E-mails: DeLay staff knew lobbyist paid for golf trip

WASHINGTON — Prosecutors have e-mail showing Rep. Tom DeLay's office knew lobbyist Jack Abramoff had arranged the financing for the GOP leader's controversial European golfing trip in 2000 and was concerned "if someone starts asking questions."

House ethics rules bar lawmakers from accepting free trips from lobbyists. DeLay, R-Texas, reported to Congress that a Republican think tank had paid for the spring 2000 trip DeLay, his wife and top aides took to Scotland and England.

The e-mail messages obtained by The Associated Press show DeLay's staff asked Abramoff — not the think tank, the National Center for Public Policy Research — to account for the costs that had to be legally disclosed on congressional travel forms. DeLay's office was worried the organization being cited as paying the costs might not even know about them, the e-mail messages state.

Abramoff's team sought to lowball the cost estimates and DeLay's office ultimately reported to Congress a total a few thousand dollars lower than the one the lobbyist provided, the documents show.

"We should give them the most minimal numbers for cost of the hotel (do not include golf), food and plays," Abramoff wrote in an e-mail to two assistants on June 29, 2000. At the time, Abramoff was a lobbyist at the Washington, D.C., office of the Seattle-based Preston Gates Ellis law firm. One of those assistants, Susan Ralston, now works for top White House adviser Karl Rove.

Follow-up e-mail

In a follow-up e-mail to Abramoff, Ralston reported she talked to DeLay's then-deputy chief of staff, Tony Rudy, who suggested numbers that could be used as cost figures on the congressional travel report. Rudy had gone on the trip with his boss.

"Tony said: $6,800 for flights per person. $300 per night for hotel, $120 per day per person for meals, $500 per day for transportation," Ralston wrote Abramoff. Abramoff's credit-card bill shows some costs were higher.

Federal prosecutors have secured the cooperation of Abramoff and Rudy, and are investigating whether DeLay filed false public reports to disguise the source and size of political donations, travel and other gifts he received from special interests. Several witnesses have been questioned about the Scotland trip e-mail.

DeLay's lawyer said Friday he thinks the congressman's office asked Abramoff, instead of the GOP organization, for the trip costs because its top executive was on maternity leave. He noted Abramoff served as director for the organization listed as paying for the trip.

"The way I read this was that staff was trying to get it right," lawyer Richard Cullen said of the e-mail.

Last month DeLay said he would not seek re-election and would leave his House seat before next month. His decision came three days after Rudy pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges, telling federal prosecutors of a criminal enterprise being run out of DeLay's offices. Rudy did not implicate DeLay in illegal activities.

Questions raised

An expert on federal disclosure reports said the e-mail raises questions about whether DeLay's office filed a false report.

"It clearly shows some members live in a dream world of high-class living and fictional accounting. DeLay's office was part of the public deception. It makes you wonder if there are more filings as fictional as this one is turning out to be," said Kent Cooper, the former chief of public disclosure for the Federal Election Commission.

Abramoff's lawyers declined comment.

It was first disclosed more than a year ago that Abramoff arranged for two clients to pick up most of the costs for the trip and to route the money to the National Center for Public Policy Research listed in the travel reports as the sponsor.

Abramoff's credit-card bills show the lobbyist initially charged tens of thousands of dollars in airfare for DeLay's trip to his American Express card. Cullen said he thinks the lobbyist consulted with an ethics expert before making the payments.

The trip, which included golf at the exclusive St. Andrews Links course, and others like it have become symbols of Abramoff's largesse to lawmakers and a focal point of the criminal investigation into influence peddling on Capitol Hill.

DeLay said he thought the center paid for the trip as he reported.

DeLay's lawyer said despite the discrepancy in cost figures and the evidence Abramoff initially paid for the airfare on his credit card, DeLay has no plans to change his travel report to Congress. "I think the report was made in good faith," the lawyer said.

Material from The Seattle Times archive is included in this report.