behalf of a competing tribe just months before...
...Great...
...On October 26, 1998, Abramoff sent an email to Rudy requesting his help...
...The nonprofit was Rabbi Daniel Lapin's Toward Tradition, according to Peter Stone in National Journal...
...They failed to tell the company that the "public policy group" then funneled $8,000 of the contribution to Rudy's Liberty Consulting...
...The editorial praised the Mississippi Choctaw, now a client of Rudy's and Abramoff's at Greenberg Traurig...
...Yet all of these activities occurred while he sat at the helm of one of the most powerful congressional offices in American history...
...For example, early in 1997, business holdings associated with the garment manufacturer Willie Tan, another Abramoff client, cut $50,000 in checks to the U.S...
...In August 1999, Rudy and his wife formed a company, Liberty Consulting...
...In July 2002, Rudy left Greenberg Traurig to join Buckham at the Alexander Strategy Group...
...The aide reportedly was Brett Loper...
...The high point—or low point—of the Gimme Five scheme occurred in 2002, when Abramoff convinced the Tigua tribe of El Paso, Texas, to hire Scanlon to reopen their casino, which had been closed at the order of the Texas attorney general, now-U.S...
...It was just, 'Jack, meet Tom,'" someone told Seattle Weekly reporter Rick Anderson in May 2005...
...Those payments amounted to around $3,000 a month...
...In another story, first reported in Time magazine in January, DeLay and Abramoff met at a fundraiser when Ed Buckham, then DeLay's chief of staff, pulled the lobbyist toward the congressman and said that the two would be working together closely...
...But every once in a while a truly special person comes along and inspires and energizes an office...
...In Guam, there was an upcoming gubernatorial election, and the Republican candidate, Joe Ada, was in danger of losing to the Democratic incumbent...
...On April 4, in a separate interview with a group of conservative journalists including The Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes, DeLay said the decision to withdraw came shortly after March 7, when he defeated Houston lawyer Tom Campbell in a Republican primary, 62 percent to 30 percent...
...Reached by telephone, Morris told Smith that she and her husband live in a trailer home in Las Vegas, Nevada...
...Family Network documents, was for "program services related to prayer...
...The government alleges that Safa-vian masked his dealings with Abramoff and lied to investigators about his relationship with the lobbyist...
...I never heard of it," Boulanger said...
...Over his 21 years in Washington, many have passed through DeLay's offices...
...That changed in late 1997, when Buckham resigned as chief of staff to head the ARMPAC fundraising operation, which also operated out of 132 D Street...
...As it turns out, the U.S...
...They are the people who do the grunt work, draft the bills, work long nights—all in service of the American people...
...In April 1999, when he was still DeLay's deputy chief of staff, Rudy and his wife traveled to Hilton Head, South Carolina, on an all-expenses-paid trip financed by lobbyists, according to Rudy's plea agreement...
...To be on DeLay's staff was to be part of an influential family whose members were spread throughout government and the private sector...
...And this perpetual entanglement seems to have proven fruitful...
...And yet even the most cursory look at Abramoff's career reveals that the lobbyist focused his efforts on gaining influence inside the majority whip's office, taking the congressman on trips, and coordinating his advocacy with DeLay's top lieutenants...
...owned the foundation, according to the incorporation papers...
...Little is known about what went on behind the doors of the Alexander Strategy Group when Tony Rudy arrived to work there in 2002...
...Rudy had provided favors to that client—unnamed in the plea agreement, though in all probability eLottery...
...Family Network and Buckham's fundraising/lobbying operation, which, in turn, led to some unexpected results...
...Money was everywhere...
...Family Network—Wendy Buckham kept the books—was formalized on October 28, 1997, when Ed Buckham and the network agreed to a "letter of engagement...
...Abramoff replied...
...Don't you see that we have a problem now...
...This tendency suggests there may be further major announcements from DeLay, because the Abramoff probe is far from over...
...Situated at 132 D Street, S.E., the house was only a few blocks from DeLay's suite in the Cannon Office Building...
...And Abramoff was successful in doing just that...
...On April 17, 2000, the president of the U.S...
...Theirs was a small operation that wanted to stay out of the news...
...Foundation Ministries is run out of the Buckhams' home in Frederick...
...The nonprofit has a controversial past, but it was only last December that the Washington Post first reported on its myriad Abramoff connections...
