The monetary influence of Jack Abramoff ran deep in Washington, as Jack Abramoff spent millions of dollars to influence and entertain both Republican and Democratic politicians. Abramoff had a reputation for largesse considered exceptional, even by Washington, D.C. standards. In addition to offering Republican members of Congress expensive free meals at his restaurant, Signatures, Abramoff maintained four skyboxes at major sports arenas for political entertaining at a cost of over $1 million a year. Abramoff hosted a number of fundraisers at these skyboxes including events for Republican politicians publicly opposed to gambling, such as John Doolittle. Abramoff gave over $260,000 in personal contributions to Republican candidates, politicians, and organizations, and funded multiple trips for politicians and staffers and gave none to Democrats.
From 2000 to 2006, funds and Leadership PACs of multiple Republican candidates for Congress. Under his guidance, his Indian tribe clients loosened their traditional ties to the Democratic Party, giving Republicans two-thirds of the $2.9 million they donated to federal candidates since 2001. He raised $100,000 for the reelection of George W. Bush, making him a Bush Pioneer. Abramoff and his wife gave $10,000 to the Bush-Cheney Recount Fund, shortly before Abramoff joined Greenberg Traurig, which forgave over $314,000 in legal fees incurred by the Bush Campaign in the 2000 Florida election recount.
Of the approximately $85 million in tribal money entrusted to Abramoff, his employers, or his related organizations (see Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal for more), over $4.4 million since 1999 were directed to at least 250 members of Congress, primarily Republicans in leadership positions or on relevant committees, and Democrats with standing connections to Native American interests (in a 2:1 GOP ratio). These contributions have since become tainted by their association with Abramoff's criminal behavior.
Abramoff was associated with Tom DeLay's and Grover Norquist's K Street Project to bring Republican dominance to Washington lobbying.
Skyboxes and St. Andrews Through the front company Sports Suites LLC, Abramoff owned skyboxes at MCI Center and Camden Yards, and two at FedExField. Between 1999 and 2003, Abramoff hosted 72 events for members of Congress, all but eight for Republicans.
On May 7, 2000, while Abramoff was actively lobbying against the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act in the House of Representatives, Tom DeLay attended a performance by the Three Tenors in a skybox at Washington's MCI Center. Several major donors to DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority PAC were also invited. It was later revealed that the skybox was leased and paid for by Jack Abramoff, at an estimated cost of $3,600–7,500. Although Federal law at the time did not require disclosure or reimbursement of this sort of gift-giving from a lobbyist to a PAC, the law was changed several months later, and the incident was cited in later criticisms of DeLay's acceptance of gifts.
On May 25, DeLay departed on a 10-day trip to Scotland together with Abramoff and DeLay's aides Tony Rudy and Susan Hirschmann. In documents filed after the trip as required by House rules, DeLay claimed that the purpose of the trip was primarily "educational", to hold meetings with Conservative leaders in Britain, including former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and that the total cost of the trip was $28,106. The filings indicated that the trip was being paid for by the "National Center for Public Policy Research", a think tank then chaired by Jack Abramoff.
On the same date as DeLay's trip departure, Abramoff clients eLottery and the Mississippi Choctaw sent checks totaling $50,000 to the National Center for Public Policy Research. eLottery and the tribe both later claimed that they were unaware that the money was intended to pay for a trip.
Details later emerged that parts of the trip were paid for directly on Abramoff's credit card, and a card belonging to Edwin A. Buckham, another prominent lobbyist. Although the trip did include a meeting with Margaret Thatcher, according to detailed bills leaked to the Washington Post, the trip also included golf at the exclusive St. Andrews Golf Resort, theater tickets, and "superior" room accommodations at the London Four Seasons. The total cost of the trip was estimatedGambling interests paid for House leader’s trip to Britain at $70,000, of which approximately $12,000 was reimbursed to Abramoff by Preston Gates.
The length of the trip, expense, source of funding, and activities of the trip are significant as House ethics rules at the time prevented representatives from accepting gifts from private parties if it would "create the appearance of using public office for private gain."
Justice Department investigation These actions by Abramoff ignited an investigation by the Justice Department to examine widespread claims and allegations of corruption of law-makers connected with Jack Abramoff. The allegations of corruption were later shown to be true, and resulted in a politician (Rep. Bob Ney, (R-OH)) getting convicted for accepting bribes from Abramoff. Abramoff also plead guilty to tax fraud and bribery of public officials in January 2006.
Politicians who have received direct contributions from Abramoff FEC records show that Abramoff gave $172,933 for Republican candidates, $88,985 to Republican causes and nothing to Democratic candidates or organizations. A compilation of the complete FEC record and its analysis of contributions made by Jack Abramoff, only, independently confirmed the latter claim. Some of the most prominent who have received such contributions and who may have other connections to Abramoff include:
President George W Bush (R)
As a Bush Pioneer, Abramoff raised over $100,000 for the George W. Bush reelection campaign in addition to the $6,000 which he personally contributed.https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060117/ap_on_go_pr_wh/white_house_abramoff;_ylt=AgN3zRwO.HpQ8PDKGKqPX82yFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA
Although the White House insists President Bush never met Jack Abramoff outside of large gatherings, The Texas Observer reports that in May 2001 Abramoff "charged two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President."
Time Magazine also reports having at least five White House publicity photos, or 'clicks' showing Bush together with Abramoff or Abramoff's family members.
U.S. Rep. & Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) Joining Abramoff on a vacation was Tom DeLay, whose airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 was charged to an American Express card issued to Abramoff, according to two sources who know Abramoff's credit card account number and to a copy of a travel invoice displaying that number. DeLay's expenses during the same trip for food, phone calls and other items at a golf course hotel in Scotland were billed to a different credit card also used on the trip by a second registered Washington lobbyist, Edwin A. Buckham, according to receipts documenting that portion of the trip.
U.S. Rep. & Former Chairman of the House Administration Committee Bob Ney (R-OH) In 2002, after Abramoff and Reed closed the casino of the Tigua tribe, Abramoff persuaded the tribe to hire him to lobby Congress to reopen the casino. After Abramoff met with Bob Ney to ask him to push the legislation, the Tigua (by overnight mail) sent three checks to Ney's political committees, totaling $32,000. The exchange of campaign contributions in return for Ney's support of an amendment to reopen the Tigua's casino constituted bribery.
Emails between Abramoff and the Tigua's political consultant show that Ney solicited the Tigua to pay for part of a 2002 golf trip to Scotland, knowing full well that solicitation of travel is specifically prohibited by House rules. Shortly after Ney returned from Scotland, he was scheduled to meet with members of the Tigua tribal council. Prior to that meeting, Abramoff reminded the Tigua that "for obvious reasons" the golf trip would not be mentioned at the meeting, but that Ney show his appreciation "in other ways", which was, Abramoff pointed out, just what the tribe wanted. Although the tribe never ended up paying for the golf trip, Ney's attempt to tie the gift of the trip to the legislative assistance the tribe was seeking likely violates federal criminal law.
Ney lied when he said he was "duped" by Abramoff and lied again on financial disclosure forms when he said that a nonprofit had paid for the trip. However, Safavian, in an email to his government employer seeking permission to go on the trip, states that Abramoff personally extended invitations to all the guests. Ney also said he made the trip to speak to Scottish parliamentarians. But the Scottish parliament wasn't in session at the time he was in Scotland.
Ney is also implicated in the separate Abramoff SunCruz scandal.
In 2005 Bob Ney set up a legal defense fund for Abramoff.
Bob Ney was "Representative #1," in Abramoff's January 3 plea agreement. On September 15, 2006 Ney's guilty plea for bribery related to Abramoff's clients and others was submitted to the court and made public.
U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, CD1 (R-NM) Congresswoman Heather Wilson received $1,000 in a direct contribution from Abramoff.
U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, III (R-FL);
Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL) joined other Republicans on the golf trip to Scotland with Abramoff in 2003.
U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) In 2003, Abramoff gave Richard Pombo's (R-CA) PAC $5,000. Abramoff also gave $2,000, the maximum allowed, to Pombo's congressional campaign committee that same year.
On January 8, 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that "Pombo helped one of Abramoff's clients, the Mashpee Indians in Massachusetts, gain official recognition as a tribe; the congressman received contributions from the lobbyist and the tribe in that instance."
U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-NJ) New Jersey Republican Rep. Mike Ferguson is not going to give back the $1,000 he received in 2001, according to his spokeswoman Abby Bird.http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050818/NEWS03/508180435/1007/BUSINESS
U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) New Jersey Republican Rep. Frank LoBiondo has planned or has given back the $1000 contribution he had received in 2001.
U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ) New Jersey Republican Rep. Jim Saxton has given back the 1000-dollar contribution he had received from Abramoff.
U.S. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) Conrad Burns (R-Montana) is an alleged recipient of illegal favors and $136,000 in campaign contributions from Abramoff. As the chair of the Interior Subcommittee on Appropriations, Burns received over $136,000 in campaign contributions through Abramoff and then directed $3 million to the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan, an Abramoff client and one of the wealthiest tribes in the country from a program intended to help the neediest tribes fix dilapidated schools.
After initially claiming credit for the appropriation, Burns subsequently denied knowledge of it. "A lot of things happened that I didn't know about. It shouldn't have happened, but it did."
Although initially refusing to return Abramoff's donations, Burns ultimately said that he would return or give away $150,000 he received from Abramoff and his clients.
In December, 2005, a leader of a tribe which gave $22,000 in campaign contributions to Burns in 2002 stated that they had done so solely at the request of Abramoff and believed the senator was part of "Abramoff's group".
U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX)