Ashcroft cashes in on his new lobbying firm to tune of $269,000 (Tribune)

[xray s]

Anyone surprised? I didn't think so.

By Andrew Zajac
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0601100146jan10,1,5202568.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Washington Bureau
Published January 10, 2006

Lobbyist Ashcroft pulls in $269,000
Clients capitalize on policies he promoted

WASHINGTON -- Less than three months after registering as a lobbyist, former Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft has banked at least $269,000 from just four clients and appears to be developing a practice centered on companies that want to capitalize on a government demand for homeland security technology that boomed under sometimes controversial policies he promoted while in office.

Three clients of Ashcroft's lobbying firm want his help in selling data or software with homeland security applications, according to government filings.

A fourth, Israel Aircraft Industries International, is competing with Chicago's Boeing Co. to sell the government of South Korea a billion-dollar airborne radar system.

While Ashcroft's lobbying is within government rules for former officials, it is nonetheless a departure from the practice of attorneys general for at least the last 30 years. While others have counseled corporate clients or perhaps even lobbied in a specific case as part of law firm business, Ashcroft is the first in recent memory to open a lobbying firm....

[Toots]

1. Monkey see, Monkey do

Corruption is commonplace and shoved in our face. He is lobbying for a foreign firm over an American one. What does that tell you about how his Eagle soars?

[rodeodance]

5. Asscroft was on the tube yest. saying evesdropping by Jr is legal--

so, any story you see of him being in the hospital and disapproving of this new presidental power is hogwash.

[wtmusic]

8. it's a new world since 9/11

oh yeah, he was in the hospital since 9/11...nevermind.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. What a good little pauline christian

always put the dollar first.

[rodeodance]

3. "Clients capitalize on policies he promoted"---the revolving door!

[rodeodance]

4. do what you can to make a big buck--do not worry about ethics -below.

..While Ashcroft's lobbying is within government rules for former officials, it is nonetheless a departure from the practice of attorneys general for at least the last 30 years. While others have counseled corporate clients or perhaps even lobbied in a specific case as part of law firm business, Ashcroft is the first in recent memory to open a lobbying firm....

[UpInArms]

6. Abramoff also boasted of ties to John Ashcroft

http://www.indianz.com/News/2005/010474.asp

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff boasted of his ties to former U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft, The New York Times reports.

Abramoff's claims are now part of an investigation into the Bush administration's demotion of a federal prosecutor. Frederick A. Black was removed from his job as the acting U.S. attorney for Guam a day after he issued a subpoena for Abramoff-related documents and days after he informed superiors in Washington of his criminal grand jury probe into Abramoff.

The Justice Department's Inspector General Glenn A. Fine and the FBI are now trying to determine whether Abramoff played a role in Black's removal. Ashcroft wasn't involved in the decision, officials told The Times.

...more...

and from that NYTs article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/27/politics/27lobby.html?ex=1137042000&en=7727d8b12134fcf2&ei=5070

Colleagues said the demotion of Mr. Black, the acting United States attorney in Guam, and a subsequent order barring him from pursuing public corruption cases brought an end to his inquiry into Mr. Abramoff's lobbying work for some Guam judges.

Colleagues of Mr. Black, who had run the federal prosecutor's office in Guam for 12 years, spoke on condition of anonymity because of Justice Department rules that bar employees from talking to reporters. They said F.B.I. agents questioned several people in Guam and Washington this summer about whether Mr. Abramoff or his friends in the Bush administration had pushed for Mr. Black's removal. Mr. Abramoff's internal e-mail messages show that he boasted to clients about what he described as his close ties to John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, and others at the department.

Mr. Black's colleagues said that similar questions had been raised by investigators for the Justice Department's inspector general's office, which serves as the department's internal watchdog.

Spokesmen for the department in Washington have said there was nothing unusual about the timing of Mr. Black's reassignment in 2002. They said it was appropriate for the Bush administration to want to replace him with a permanent, Senate-confirmed United States attorney.

<snip>

The announcement came only days after Mr. Black had notified the department's public integrity division in Washington, by telephone and e-mail communication, that he had opened a criminal investigation into Mr. Abramoff's lobbying activities for the Guam judges, the colleague said. The judges had sought Mr. Abramoff's help in blocking a bill in Congress to restructure the island's courts.

...more...

[wordpix]

9. Are there sweatshops in Guam, too? Certainly appears Asscroft might have

played a role to get rid of Frederick Black over his investigation into Jack-off's activities in Guam. More sweatshops there?

[UpInArms]

11. Bush removal ended Guam investigation

US attorney's demotion halted probe of lobbyist

WASHINGTON -- A US grand jury in Guam opened an investigation of controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff more than two years ago, but President Bush removed the supervising federal prosecutor, and the probe ended soon after.

The previously undisclosed Guam inquiry is separate from a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia that is investigating allegations that Abramoff bilked Indian tribes out of millions of dollars.

In Guam, a US territory in the Pacific, investigators were looking into Abramoff's secret arrangement with Superior Court officials to lobby against a court reform bill then pending in Congress. The legislation, since approved, gave the Guam Supreme Court authority over the Superior Court.

In 2002, Abramoff was retained by the Superior Court in what was an unusual arrangement for a public agency. The Los Angeles Times reported in May that Abramoff was paid with a series of $9,000 checks funneled through a Laguna Beach, Calif., lawyer to disguise the lobbyist's role working for the Guam court. No separate contract was authorized for Abramoff's work.

Guam court officials have never explained the contractual arrangement. At the time, Abramoff was a well-known lobbying figure in the Pacific islands because of his work for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Saipan garment manufacturers, accused of employing workers in what critics called sweatshop conditions.

Abramoff spokesman Andrew Blum said the lobbyist ''has no recollection of his being investigated in Guam in 2002. If he had been aware of an investigation, he would have cooperated fully." Blum declined to respond to detailed questions.

...more...

[UpInArms]

13. a bit more from that article - with a Rove connection

His replacement, Leonardo Rapadas, was confirmed in May 2003 without any debate. Rapadas had been recommended for the job by the Guam Republican Party. Fred Radewagen, a lobbyist who had been under contract to the Gutierrez administration, said he carried that recommendation to top Bush aide Karl Rove in early 2003.

[UpInArms]

14. Ronald Reagan Legacy Project's Advisory Board

http://www.reaganlegacy.org/about/advisors.htm

Grover G. Norquist President

Mr. Martin Anderson Senior Fellow

Hoover Institution

The Honorable Richard K. Armey
Former Majority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives

The Honorable John Ashcroft
Former U.S. Attorney General

<snip>

The Honorable Thomas D. DeLay
Majority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives

<snip>

Mrs. Amata Radewagen Republican National Committeewoman, American Samoa
Mr. Karl Rove Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President of the United States

...more interesting names on that list...

[wtmusic]

7. Poor guy has to maintain his standard of living

and let's face it, lounge singers are a dime a dozen

[Demeter]

10. What Took Him So Long To Surface?

The lobbying party is over, the cops broke it up. Unless Ashcroft thinks he can replace Abramoff (heeheehee).

[progressivebydesign]

12. It seems sleazy for a former AG to be a lobbyist.

Very sleazy.