...citizens and from assets in the United States of foreign companies and governments," according to Rudy's plea agreement...
...the writer John Judis estimates the number at "about 300" on Capitol Hill and "about 75 more" who worked for the congressman's campaigns, his political action committees, and his charitable foundations...
...Mendiola—a spending priority...
...Abramoff and Scanlon kept the $4 million...
...But he is up to his armpits in scandal, and so are former members of his staff...
...I have admired Tom DeLay and his family from the first meeting with him, and I still do to this day," Abramoff tells Vanity Fair's David Margolick in that magazine's April issue...
...Would the Choctaws or Coushat-ta donate like 10K to pay for a trip...
...Rudy was beginning to think like his new boss...
...On May 3, 2000, the House Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee filed an unusual civil suit against DeLay, accusing him of money laundering...
...As rich as he was, Abramoff had nowhere near the amount of cash it would take to pay back the $60 million loan he had received to purchase SunCruz...
...He has lived his life promoting the economic vitality of his people and they have reaped the benefits of his progressive thinking...
...On July 31, 1998, for example, DeLay, his wife Christine, and his chief of staff Susan Hirschman left for the Choctaw casinos and golf course...
...There, at the request of an unnamed "gentleman who donated the largest amount of money to USFN," the board decided to pay $150,000 to something called the Dorothy Joan Morris Foundation, according to minutes of the meeting obtained by the Washington Post's R. Jeffrey Smith...
...Campbell has announced he will run to replace DeLay on the ballot...
...Scanlon would then charge the clients incredibly high fees in return for little work...
...The congressman and his staff had numerous contacts with Marina Nevskaya and Alexander Koulakovsky, NaftaSib's top brass, who both had ties to Soviet intelligence...
...In courting donors, Rudy would often tout his connections to Tom DeLay...
...This seems to have been a grossly inaccurate description of the group...
...According to the U.S...
...His trial is set for May 22...
...Family Network...
...On January 7, when he announced he would no longer seek to retain his post as House majority leader, Washington was still reeling from Abramoff's plea bargain...
...In his plea agreement, Rudy admits that he "worked with others to secure certain appropriations projects for the [Marianas] which he knew would help Abramoff's lobbying business and that had been sought by Abramoff and Lobbyist B," aka Buckham...
...Can you email Petras on the Sag Chip request (it'll look better coming from you as a former DeLay COS...
...What is it...
...Geeslin told the Post, "Ed told me, 'This is the way things work in Washington.'" As it happens, almost all of the money that the U.S...
...In addition, DeLay's lobbyist allies on K Street often served to magnify his power, functioning as a shadow staff that worked closely with his office to pass legislation and identify areas ripe for conservative reform...
...That December, the two DeLay staffers worked furiously to whip the impeachment vote...
...After all of Tony's hard work for me and the American people, they truly deserve it...
...On July 13, the Reverend Lou Sheldon, a prominent social conservative and beneficiary of Abramoff's largesse, met with DeLay in the majority whip's offices...
...He was less abrasive...
...Buckham reportedly planned and facilitated the trip...
...The indictment, which came on the heels of a separate indictment on conspiracy charges, accuses DeLay and his co-conspirators of improperly funneling money into local elections in 2002...
...He had decided to switch law firms and move to the Washington offices of Miami-based Greenberg Traurig...
...But Boulanger didn't know what Rudy was talking about...
...But Ed has a lot of other issues in dealing with the religious community and (the) pro-family community that go beyond Tom DeLay...
...Although Rudy's plea agreement refers to DeLay as "Representative #2," to date DeLay has not been accused of any improper behavior regarding Abramoff...
...Palacios...
...After Buck-ham and Scanlon returned to the United States, the representatives they had met with—Alejo Mendiola and Norman Palacios—announced their support for Fitial, who was elected speaker in January 2000...
...He was now—officially—part of Team Abramoff...
...In the spring of 2000, he arranged for a letter from DeLay opposing a postal-rate increase that would have cut into one of Abramoff's client's profits...
...Instead, they served another function...
...In February, the Justice Department issued a subpoena for the U.S...
...On June 20, Rudy wrote an email to another Green-berg Traurig lobbyist, Todd Boulanger, asking him to remind Petras of the request...
