Logs of Abramoff's White House visits ordered released
Bush has said he didn't know Abramoff . It seems Bunnypants may have been telling the truth, as Jack never visited the White House as he was living there. The first Secret Service reports will show Jack visited the White House 200 times in a ten month period.
BY KENNETH R. BAZINETNew York Daily News
WASHINGTON - A federal judge has ordered the Secret Service to release all records of disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff's visits to the White House - which could prove an embarrassment for President Bush.
The logs are expected to show who Abramoff met with at the White House as well as when and how long he was there.
Bush has said he didn't know Abramoff, who pleaded guilty in a massive influence-peddling scandal. But photos show the two posing for pictures at the White House. Abramoff also raised more than $100,000 for Bush's 2004 reelection campaign.
In a three-paragraph ruling, U.S. District Judge John Penn ordered the Secret Service to release the logs by May 10.
"The American people deserve the truth concerning admitted felon Jack Abramoff's visits and meetings with Bush administration officials in the White House," Tom Fitton, president of conservative-leaning watchdog group Judicial Watch, said Monday.
Judicial Watch filed suit to get the logs released after Freedom of Information Act requests by it and the liberal-leaning legal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington were denied.
"We don't know what these records will show, but it's time we get more of the facts on the table," added Fitton, whose group made a name for itself during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton over his trysts with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Pleading guilty to conspiracy and bilking clients out of millions of dollars, Abramoff agreed to testify for federal authorities in their influence-peddling probe, which has reached as high as the offices of ex-GOP House leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio. Several people have been charged in the case, and more indictments are expected.
posted by Name Held by Request | 7:18 AM
9 Comments:
I wonder where his desk was?
next to Gannon? or maybe at the Watergate Annex, with Goss and Duke
I seem to recall Gannon visits numbered over 200 as well. But maybe that was over a longer time period.
Maybe he really doesn't
If that were the case it brings up one possibility and question with limitless possibilities:
1) He visited with scrubbie 200 times and in scrubs toke infested brain he is unable to remember anything. Which would of course, call into question whether he is mentally stable to continue being the president.
or
2) He was visiting someone else. Which begs the question "Who was he visiting and why?" Cheney? Rove? Cheney and Rove? Rice, Cheney and Rove? The possibilities are limitless.
But the Chimperor doesn't know Abramoff! Remember this?
On January 26, here's what he said:
"President Bush fended off questions Thursday about White House links to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and refused to release photos that show the two men together. "I don't know him," Bush said.
"I had my picture taken with him, evidently," Bush said at a White House news conference. "I've had my picture taken with a lot of people. Having my picture taken with someone doesn't mean that I'm a friend with them or know them very well."
"It's part of the job of the president to shake hands ... with people and smile," he said."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-01-26-bush...
Nope, he doesn't know the guy who visited every damn day for ten months...
Susan Ralston was a former Abramoff acquaintance. He 'gave' her to Rove
when they took over the WH. She became Rove's assistant. She has been before the Plame GJ a few times, probably in relationg to what she knew about Rove.
Susan Ralston supposedly took all of Rove's calls, and would have to check with Norquist before deciding who should and should not have access. I remember reading that somewhere.
In some of the Abramoff e-mails, he would contact Ralph Reed if he wanted something from Rove (apparently Reed had a good relationship with Rove).
As I recall, Norquist was a mentor to Ralph Reed, Abramoff and I think, Adam Kidan (who entered a guilty plea also re the Suncruz corruption case). They were all in college together, 'young Republicans'.
When the emails were released, I remember wondering if Bush had a clue what was going on in the WH, or did he let Karl handle all this, and get a report later.
You're right about how ugly all this is ~ it's hard to believe that such a bunch of lunatics had so much power for so long over the lives of so many people. It makes you wonder who is watching out for this country?
Yes, I find it fascinating since I started following it. There are so many
twists and turns, so many crimes, from the Marianas Islands to China to Africa, Israel, Russia not to mention right here, regarding Abramoff, Tom Delay, the Christian Right, gambling, Mohammad Atta, Bob Ney, even Duke Cunningham may have been involved with Abramoff.
He's like the energizer bunny, he's involved everywhere, the K St. Progject alone would make incredible TV.
Then there are the other scandals, Lies about war, Voting Machine corruption, Enron, Spies in the Pentagon (sometimes I think that is the one that could get all of them for treason, Cheney, Condy, Wolfowitz and the rest of the neocons). The Plame affair, the Forged Niger Documents ~ it's endless.
If the media had started following all this from the beginning, any one of the scandals, (and now we have the prostitute/defense contractor/Cunningham scandal developing) they would have had huge ratings. That's why it's so puzzling that they did not. And of course, Jeff Gannon and why a male prostitute was in the WH.
They are stories of greed, ambition, war profiteering, treason, corruption, sex, spies! It would have been great TV, better than all the reality shows. Now it would take so long for the media to catch up. I can't keep up with the scandals, they'd have to do it in stages, and show how they all come back to the same people. It would take years!
But you're right, tragic though it all is, it would be great for television. People would glued to their tvs, imo.
Someone had to water the plants.
I think the fact that the agency pursuing the information about the Abramoff vists is a CONSERVATIVE group is extra delicious here. It's about time some of these so-called conservatives put their backing on their ideologies instead of some Dimwit who's spending all of their and our money on new yaghts for his Cronies. I'm no fan of the penny-pinching libertarians, but some of their ideology was legit at one time.
He was at the White House more than Bush hisself!
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