Government

Who is Jack Abramoff And What Has He Done?

November 28, 2005 ⋅  E-Mail Article ⋅  Print Article ⋅ Post a comment

I have recently received numerous e-mails requesting to know and understand the relevance of Jack Abramoff. Jack Abramoff is a conservative Washington attorney who is also a former lobbyist. Abramoff is currently the central figure in a run of political scandals linked to various Republican Party officials.

The investigations and indictments of Abramoff are of noteworthy importance because of the close political ties Abramoff has with leading Republicans Party members.

Abramoff, has long been considered to be one of Washington’s most notorious dealmakers, he is currently under investigation by grand juries in Washington, D.C., for his involvement in the Abramoff-Reed Indian Gambling Scandal. He was recently indicted in August 2005, by a third grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for bank fraud. In another ongoing investigation he has pleaded not guilty to federal charges in Florida that he defrauded lenders in a casino cruise line agreement. Prosecutors in the Justice Department are looking into Abramoff’s dealings with four Republicans, former Representatives Tom DeLay of Texas, Representative Bob Ney of Ohio, Representative John Doolittle of California and Senator Conrad Burns of Montana. The prosecutors are also investigating numerous current and former congressional aides, many of these individuals went on to work for Mr. Abramoff after their tenure as a congressional aide.

As much as he is involved in very nefarious deals involving government legislature, many concerned with the prosecution of Abramoff want to know what level of influence this man exerted on our elected officials. They want to find out who reaped the benefits of his political connections, and whom did he influence?

Among some of the accusations of inappropriate or illegal actions are the following (remember these are only accusations, and they are not the complete list of accusations leveled against Mr. Abramoff, it is a list of the more sensational accusations so that you have an idea of what this man stands accused of):

The bilking of an estimated $66 million out of Native American tribes. Abramoff and a partner, Michael Scanlon, are accused of conspiring with Ralph E. Reed, Jr., to defraud Indian casino gambling interests out of an estimated $85 million dollars. The lobbyists are accused of organizing lobbying against their own clients in order to force their clients to pay for more intense lobbying services. These individuals are accused of giving campaign donations in return for political favors, some of which are allegedly Tom DeLay, Conrad Burns and Bob Ney.

During a speech Tom Delay made the following error, “When one of my closest and dearest friends, Jack Abramoff, your most able representative in Washington, D.C., invited me to the islands, I wanted to see firsthand the free-market success and the progress and reform you have made,” DeLay said before an audience of Abramoff’s clients in the islands’ garment industry—whom, upon his return to Washington, he helped win an extended exemption from federal immigration and labor laws. Many believe this speech was a major undoing for Tom Delay.

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