Lobbyist tells magazine that top Republicans who deny knowing him aren't being truthful

WASHINGTON — Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff worked closely with top Republicans, despite their claims to the contrary, he says in the latest issue of Vanity Fair magazine.

"Any important Republican who comes out and says they didn't know me is almost certainly lying," he is quoted as saying in the magazine's April edition, which goes on sale nationwide Tuesday.

Abramoff pleaded guilty Jan. 4 to fraud charges in connection with a multimillion-dollar purchase of a SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet in 2000. He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe public officials in a deal that requires him to provide evidence about members of Congress and their aides.

While lawmakers from both parties received campaign contributions from Abramoff or his clients, the lobbyist worked directly only with Republicans and all of his personal donations went to GOP members.

In the Vanity Fair article, Abramoff says President Bush knew him well enough to joke about weightlifting. "What are you benching, buff guy?" Abramoff says Bush asked him.

The president has said he doesn't know Abramoff. "I frankly don't even remember having my picture taken with the guy," Bush said Jan. 26. "I don't know him."

Abramoff wrote to Washingtonian magazine a few days after Bush's comments, saying the president met briefly with him nearly a dozen times and that Bush made joking references to Abramoff's family.

The lobbyist told Vanity Fair that he finds it difficult to believe that Bush doesn't remember the 10 or so photos that the lobbyist and family members snapped with the president and first lady Laura Bush.

"He [Bush] has one of the best memories of any politician I have ever met," Abramoff wrote in an e-mail, according to the magazine. "Perhaps he has forgotten everything. Who knows?"

Abramoff also says he once was invited to Bush's Texas ranch where he would have joined with other Bush fundraisers. Abramoff, an Orthodox Jew, says he didn't go because the event fell on the Sabbath.

He says he sat a few feet from the president during a speech to fundraisers in 2003. Abramoff, the only lobbyist on the dais, says he was seated between Republican Sens. George Allen of Virginia and Orrin Hatch of Utah.

Ties to White House

Three former associates of Abramoff have told The Associated Press that the lobbyist often told them he had strong White House ties through deputy chief of staff Karl Rove. Asked for comment, the White House said Rove and Abramoff were leaders of a young Republicans group decades ago.

"Mr. Rove remembers they had met at a political event in the 1990s," White House spokeswoman Erin Healy has said. "Since then, he would describe him as a casual acquaintance."

According to Vanity Fair, the men's relationship was deeper. After Bush took office, Susan Ralston, Abramoff's administration assistant, assumed the same post with Rove at the White House, where Abramoff met with Rove at least once, the magazine said.

Rove dined several times at Abramoff's former restaurant, Signatures, and was the lobbyist's guest in a luxury box at the NCAA basketball playoffs a few years ago, sitting for much of the game at Abramoff's side, Vanity Fair reported.

Photos with GOP brass

In his plea, Abramoff admitted that he showered golf trips, sports tickets and other gifts on lawmakers in return for actions that would help his clients.

In the article, he complains that politicians who once worked closely with him now claim they never knew him. E-mail and other subpoenaed records will prove otherwise, he says.

The magazine features photographs of Abramoff with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former President Reagan, whom the lobbyist met when he was president of the College Republicans.

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman ate dinner at Abramoff's house and forced Clinton administration appointee Allen Stayman out of the State Department as a favor to Abramoff, according to the Vanity Fair article.

Said committee spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt: "Jack Abramoff is someone that the chairman has known in various capacities during his time in Washington."

Abramoff says that he did not spend much time lobbying DeLay because he knew the congressman would support his issues, but that they talked about other subjects.

"We would sit and talk about the Bible. We would sit and talk about opera. We would sit and talk about golf. I mean, we talked about philosophy and politics," Abramoff says.

Abramoff also says Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., was particularly cooperative.

"Every appropriation we wanted we got," Abramoff says. "Our staffs were as close as they could be."

Spokesmen for DeLay and Burns were not immediately available for comment.

The Abramoff scandal has prompted lawmakers to tighten lobbying regulations and return or donate to charity more than $1 million in campaign contributions.

"The exposure of my lobbying practice, the absurd amount of media coverage, and the focus, for the first time, on this sausage-making factory that we call Washington will ultimately help reform the system, or at least so I hope," Abramoff says.

He blames the Bush administration for the media attention.

"My so-called relationship with Bush, Rove and everyone else at the White House has only become important because instead of just releasing details about the very few times I was there, they created a feeding frenzy by their deafening silence," he says.

"The Democrats, on the other hand, are going overboard, virtually insisting I was there to plan the invasion of Iraq."