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Banned
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It has been more than a year since first I wrote about this obvious conflict of interests and symbol of white house corruption and cronyism, seated just a few doors down from the POTUS. Now, she is gone....the most recent, after the arrest, last year, of former Abramoff associate and white house chief procurement officer, Safavian, who was convicted of accepting "favors" from Abramoff....
Quote:
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Oct...ramoff,00.html
FOXNEWS.COM HOME > POLITICS
White House Aide to Rove Resigns
Friday, October 06, 2006
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON — A key aide to presidential political strategist Karl Rove resigned Friday after a congressional report showed she had extensive contacts with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and accepted tickets to sporting events and concerts from him.
<B>Susan Ralston, a special assistant to President Bush</B> who used to work for Abramoff, submitted her resignation less than five weeks before congressional elections in which corruption and scandal are emerging as major issues.
Critics have pointed to Ralston as evidence that Rove _ and thus Bush _ are possibly closer to Abramoff than the White House has acknowledged.
Ralston's association with Abramoff was highlighted in a recent House Government Reform Committee report that listed hundreds of contacts the lobbying group had with the White House. The Bush administration insider, who is in her 30s, had been Abramoff's administrative assistant and, after Bush took office, assumed the same post with Rove.
"She recognized that a protracted discussion of these matters would be a distraction to the White House and she's chosen to step down,"deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino said in announcing Ralston's resignation."We support her decision and consider the matter closed."
Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, said he suspects the White House is trying to make Ralston a scapegoat.
"There is a lot that we don't yet know about the assistance that Ms. Ralston provided Mr. Abramoff from inside the White House, but there are also many unanswered questions about the assistance that higher-ranking White House officials appeared to provide Mr. Abramoff,"Waxman said.
"The vast majority of lobbying contacts and meals with White House officials documented in the report were with White House officials other than Ms. Ralston,"Waxman said.
Abramoff has pleaded guilty to fraud and now is now cooperating with prosecutors in an influence peddling investigation that has enveloped Capitol Hill even as lawmakers, facing Nov. 7 elections, struggle with the fallout from a scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley's salacious messages to teenage male pages.
The latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that about half of likely voters consider corruption and scandal in Congress very or extremely important, and about two in three of those said they would vote for Democrats in House races.
Perino said Ralston, a political appointee who has played an instrumental role in organizing and choosing presidential event sites, was respected by her White House colleagues and will be missed.
The committee's report _ based largely on Abramoff's billing records and e-mails _ listed 485 lobbying contacts with White House officials over three years, including 10 with Rove. The report indicated that Abramoff and associates lobbied on behalf of more than 20 individuals for administration jobs and only was successful once.
According to e-mails, Abramoff and his team offered White House officials tickets to 19 sporting events and concerts, and Ralston was the most frequent recipient.
She received tickets to nine events from 2001 to 2004: four Capitals hockey games, one Baltimore Orioles baseball game, two Wizards basketball games, and Bruce Springsteen and Andrea Bocelli concerts, the report said.
The report did not make clear whether Ralston or other White House officials paid for any of the tickets. In one case, Ralston wrote to Abramoff saying Rove"has to pay"for the tickets he received to an NCAA basketball playoff game. The White House said Rove paid for the tickets.
In another instance, Ralston wrote an e-mail saying she was"willing to pay"for Capitals tickets, but Abramoff replied:"No problem, and you don't have to pay."
After an Aug. 23, 2003, Orioles game that Ralston attended, she e-mailed Abramoff:"Thanks for the tix to the game last night. Our guests had a terrific time. (W)e had fun and appreciate your generosity."
The federal gratuities statute makes it a crime to give anything of value to a public official for any official act performed by that official. Officials under scrutiny for accepting gifts often defend themselves by saying they did so out of friendship. Ethics rules prohibit federal employees from accepting gifts unless given because of personal friendship.
E-mails reviewed by the committee also indicate that Abramoff and Ralston discussed business plans more than once.
In February 2002, for example, Ralston, Abramoff, and Abramoff partner Ben Waldman had an e-mail exchange about a business opportunity involving leasing an aircraft.
In November 2002, Ralston e-mailed about the possibility of forming a defense or homeland security-oriented company, acknowledging,"I . . . lack the experience to run the day-to-day operations of a defense company."
She added that"it would take a significant amount of money for me to be lured away (from the White House) so unless you're really serious and can make it worth my while, let's wait until 2005."
Abramoff responded,"I am not in a position to offer you serious money for this right now."
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I've posted extensiverly about the issue of Abramoff's former key assistant being placed in the new Bush white house administration, in early 2001. Now she resigns on a friday, after 5:00 pm, the time of the week when all potentially damaging news is always released by politicians..............
Quote:
http://reform.house.gov/GovReform/Ne...cumentID=51048
Government Reform Releases Report on Jack Abramoff’s White House Lobbying
<B>[Tom] Davis: “The silence speaks volumes…”</B>
<a href="http://reform.house.gov/GovReform/AboutTom/">[Tom served as Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee from 1998 to 2002. ]</a>
Washington, D.C., Sep 29 -
The House Government Reform Committee today released a bipartisan investigative report on the nature and extent of the lobbying of White House officials by Jack Abramoff and his associates. As part of its six month investigation, the Committee obtained more than 14,000 pages of billing records and e-mail communications from Abramoff and his associates at Greenberg Traurig L.L.P. related to instances of lobbying White House officials.
The review offered a detailed glimpse into a sordid subculture of fraud and attempted influence peddling. The Committee was primarily concerned with two questions: To what extent were executive branch officials influenced by Abramoff’s elaborate schemes? And, in view of Abramoff’s admitted crimes, what reforms would better protect the integrity and increase the transparency of government processes and decisions?
“It was our job to examine whether and to what extent Jack Abramoff’s extravagant claims of influence actually reached their intended targets in the executive branch, and what that might mean about the adequacy of current ethics and lobby disclosure laws,” Committee Chairman Tom Davis said. “This is oversight: ask the right questions, get the information, and let the facts speak for themselves about needed reforms.”
The Committee’s report reveals only scant and circumstantial evidence that Abramoff’s encounters and entreaties had a dispositive impact on administration policy or personnel decisions. For example, the records indicate Abramoff and his associates advocated on behalf of more than 20 individuals for administration jobs. One was approved.
Over three years, the lobbying of senior officials appears to be quite limited. There are only nine alleged instances of Abramoff and his team having any kind of contact with Karl Rove, for example. Only one involved a scheduled meeting – less than 50 days into the Administration. The rest occurred at fundraisers or sporting events.
In terms of administration policy and agency decisions over three and half years, Abramoff did take credit for obtaining funding for construction of a jail and school on tribal client lands, political endorsements for insular territorial clients, and the resolution of a border dispute between a tribe and the State of New Mexico.
<b>The lobbyist’s former secretary, Susan Ralston, was hired as Karl Rove’s executive assistant. Her role in brokering requests to Rove from her former boss raises questions,>/b> not answered in Committee documents or the report, about some of her activities. The report reveals Ralston was the most frequently lobbied person of those named – 69 times. Deputy Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Jennifer Farley was next, with 27 instances. [Intergovernmental Affairs is the White House office that deals with tribal issues.]
A number of individuals appear to have been offered tickets to sporting events and concerts. The Committee does not know in all cases if executive branch employees accepted them, if they were allowed to accept them without paying for them, or if they indeed paid for them themselves. The Committee is confident the appropriate authorities will examine whether the tickets were accepted, required to be paid for, and if so, whether they were paid for......
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Last edited by host; 10-06-2006 at 10:24 PM..
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