Part of Abramoff Case Sent to Maryland

[seafan]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Maryland are handling part of the Jack Abramoff lobbying case because of a possible conflict of interest at Justice Department headquarters, an official with knowledge of the case said Friday. ..... The investigation involves Kevin Ring, a former aide to Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif. Ring later went to work with Abramoff, the one-time GOP super-lobbyist who's now in jail and cooperating in an influence-peddling probe that's focused on Doolittle, among others.

While working with Abramoff, Ring lobbied Justice Department officials including Robert Coughlin while Coughlin worked for the department's office of legislative affairs from 2001-2003, according to an attorney with knowledge of the case. The attorney spoke on condition of anonymity because of the pending investigation.

.....

A Justice Department inspector general's investigation of some of those connections led to the conclusion that prosecutors needed to be brought in. But department officials determined that it would be a conflict for the prosecutors to be in the main Justice Department, so the U.S. attorney's office in Maryland was asked to provide two assistant U.S. attorneys to work on the case, the official said.

Those two prosecutors report not to the U.S. attorney in Maryland but to the deputy attorney general's office in Washington.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jKlImlKewLFIxeXtx0tKROlYR7LgD8SCITM00

[Bitwit1234]

1. And I can't remember exactly but wasn't Abramoff connected

to either Ehrlich or someone in his administration. I never heard anything else but when the attorney thing first started it was on the news.

[seafan]

4. Ehrlich, Miller, Abramoff, Tyco, Gabon....... all kinds of corruption.

Abramoff Corruption ties to Maryland Governor Ehrlich (R) Office, January 10, 2006

(What follows is) a letter from Terri Leirman, Maryland Democratic Chair to the State Prosecuter, requesting an investigation of exactly how Governor Ehrlichs' Deputy Chief of Staff, Edward B. Miller, allocated Abramoff-tainted money of $200,000 (detailed in Abramoff plea agreement).

Abramoff helped set up a GOP campaign funding (front) company with Miller in Maryland , called GrassRoots Interactive, Inc. (GRI) with ties directly to Governor Erlichs Office. Interesting players here, including Tyco, Inc.

Governor Erlich (R) is seeking re-election and Lt. Gov Steele (R) is now running for Senate against Rep. Ben Cardin (D MD-3), ....

Abramoff Probe Again Brushes Ehrlich Aide, WP, November 11, 2005

The Silver Spring company once owned by a top aide to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has surfaced again in disclosures about the federal investigation into Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Documents recently released by a U.S. Senate committee investigating Abramoff offered evidence that Abramoff attempted to direct millions of dollars in fees to Grassroots Interactive, a firm founded in May 2003 by Edward B. Miller, who later became deputy chief of staff to the Republican governor.

The documents, as reported yesterday in the New York Times, showed that on Aug. 7, 2003, Abramoff drew up a draft contract with the African nation of Gabon that called for $9 million in fees to be paid to Grassroots Interactive. The contract was never signed.

This disclosure comes after the September testimony of a former Tyco International Ltd. official, who revealed that Abramoff asked client Tyco to send Grassroots Interactive a $2 million payment, purportedly for lobbying work.

A federal grand jury issued a subpoena this summer to Miller, who stepped down as the company's resident agent in September 2003 after taking a job with the Ehrlich administration.

Miller was traveling in Israel with Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele yesterday and could not be reached. His attorney, Aron U. Raskas, responded to questions with a brief statement by e-mail.

"Mr. Miller was not connected in any way to, nor did he have any knowledge whatsoever of, any proposal or project relating to Gabon," Raskas wrote.

.....

And, where might Ehrlich be now?



Former Md. Governor Ehrlich joining N.C. law firm, Feb 22, 2007

Unemployment for Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. lasted a little more than a month.

The former governor, who left office Jan. 17, said Wednesday he will open the first Maryland office of the Winston-Salem, N.C.- based law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice.

Ehrlich, who graduated from Wake Forest Law School in Winston- Salem, will bring with him his personal lawyer, David B. Hamilton, a principal at Ober|Kaler - the Baltimore-based law firm where Ehrlich practiced until he was elected to Congress in 1994 - and legal advisors and press aides from his gubernatorial administration.

Ehrlich, 50, is expected to use the connections he forged while in Annapolis and Washington to raise the regional profile of Womble, a full-service firm that will now have more than 500 attorneys in 11 offices in six states along the East Coast.

Ehrlich, who will be a partner in the firm, will start his new job Monday in temporary quarters in Linthicum - about five miles from his hometown of Arbutus. The firm is looking for permanent space within the Baltimore-Washington-Annapolis triangle.

.....

[defendandprotect]

2. Anyone think it odd that we don't have any Special Prosecutors yet????

[flyarm]

3. this needs kicking and R..K&R!!

[Lugnut]

5. K&R n/t