Hastert rebuffs Pelosi on investigation request (Abramoff related)

[chat_noir]

Hastert rebuffs Pelosi on investigation request


Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) on Tuesday rejected a proposal by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to support an investigation by the House inspector general into the award of a lucrative licensing agreement to telecommunications company Foxcom Wireless in 2002.

The company has been linked to former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has been charged with five counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy in Florida and is under federal investigation for allegations he bilked Indian tribes out of more than $85 million.

In rejecting the request, a spokesman for Hastert accused Pelosi of using the issue for political gain.

snip

Jennifer Crider, a spokeswoman for Pelosi, countered that the office had yet to hear whether or not the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) was going to take action.

It is unusual for members to ask the OIG, in a tiny office in the Ford Office Building, which falls under the oversight and policy direction of the House Administration Committee, to investigate a matter. Pelosi, however, said she turned to the OIG because she was concerned that the ethics committee could not handle the matter because it has been out of commission for more than a year over a staffing dispute.

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/102605/news8.html


On The Abramoff Trail

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) yesterday called for an investigation into how the House Administration Committee, led by Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), decided to award a lucrative 2002 licensing agreement to a company with ties to Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist who is now the subject of multiple criminal probes.

Writing yesterday to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Pelosi sought the Speaker’s backing in a request to the acting inspector general of the House to review how the company, Foxcom Wireless, obtained the agreement, which allowed it to install equipment to improve cell-phone reception in the Capitol and adjacent House office buildings. “I am writing to ask that we join together in a bipartisan request to the Acting Inspector General of the House to conduct an immediate and thorough inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the selection by the House of Representatives of Foxcom Wireless,” Pelosi wrote. She referenced a recent report in The Washington Post that suggested that Ney’s office rigged the informal bidding process to favor Foxcom. “These are serious charges affecting the very operations of the House of Representatives,” she wrote. Ney has come under scrutiny this year for his various dealings with Abramoff.

Although public disclosure reports do not show that Abramoff lobbied for Foxcom at the time of the wireless agreement, the company did reportedly make a $50,000 contribution in 2001 to a non-profit group controlled by Abramoff. In 2003, the company hired him to lobby. A letter released yesterday by Ney’s office suggested that an investigation of the agreement could touch on House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), whose office brokered an early meeting for the company with committee staff. In late 2000, before Foxcom had any apparent ties to Abramoff, its prospects for securing the licensing agreement seemed dim. On Nov. 6, 2000, Foxcom executives wrote to the Administration Committee’s then Chairman Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), complaining that a competing company from California was getting preferential treatment by the committee’s staff. “We have been subjected to a number of unfair actions by committee staff in our attempt to develop and present our proposal,” wrote Cathy Zatloukal, Foxcom’s president, and Tom Hinton, its chief executive officer.“

http://www.ocnus.net/artman/publish/article_20958.shtml


Jack Abramoff: Capital Athletic Foundation

The Capital Athletic Foundation (CAF) is a 501(c)(3) organization started by Jack Abramoff "in 2000 with only $12,850," according to a heavily-documented March 1, 2005, letter from Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Sloan's information was taken from R. Jeffrey Smith's September 28, 2004, Washington Post article "Foundation's Funds Diverted From Mission. Records Detail Spending By GOP Lobbyist Abramoff."

In 2001, CAF received $1 million from the Coushatta and $177,415 from Foxcom.
The Coushatta apparently believed that the donation was for a sky box from which Abramoff would lobby Members of Congress during Redskins games.

In 2002, CAF collected $2.56 million from 9 donors including 3 tribes.

In 2003, CAF collected $2.15 million from tribes, Michael Scanlon and an internet casino client of Abramoff’s. $2.13 million of the money went to the Eshkol Academy, a school started by Abramoff.

In a February 2003 email, Abramoff told Scanlon to make sure that his share of money went to Eshkol directly – 'using school as conduit for some of our activities . .. If that won’t fly with them, use CAF.'

CAF also paid $120,000 in August 2002 for Abramoff, Robert W. Ney, Ralph E. Reed, Jr., and then-General Services Administration Chief of Staff David Safavian "to St. Andrews to play golf with a stop in London on way back. Ney later claimed that the trip’s purpose was to raise money for a foundation, but there were no fundraising events during the course of the trip."

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jack_Abramoff:_Capital_Athletic_Foundation

edited to add CAF information

[Greeby]

1. Well, obviously

:eyes:

[mestup]

2. Email Hastert with your thumbs down.

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