Boehner Aide Tied to Trip Set by Abramoff (with a West Wing tie in)

[papau]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/3644019.html
Karl Rove deputy and former Rep. Boehner staffer Barry Jackson, Jack Abramoff and David Safavian and the walls of the West Wing,
Feb. 8, 2006, 2:19AM

Boehner Aide Tied to Trip Set by Abramoff

By DAVID HAMMER Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A White House aide who was once chief of staff to House Majority Leader John Boehner helped plan a 1996 trip to the Northern Mariana Islands that was organized by fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff, billing records from Abramoff's firm show.

Barry Jackson, now chief deputy to White House adviser Karl Rove, accepted an invitation to travel to the island of Saipan in April 1996 but later decided not to go, White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said Tuesday.

The government of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands extended the invitations to Jackson and other high-level GOP House leadership staff while Congress was considering legislation to control immigration and labor practices in the remote Pacific island territory.

Abramoff, the central figure in a wide-ranging Justice Department investigation of influence peddling in Congress, lobbied for the Marianas in Washington. The commonwealth's government was accused of permitting egregiously low wages and poor conditions for immigrants working in sweatshops.

According to bills from Abramoff's former lobbying firm to the Marianas government, Abramoff's staff contacted Boehner's office about island issues at least 10 times in the first four months of 1996. Copies of the billing records were obtained by The Associated Press through open-records requests to the territorial government.

Typically, the contact was made by David Safavian, who later became the Bush administration's chief procurement official in the Office of Management and Budget. Safavian recently was indicted on charges of obstructing investigations of his ties to Abramoff. Safavian was the first administration official indicted in the Abramoff scandal.<snip>

[WildEyedLiberal]

1. Abramoff used a Boehner aide?

Hey, even if his lobbying career is over, maybe he could get a sweet endorsement deal from Cialis...

I know, I know... :spank: