White House told to explain meetings with Abramoff 
Malaysiakini
Sep 30, 2006

Democrats yesterday demanded that the White House explain the hundreds of contacts made with Jack Abramoff, after the administration had previously stated that it has dealt with disgraced lobbyist only twice.

The disgraced Republican lobbyist, who charged the Malaysian embassy millions of ringgit for his services in arranging a meeting between President George W Bush and then premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 2002, is cannon fodder again as the country’s November legislative elections approaches.

According to a report carried by the Washington Post yesterday, Democrats had called on the White House yesterday to explain a congressional report showing hundreds of contacts with Jack Abramoff.

Abramoff and his associates have pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy, fraud and related crimes, in a scandal that Democrats are using to wrest control of Congress from the Republicans this election season.

A report by a House of Representatives panel found Abramoff and his lobbying team had about 485 contacts with the White House, including 10 with Karl Rove, who is Bush's top political adviser.

E-mails and billing records were used to compile the report by the House Government Reform Committee that looked at the period spanning three years ended in 2003, the Post reported.

An exaggeration?

Billing records had showed that lobbyists had offered dinners, drinks and concert tickets to officials.

Aides to President George W Bush, however, dismissed the notion the disgraced lobbyist wielded any influence. The White House sought to cast doubt on the report's credibility, saying it was based on material from Abramoff who had an incentive to exaggerate his clout to clients.

A Republican lawmaker pleaded guilty two weeks ago to a wide conspiracy of fraud and influence peddling linked to Abramoff (right).

Robert Ney was the first lawmaker to plead guilty in the scandal which forced the resignation of the former Republican leader in the House, Tom DeLay.

"For months, White House officials have refused to be straight with the American people about Jack Abramoff," said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California.

"Now we know the truth: a disgraced lobbyist traded perks and campaign contributions for special access to the Bush White House. It's clearly time for a new direction to restore integrity to Congress," she said.

With November 7 legislative elections coming up, in which many of the races are very close, Democrats have found new ways to smear Republicans with a "culture of corruption" that has grown, they say, as Republicans held control of both houses of Congress and the White House.

Propping up Mahathir

In May 2002, Mahathir met with Bush in the Oval Office and his photograph with the president was beamed around the world.

Abramoff was reported to have received US$1.2 million (RM4.5 million) from the Malaysian government for his lobbying services in 2001 and 2002, and documents obtained by Senate investigators appear to confirm at least US$900,000 (RM3.4 million) of that amount.

While in office, Mahathir had been chastised by the Clinton Administration for repeated anti-Semitic statements and for jailing political opponents especially former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, and he thought a meeting with Bush would help improve his image.

Abramoff - an orthodox Jew and a supporter of Israel - was reported by the Los Angeles Times to have had contacted presidential advisor Karl Rove on at least four occasions in a bid to arrange a meeting.

The Malaysian payments were made to the American International Center, a bogus think-tank that an Abramoff partner, Michael Scanlon, set up at a Delaware beach house, according to the report.

Abramoff and Scanlon have admitted using the center to collect millions of dollars from their lobbying clients.

At least one other Washington lobbying firm - Alexander Strategies, which was run by an Abramoff friend and former chief of staff to then House Majority Leader Tom DeLay - was compensated during this period for helping boost Malaysia's reputation in Washington.

That firm was also given credit in some circles for helping to arrange the White House meeting and separate trips for leading members of Congress, including DeLay and several Democrats, to Malaysia.

'It is a practice in US' 

Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has early this year denied paying US lobbyist Jack Abramoff to set up a meeting with President George W Bush but said money did change hands.

While denying that he or the government had paid any money to Abramoff, Mahathir conceded that money had been paid to set up the meeting.

"I understood some people paid a sum of money to lobbyists in America but I do not know who these people were and it was not the Malaysian government," he told the Bernama news agency.

"I did not touch the money at all. In the US, it is a practice that if you want to meet their leader, you have to go through a lobbyist and the lobbyist has to be paid.

"That is their system. It is not corruption at all and it is very open, but they don't reveal names," he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.

Abramoff was sentenced in March to five years and 10 months in jail for fraud.