The Associated Press
Here is a timeline of key events in the Jack Abramoff investigation:
2005:
• Dec. 13-22: Five members of Congress — Rep. Ernest Istook (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla.; Sen. Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record), R-Kan.; Sen. Max Baucus (news, bio, voting record), D-Mont.; Sen. Conrad Burns (news, bio, voting record), R-Mont.; and Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record), D-N.D. — return or give away campaign donations they received from Abramoff.
• Dec. 15: Abramoff associate Adam Kidan reaches plea bargain with federal prosecutors on fraud charges arising from a 2000 deal to buy casino boats.
• Nov. 21: Abramoff associate Michael Scanlon, a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, pleads guilty to conspiring to bribe public officials.
• Oct. 5: David Safavian, former chief of staff of the General Services Administration, is indicted on charges he made false statements and obstructed a federal investigation into his dealings with lobbyist Abramoff.
• Aug. 29: Abramoff pleads innocent to Miami fraud charges.
• Aug. 11: Abramoff and associate Adam Kidan indicted by a Miami federal grand jury on fraud charges in the casino boat deal.
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2004:
• Sept. 29: Abramoff refuses to answer questions from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee about his work on behalf of American Indian tribes and casino issues. The Senate committee's staff concluded after a seven-month investigation that Abramoff and his business partner, Michael Scanlon, had charged six tribes in six states a total of $66 million for lobbying and may have manipulated at least two tribal elections to ensure they would get contracts with tribes.
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2003:
• Abramoff donates more than $100,000 to President Bush's reelection campaign.
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2000:
• Abramoff and Kidan purchase the SunCruz Casinos fleet of gambling boats. According to the 2005 Miami indictment, prosecutors say the pair faked a $23 million wire transfer to make it appear that they were making a significant contribution of their own money into the deal. Based on that transfer, lenders Foothill Capital Corp. and Citadel Equity Fund Ltd. agreed to provide $60 million in financing for the purchase.
The MSM is up to it's old tricks again, claiming Abramoff is a GOP lobbyist.
Nearly three dozen members of Congress, including leaders from both parties, pressed the government to block a Louisiana Indian tribe from opening a casino while the lawmakers collected large donations from rival tribes and their lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.
Many intervened with letters to Interior Secretary Gale Norton within days of receiving money from tribes represented by Abramoff or using the lobbyist's restaurant for fundraising, an Associated Press review of campaign records, IRS records and congressional correspondence found.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, held a fundraiser at Abramoff's Signatures restaurant in Washington on June 3, 2003, that collected at least $21,500 for his Keep Our Majority political action committee from the lobbyist's firm and tribal clients.
Seven days later, Hastert wrote Norton urging her to reject the Jena tribe of Choctaw Indians' request for a new casino. ...
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid sent a letter to Norton on March 5, 2002 ... The next day, the Coushattas issued a $5,000 check to Reid's tax-exempt political group, the Searchlight Leadership Fund. A second Abramoff tribe sent another $5,000 to Reid's group. Reid ultimately received more than $66,000 in Abramoff-related donations between 2001 and 2004. ...
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., the former Senate GOP leader, wrote Norton on March 1, 2002, to "seriously urge" she reject the Jena casino. Lott received $10,000 in donations from Abramoff tribes just before the letter and $55,000 soon after. Lott's office said he sent the letter because his state's Choctaw tribe and a casino company were concerned about losing business.
Then-Sen. John Breaux (news, bio, voting record), D-La., wrote Norton on March 1, 2002. Five days later the Coushattas sent $1,000 to his campaign and $10,000 to his library fund, tribal records show.
Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., wrote Norton on June 14, 2001, one of the first such letters. Cochran's political committee got $6,000 from Abramoff tribes in the weeks before the letter, and another $71,000 in the three years after.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who was engaged in a tight re-election race in 2002, sent her letter March 6, 2002. That same day, the Coushattas sent $2,000 to her campaign and she received $5,000 more by the end of that month. By year's end, the total had grown to at least $24,000.
The money involved totals to over $800,000, far more than the cash output involved in the Keating 5 savings-and-loan scandal in the 80s. Unlike the Keating scandal, where John McCain was the only Republican involved in the cash-for-influence scandal, Abramoff made sure that he worked both parties in depth to maximize his ability to influence the bureaucracy at Interior.
There's more:
Senator Dorgan (Dem-ND) held a fundraiser in Abramoff's skybox. One of the ND tribes paid for the use of the box for Dorgan's fundraiser. (AP)
Dorgan collected $11,500 plus in political donations from the Abramoff's partner who was representing the Mass. Mashpee tribe after he pushed for federal recognition of them .(AP)
Need I go on...?