...Tony has been the most helpful staffer for the CNMI in its history," the Tribune's publisher, John S. DelRosario Jr., wrote...
...Buckham, mentioned as "Lobbyist B" in Rudy's plea deal, is a probable target of the investigation, and is no doubt under considerable pressure to strike a deal of his own...
...senator, John Cornyn...
...As a tax-exempt nonprofit, the U.S...
...On Monday, April 3, in a 90-minute interview conducted in his home in Sugar Land, Texas, DeLay told Time magazine's Mike Allen that he is withdrawing from his reelection bid and plans to resign from Congress by summer...
...Between 1998 and 2004, ARMPAC raised over $14 million, according to John Judis in the New Republic...
...Family Network shut down...
...That month, Rudy arranged for another DeLay staffer to visit the Marianas alongside Scanlon, according to Rudy's plea agreement...
...The law firm that wrote the check no longer exists...
...Family Network...
...In 1996, DeLay named him general counsel, a position that Rudy held concurrently with his press duties...
...In February 2002, Abramoff arranged for the Mississippi Choctaw to pay a total of $25,000 to Liberty Consulting...
...One of those lobbyists was Jack Abramoff, who met DeLay in 1994...
...Sh-t...
...These are the people who run this institution from day to day...
...Rudy accepted...
...Rudy was part of the effort to reopen the Tigua casino, for which the tribe was paying Scanlon's company $4.2 million...
...This source also said that Abramoff bought a personal hand-held device for Rudy in order to remain in nearly constant communication...
...In 1995, when he passed the Virginia bar, Rudy looked for a new job...
...Buckham and Scanlon met with members of the Marianas legislature and determined that two of its members would side with Fitial if DeLay supported a variety of projects in their districts...
...Then Rudy forwarded the exchange to Abramoff...
...Sure enough, later that day, DeLay's office issued a public rebuke of the Democratic governor, Carl Gutierrez, and sent a letter to the Department of the Interior calling for an inquiry...
...Boulis had been murdered, Kidan was out of control, and the casino cruise line faced bankruptcy...
...they await trial...
...He is going to join Mr...
...On September 21, 2001, he sent Abramoff an email, which has since been released by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs...
...The Choctaw and Coushatta were both Indian casino clients...
...Rudy's job was to handle Texas media...
...In 2000, its value was assessed at more than $300,000...
...Rudy's style was different...
...It's fishy...
...The crisis abated...
...Ney denies all the charges and has said that he is a victim, not an accomplice...
...Family Network, the Alexander Strategy Group, Buckham, and Abramoff was established while Buckham still served on DeLay's staff...
...Abramoff replied...
...On June 25, 1998, a London-based law firm, James & Sarch Co., issued a $1 million check to the U.S...
...A few weeks later, Rudy showed up for work...
...history, is a Chinese tycoon who owns clothing factories throughout the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S...
...He managed to land one of the most coveted staff positions in Washington: press secretary for the new majority whip, Tom DeLay...
...And we, as Members of Congress, place our trust and careers in their capable hands every day...
...Rudy spent four years toiling in Rohrabacher's office, eventually rising to press secretary, before leaving in 1992 to pursue a law degree from George Mason University in suburban Virginia...
...To date, DeLay says he has been shocked and saddened at the allegations made against his former staff, but that he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing...
...Rudy was aware of, and helped to coordinate, the visit...
...On March 29, a federal judge in Miami sentenced Abramoff to 5 years and 10 months in prison on those charges...
...I have another few to hit still...
...Are we the only ones with political instincts— This whole thing about not kicking someone when they are down is BS—Not only do you kick him—you kick him until he passes out—then beat him over the head with the baseball bat—then roll him up in an old rug— and throw him off the cliff into the pound[ing] surf below...
...Family Network, a nonprofit with close ties to DeLay's former chief of staff, Ed Buckham, operated out of a small room in the back...
...he replied...
...Very informal at a D.C...
...Ada lost...
...Last November, the DeLays' attorney, Richard Cullen, told the Washington Post that Christine DeLay had been paid $115,000 over three years to, as the Post put it, "determine the favorite charity of every member of Congress...
...DeLay's sudden move, which shocked the political community, had a notable consequence: It pushed to the sidelines the March 31 news that DeLay's onetime deputy chief of staff, Tony C. Rudy, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and pledged to cooperate with the ongoing investigation into congressional corruption stemming from the lobbying activities of Jack Abramoff...
