Abramoff plea agreement's impact on DeLay weighed

WASHINGTON — Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and lobbyist Jack Abramoff had been friends for years, trading easily on each other's success. One rose to the pinnacle of power in Congress. The other became the most sought-after lobbyist in town. They built a politically potent network of former aides, lobbyists and comrades-in-arms.

Top 20


Top recipients of donations from lobbyist Jack Abramoff, his tribal clients and his subordinates from 1999-2004:

Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., chairman, Senate Interior appropriations subcommittee: $146,590

Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, D-R.I., House appropriations committee: $131,000

Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., House Resources Committee: $86,750

Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., Speaker of the House: $81,750

Rep. John T. Doolittle, R-Calif., House leadership and Appropriations Committee: $79,750

Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, former House majority leader: $71,000

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Senate Appropriations Committee: $62,485

Rep. Robert Ney, R-Ohio, chairman, House Administration Committee: $62,485

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Senate Appropriations Committee: $49,480

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Senate minority leader: $47,000

Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La., House Ways & Means Committee: $45,500

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., Senate Appropriations Committee: $44,500

Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., ranking Democrat, Senate Interior appropriations subcommittee: $44,050

Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., former Senate minority leader: $41,750

Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., former House minority leader: $39,500

Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., former Senate assistant majority leader: $37,500

Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., chairman, House Resources Committee: $36,000

President Bush: $34,250

Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., House Appropriations Committee: $33,000

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman, Senate Finance Committee: $31,500

Sources: Federal Election Commission, Center for Public Integrity, The Washington Post

The question hanging over Washington on Tuesday: Could Abramoff's fall and plea deal drag down his longtime ally?

The financial and political ties between the men are so extensive, their histories and causes so intertwined, that some find it hard to fathom how the Texas Republican could escape as Abramoff — facing 11 years in prison and $27 million in restitution — begins to talk.

In court Tuesday, Abramoff confessed to proferring all sorts of favors on just one lawmaker, and it wasn't DeLay. He told the court he'd provided the legislator, understood to be Ohio Republican Bob Ney, a "lavish trip to Scotland to play golf on world-famous courses, tickets to sporting events and other entertainment," meals at Abramoff's upscale restaurant, and generous campaign donations — largess he also bestowed on DeLay.

Prosecutors cited several favors Ney offered in return, including help with Abramoff's purchase of a fleet of casino ships. Justice Department and FBI officials have offered no such examples involving DeLay, and wouldn't say if they're digging or expect to learn of any in coming months.

Abramoff and DeLay worked closely on many projects, traveling together to the Mariana Islands, Russia and the United Kingdom, ostensibly under the auspices of a conservative Washington think tank, the National Center for Public Policy Research. Abramoff sat on the group's board, and reports surfaced that two of his clients each donated $25,000 to the nonprofit a day before the Britain junket.

House rules prohibit travel paid for by lobbyists or their clients, though DeLay and other lawmakers on the trip say they had no idea where the group got the funds.

Abramoff and his partner, former DeLay press secretary Michael Scanlon — who has also pleaded guilty and cooperated with federal prosecutors — routinely boasted of their connections with the majority leader when selling their services to Indian tribes and others.

The Marianas connection could also provide investigators an interesting trail. DeLay sought to protect the garment industry on the islands, an American commonwealth in the Pacific, from U.S. labor laws.

In 1999, during a power struggle in the local legislature, two former DeLay aides, Ed Buckham and Scanlon, went to Saipan to persuade two lawmakers to switch sides in a leadership vote, dangling promises of federal largess for which DeLay reportedly paved the way later. The favored candidate won and later awarded Abramoff a contract worth $1.6 million.

DeLay and Abramoff also collaborated closely on the K Street Project, an effort to pressure Washington's premier lobbying firms to shun Democrats and stock their staffs with GOP loyalists. At one point the House ethics committee reprimanded DeLay for threatening retaliatory legislation against a trade group for hiring a Democrat as its top lobbyist.

Abramoff raised at least $71,000 for DeLay's political committees in the past five years alone.

Critics have raised questions about the $115,000 the congressman's wife, Christine DeLay, was paid over four years by Alexander Strategy Group — a firm led by Buckham and other former DeLay aides that got client referrals from Abramoff — for researching the charitable preferences of lawmakers. The DeLays said the work was real and the pay justified.

Jan Baran, a Republican ethics lawyer who once represented then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, said the plea deal might carry no implications for DeLay.

"There's nothing in there that involves him or suggests his involvement. ... If the Justice Department has some information about other public officials, they presumably would have included it by now," he said.

He noted that courts are strict when it comes to enforcing bribery law. Prosecutors must prove quid pro quo — Latin for "something for something."

DeLay got favors from Abramoff. But so did several hundred colleagues.

As speculation bubbled about what Abramoff could offer federal authorities, there was activity involving DeLay in Austin.

Travis County prosecutor Ronnie Earle obtained subpoenas Tuesday for donations from two former Abramoff law firms — Greenberg Traurig and Seattle-based Preston Gates — to DeLay's state political-action committee, Texans for a Republican Majority.

The grand jury, which is investigating money-laundering allegations against DeLay and several lieutenants, also ordered records of campaign donations from Abramoff's biggest lobbying client, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.