MARY CURTIUS, JANET HOOK AND JOHN-THOR DAHLBERG - LOS ANGELES TIMES | Posted: Wednesday, January 4, 2006 11:00 pm
WASHINGTON -- From the Oval Office to Capitol Hill, prominent Republicans scrambled Wednesday to shed campaign contributions linked to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, as his guilty pleas in fraud and corruption cases opened a painful debate within the party over its leadership and direction.
President Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and DeLay's temporary successor in that post, Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., joined a lengthening list of politicians whose campaign committees have returned or donated to charities money they received from Abramoff, his associates and his clients.
More lawmakers were expected to follow suit in what was becoming a stampede by lawmakers to distance themselves from a lobbyist who once enjoyed easy access to Washington's corridors of power.
The cloud surrounding Abramoff grew Wednesday when he pleaded guilty in Miami to federal fraud charges arising from his purchase of SunCruz, a Florida gambling boat fleet. On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty in Washington to three federal felonies stemming from his lobbying activities.
Anxieties on Capitol Hill are mounting because Abramoff -- once a key player in the vaunted K Street lobbying project that DeLay built into a powerful tool to help maintain Republican majorities in the House and Senate -- is cooperating with federal prosecutors in a wide-ranging corruption investigation. The probe is focused on whether at least a half-dozen members of Congress and several aides traded legislative action in return for lavish trips, gifts and campaign contributions orchestrated by Abramoff.
Although some Democrats received Abramoff-linked contributions and favors, the lobbyist -- a Republican activist since college -- focused most of his attention on helping the GOP.
Records have shown he helped funnel at least $100,000 to Bush's reelection campaign. Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said Wednesday the campaign had decided to donate to the American Heart Association $6,000 connected to Abramoff.
She said that amount covered separate $2,000 donations from Abramoff, the lobbyist's wife and a Michigan Indian tribe he represented.
A spokeswoman for DeLay, who had close ties to Abramoff, announced he would donate $15,000 given to his campaign committee by Abramoff and his wife to charities in Texas.
A spokesman for Frist said a $2,000 contribution from the Michigan Indians that Abramoff represented would be given back to the tribe, and Blunt's office said that he would be donating $8,500 his campaign received in Abramoff-linked money to charity.
The spreading Abramoff scandal is considered so politically toxic that some Republicans said broad changes must be made if the party hopes to preserve its control of Congress in November's elections. These moves include the quick selection of a permanent House majority leader -- which would block DeLay's efforts to return to the position -- and a party commitment to champion ethics and lobbying reforms.
"If they don't take fairly dramatic action and reclaim the mantle of reform, (Republicans) are going to lose the House," said Vin Weber, a GOP lobbyist and former House member from Minnesota with close ties to the White House.
"They have to elect a new majority leader," former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., said in an interview. "My bet is they will."
Under GOP House rules, DeLay gave up his leadership job when he was indicted late last year in Texas of money laundering charges. DeLay has expressed confidence he will be cleared of the charges and has sought a speedy disposition of the case. But so far, his lawyers have been unable to expedite his trial.
In the Senate, Frist said that after consulting with members, he will "examine and act on any necessary changes to improve transparency and accountability for our body when it comes to lobbying."
Abramoff, in a brief appearance Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck in Miami, admitted that he conspired in a mail and wire fraud in 2000 that falsely assured lenders that he and a partner put up $23 million of their own money to purchase SunCruz Casinos. His admission of guilt was part of an agreement with the government, which dismissed four other counts pending against the 46-year-old lobbyist.
For the crimes he acknowledged committing Wednesday, Abramoff could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.
The lobbyist's former partner in the gambling ship deal, Adam Kidan, pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy and wire fraud, and could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and fined $500,000 when he comes before Huck for sentencing March 1.
According to U.S. officials, Abramoff and Kidan faxed false documents to lenders to back up their bogus claim that they had plowed $23 million of their own money into buying SunCruz.
On Sept. 27, 2000, Foothill Capital Corp. and Citadel Equity Fund Ltd. lent approximately $60 million to a group of investors headed by Abramoff and Kidan to allow them to purchase the flotilla of gambling ships for $147.5 million.
In his Washington plea agreement on Tuesday, Abramoff had acknowledged that he and others provided things of value to an unidentified member of Congress in exchange for a series of official actions, including the placement of a statement in the Congressional Record critical of the former owner of SunCruz Casinos, Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis.
Aides to Rep. Robert W. Ney, R-Ohio, have acknowledged that Ney was the unidentified Congressman. Ney has said he did nothing wrong, and that he was duped by Abramoff.
Times staff writer James Gerstenzang contributed to this story.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.