Abramoff Associate Was a 'Corrupter,' Not a Lobbyist, Prosecutors Tell Jury(Kevin Ring)

[maddezmom]

Source: WaPost

Federal prosecutors told jurors Friday that Kevin Ring, an associate of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's, lavished meals and tickets on lawmakers and public officials in the hopes of illegally influencing them.

"He was a lobbyist in name but a corruptor in reality," said Nathaniel B. Edmonds, a Justice Department prosecutor. "Ring is the sugar daddy, giving out the goodies to public officials over and over again."

Ring, 38, of Kensington, went on trial Friday in the District's federal court on conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice charges tied to the Abramoff lobbying scandal. His attorneys say he did nothing wrong.

"He pushed the envelope where Congress purposefully left the lines blurry," said his attorney, Andrew Wise. "Kevin Ring played by the rules of lobbying and government in a broken and sometimes ridiculous system."

But prosecutors said witnesses and Ring's e-mails will prove the lobbyist stepped well beyond legal limits in seeking to influence lawmakers, their staff members and government officials.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/11/AR2009091103728.html

[The Magistrate]

1. Like There Is a Difference, Ma'am....

[Jackpine Radical]

4. That was my thought...

a proverbial distinction without a difference.

[Hasnt Happened Yet]

2. He was both, in reality....

I would imagine there are quite a few "envelope pushers" that just has never been caught.

[seafan]

3. Kevin Ring e-mail: "The ethics thing is a real turn off -- we like amoral pond scum,"

Kevin Ring is indeed the tip of this iceberg., April 18, 2007






Abramoff Associate Was a 'Corrupter,' Not a Lobbyist, Prosecutors Tell Jury

WP
September 12, 2009

.....

They said Ring gave lawmakers and officials gifts and tough-to-get tickets to concerts by such popular performers as U2, Paul McCartney and the Dave Matthews Band.
He handed out courtside seats to watch Michael Jordan play basketball for the Washington Wizards, they alleged. And Ring treated them to expensive meals at fancy restaurants.

"They were gifts to reward," Edmonds said. "They were gifts to influence."

In return, they said, lawmakers and government officials helped Ring's clients by awarding them millions of dollars in grants and by taking other official acts.
At one point, Ring gave tickets to concerts and the Wizards to a Justice Department official in the hopes of boosting government funding for a client, an Indian tribe, that wanted to build a jail in Mississippi. It worked, prosecutors said.

Ring told other lobbyists to "thank your friends on the Hill and in the Administration."

"In fact, thank them over and over this week -- preferably for long periods of time and at expensive establishments," he added. "Thank them until it hurts -- and until we have a June bill that reflects the fact our client is about to get a $16.3 million check from the Department of Justice!!!"

In another e-mail, Edmonds said, Ring joked about the types of lobbyists that worked with him. "The ethics thing is a real turn off -- we like amoral pond scum," Ring wrote, according to Edmonds.

.....

LOCK 'EM ALL UP.


Jack Abramoff, the gift that keeps on giving.



(Emphases mine)