Abramoff Has PIX of WH Meeting with Himself, Bush & Mariana Islands Rep >>

Stephanie

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Fri Jan-27-06 10:32 AM
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Abramoff Has PIX of WH Meeting with Himself, Bush & Mariana Islands Rep >>

Edited on Fri Jan-27-06 11:25 AM by Stephanie

So Abramoff took the tribal leaders and the Marianas rep to an Oval Office meeting with Bush, yet Bush says he's never met the guy.

Bush Reasserts Presidential Prerogatives
Eavesdropping, Katrina Probe Cited as Concerns

By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 27, 2006; Page A06

President Bush set limits yesterday on White House cooperation in three political disputes, saying he is determined to assert presidential prerogatives on such matters as domestic eavesdropping and congressional inquiries into Hurricane Katrina.

In a mid-morning news conference, Bush told reporters he is skeptical of a proposed law imposing new oversights on his use of the National Security Agency to listen in on electronic communications. He also said that he will block White House aides from testifying about the slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina, and that he will not release official White House photos of himself with former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Facing repeated questions, Bush distanced himself from Abramoff, who is at the center of the biggest political corruption and bribery scandal in a generation. Bush said he does not recall having his picture taken with Abramoff or ever meeting him. Abramoff was a member of the exclusive club of Bush's $100,000 fundraisers known as Pioneers.

"Having my picture taken with someone doesn't mean that I'm a friend with him or know him very well," Bush told reporters.

According to three people who reviewed half a dozen photos of the men, Bush is pictured at official gatherings and fundraisers with Abramoff and his children. He also attended a White House meeting with some of Abramoff's clients, including tribal leaders and the then-speaker of the House for the Northern Mariana Islands, the sources said. Abramoff has pictures from the event, they said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/26/AR2006012601943.html?nav=rss_politics/administration

01.08.2006
The Next Abramoff Shoe To Drop (164 comments )

RE: Jack Abramoff, 2006, Scott McClellan, Karl Rove, Investigations

Here's the next Abramoff blockbuster coming soon to a newspaper, cable TV station, and blog near you. What makes this particularly tantalizing is that it puts the White House squarely in the middle of a 2002 corruption investigation of a sleazy arrangement between Abramoff and Guam Superior Court officials. The chief prosecutor in the investigation was acting U.S. Atty. for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Frederick A. Black. As the LA Times wrote back in August 2005, in more innocent times when Abramoff's shenanigans did not make front page news, Black was removed from his position as acting U.S. Attorney in November 2002. It was a position he had held for over a decade, and which he lost one day after a subpoena was issued demanding the release of records involving the Guam court's lobbying contract with Abramoff -- including bills and payments.

And if this is not a bizarre enough coincidence for you, Black's replacement, Leonardo Rapadas, was a cousin of "one of the main targets" of the Guam investigation. Rapadas, who had been recommended to Karl Rove for the U.S. Attorney position by a lobbyist under contract with Guam's Gutierrez Administration, whom Black had also been investigating, promptly recused himself, and the investigation was very conveniently ended.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-next-abramoff-shoe-to_b_13469.html

http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle_new.asp?ArticleID=13

The Pimping of the Presidency
Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist Billing Clients for Face Time with G.W. Bush
BY LOU DUBOSE

Four months after he took the oath of office in 2001, President George W. Bush was the attraction, and the White House the venue, for a fundraiser organized by the alleged perpetrator of the largest billing fraud in the history of corporate lobbying. In May 2001, Jack Abramoff’s lobbying client book was worth $4.1 million in annual billing for the Greenberg Traurig law firm. He was a friend of Bush advisor Karl Rove. He was a Bush “Pioneer,” delivering at least $100,000 in bundled contributions to the 2000 campaign. He had just concluded his work on the Bush Transition Team as an advisor to the Department of the Interior. He had sent his personal assistant Susan Ralston to the White House to work as Rove’s personal assistant. He was a close friend, advisor, and high-dollar fundraiser for the most powerful man in Congress, Tom DeLay. Abramoff was so closely tied to the Bush Administration that he could, and did, charge two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President. From the same two clients he took to the White House in May 2001, Abramoff also obtained $2.5 million in contributions for a non-profit foundation he and his wife operated.

***

According to a source close to the tribal majority, Chairman Poncho recently “revisited that issue” of his visit to the White House. He had previously denied it because he thought he was responding to press inquiries that implied he had a one-on-one meeting with Bush. He now recalls that he in fact did go to the White House on May 9, 2001. Tribal attorney Kathryn Fowler Van Hoof went with him, although she did not get into the meeting with the President. That meeting lasted for about 15 minutes and was not a one-on-one meeting. At the meeting, Bush made some general comments about Indian policy but did not discuss Indian gaming. Abramoff was at the meeting—for which he charged the Coushatta Tribe $25,000. The change in Poncho’s position is odd in light of the fact that he and his spokespersons have maintained for more than a year that he did not meet with President Bush in May 2001.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/26/AR2006012600853.html?nav=hcmodule

BUSH: I, frankly, don't even remember having my picture taken with the guy. I don't know him.

And this investigation needs to look into all aspects of his influence on Capitol Hill. And if there are some in the White House, I'm sure they're going to come knock on the doors.

But I can't say I didn't ever meet him, but I meet a lot of people. And, you know, evidently he was, just like you were the other day, at the holiday party: came in, put the grip-and-grin, they clicked the picture and off he goes.

And that's just -- I take thousands -- well, somebody said I maybe take over 9,000 pictures this holiday season. And he -- obviously, we went to fund-raisers, but I've never sat down with him and had a discussion with the guy.