...Slowly, Rudy was morphing into a sort of consigliere to Abramoff, who listed the DeLay aide as a reference in his fraudulent loan application for the purchase of SunCruz casinos...
...Exhibit A was the U.S...
...I did not want you to bring Todd into this...
...Throughout that first year of his job, though forbidden by federal lobbying regulations to have official contact with his former colleagues, he routinely met with, and spoke to, members of DeLay's staff on behalf of his new clients, sometimes working out of the congressman's offices...
...On June 15, 2000, he accompanied Abramoff to the U.S...
...Abramoff was also looking for a change...
...In 1997, Buckham visited Moscow as a guest of NaftaSib...
...The lobbyists' income had reached absurd levels...
...His name is Tony Rudy...
...Family Network, according to the Post...
...One day during the legislative battle, Scanlon wrote an email to his boss that first surfaced in reporter Peter Baker's The Breach...
...This trip lasted until August 3 and cost $6,935...
...DeLay's spokeswoman, Emily Miller, denied all accusations of wrongdoing...
...On August 3, the U.S...
...Tan, the recipient of the largest labor fine in U.S...
...The request came, Rudy wrote, from "a public official...
...This trip was the first of many and, according to the plea agreement, the beginning of Abramoff's financial relationship with Rudy...
...But Democratic objections to the donation led to heightened media scrutiny of the U.S...
...In 1998, for instance, the Alexander Strategy Group claimed $20,000 in "commissions" stemming from Tan donations to the network...
...Tan paid Abramoff millions of dollars to ensure that the exemption continued...
...This might have been the sort of exaggeration one would expect from a talented veteran politician...
...Family Network...
...Ed is clearly very close to Tom DeLay, as I am close to Tom DeLay...
...Rudy said okay...
...How could he possibly have been that bad a manager...
...When Buckham left, DeLay promoted Rudy to deputy chief of staff, and hired the young Michael Scan-lon, who previously had served as press secretary to Illinois Republican congressman Mike Flanagan...
...From 1998 to 2002, Christine DeLay was an employee of the Alexander Strategy Group, yet she seems to have been paid out of commissions the Buck-hams took from the network...
...In retrospect, it was little more than a piggy bank...
...Don't share it please...
...Rudy's promotion to deputy chief of staff put him closer to Abramoff, who sought to ingratiate himself with congressional staff members, pulling them toward his clients' positions and his personal lucre...
...And in 1998, the network leased a skybox at the MCI Center (now Verizon Center) for $149,000...
...Central to those efforts, it would seem, was the U.S...
...But the funds the National Center used originated from eLottery, which cut a $25,000 check to the group on May 25, the day Abramoff's junket departed, according to Susan Schmidt and James Grimaldi's reporting in the Washington Post...
...As Abramoff went after SunCruz, the battle over Internet gambling continued on Capitol Hill...
...The staff changes became effective in early 1998, around the time Buckham founded the Alexander Strategy Group...
...Buckham had been very much in the news in 1999, when the U.S...
...She never knew about the $150,000 payment...
...Liberty Consulting seems to have been another version of the Alexander Strategy Group...
...Yet there seems to have been no consequence to the leak...
...God Bless you Tony Rudy," Scanlon wrote...
...Mills was a long-time DeLay ally, having run the congressman's 1996 reelection campaign...
...Family Network for several years, told Smith that Buckham had told him the money was part of a campaign to influence DeLay's vote on a pending International Monetary Fund bailout...
...Later that summer, one day in August 2000, Rudy hosted a bachelor party in Abramoff's suite at the Washington Redskins' FedEx Field...
...However we should take his advice...
...When he traveled, Scanlon flew in a private jet...
...Tony Rudy is 39 years old...
...There are competing versions of how the two men were introduced...
...It is difficult to determine where the U.S...
...But I know that it is the right thing for him to do...
...She never gave permission for her name to be used, Morris went on...
...Today, no doubt, the property is worth much more, though it no longer serves as a base for DeLay and his closest advisers...
...Family Network collected, the Buck-hams received $1,022,729...
...According to Smith's sources, the original plan had been for the donation to be made in cash, but that fell through...
...But Rudy could see how...
...Family Network was expected to spend most of its time and money on nonpolitical activity...
...He is not in Washington, D.C., for power or personal gain...
...On June 6, 2002, Rudy asked a client to contribute $25,000 to the Capital Athletic Foundation, Abramoff's nonprofit "charity" (less than 1 percent of its revenue went to legitimate charitable causes...
...On November 21, 2005, DeLay's former press secretary, Michael Scanlon, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, and admitted that he and Abramoff had plotted to defraud their clients and influence members of Congress and officers of the executive branch...
...We would sit and talk about the Bible...
...I think that, if we can do $200K, that would be good...
...Buckham will not speak to reporters, nor will Rudy, whose plea agreement speaks for itself...
...He went on: I have six clients in for $25K...
...DeLay says federal investigators have informed his lawyers that he is not a target in that investigation...
...Self-reliance and not government dependency is the secret to prosperity," DeLay said...
...The trip lasted until March 27 and cost $3,000...
...Oddly, DeLay seems to make major announcements regarding his future just days after significant developments in the Abramoff investigation, only then to deny any connection to that investigation...
...Rudy admits in his plea that he knew Buckham "shared some clients with Abramoff," and that he arranged for payments from Abramoff and Buckham to be made to Liberty Consulting...
...I was lucky enough to have one of the best, one of the most committed, one of the brightest staffers on Capitol Hill working for me for the past five and a half years...
...And sometime around April 2002, Rudy and Abramoff instructed a "distilled beverages company" that it ought to contribute $20,000 to "a nonprofit public policy group in Washington, D.C...
...It is known, however, that, of the $3.02 million in revenue that the U.S...
...In March 2000, as Abramoff worked furiously with DeLay's office to scuttle the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act—which would have put one of his clients, eLot-tery, out of business—Michael Scanlon left DeLay's office to join Abramoff's team at Preston Gates Ellis LLP DeLay and his senior staff, it seems, were crucial to Scan-lon's hiring...
...Less than a year later, in January 2001, the U.S...
...And he continues to deny any wrongdoing...
...You know your district...
...On July 11, Rudy wrote to Abramoff: "I think we should get Weyrich"—conservative activist Paul Weyrich—"to get like 10 groups to sign a letter to Denny and Armey on gaming bill...
...Meanwhile, Abramoff instructed eLottery to pay millions of dollars to social conservative groups, telling those groups that the Internet gambling ban would actually increase gambling overall...
...A company called Foundation Ministries Inc...
...most of its clients, like the group's, were clients of Abramoff...
...According to its terms, the network would pay Buck-ham's lobbying firm, the Alexander Strategy Group, $12,000 a month starting in November 1997...
...Prior to his work for DeLay, Mills held a job at the Council for Government Reform...
...However they met, DeLay and Abramoff enjoyed a rapport...
...He is personally responsible for the passage of much good legislation, but more importantly he was on the lookout for bad legislation...
...Rudy was aware that Abramoff arranged for at least one of his clients to make donations to the nonprofit and that this money was used to make payments to [Rudy's] wife," according to the plea agreement...
...Separately, the plea agreements allege that Ney accepted a stream of gifts from Abramoff and his associates, including free meals at the lobbyist's restaurant, tickets to sporting events, and expensive golf trips, in exchange for official action...
...Scanlon—we didn't fire him, but we found him another job," DeLay told the conservative journalists last week...
...Last September, three men, all tied to organized crime families in New York and Miami, were arrested in connection with the murder...
...A "thank you trip," he wrote, "for the approps we got...
...Andrew's golf course in Scotland...
...The lobbyist and the well-placed staffer were linked at the hip...
...DeLay helped to secure one of Buckham's first clients, Houston-based energy giant Enron, which entered into a $750,000 contract with the former chief of staff's small consulting shop...
...Tom DeLay It was called the Safe House...
...And his commitment was on display every day as he moved through my office like a whirlwind, pressing staffers to do more, to work harder...
...Jack Abramoff at the new firm...
...One of those men, Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello, a former adviser to mob boss John Gotti who also spent 15 years as an FBI informant, has told southern Florida media that Kidan was aware of the plot to kill Boulis...
...Throughout the fight, Rudy provided Abramoff with advice and an insider's perspective on legislative maneuvers...
Vol. 11 • April 2006 • No. 29
