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WASHINGTON – A judge declared a mistrial Thursday in the case of a former lobbyist caught up in the Jack Abramoff affair, the biggest setback in the government's long-running prosecution of the influence-peddling scandal. The jury deadlocked over allegations that Kevin Ring lavished thousands of dollars worth of tickets and meals on employees of then-Republican Reps. John Doolittle of California and Ernest Istook of Oklahoma and on Justice Department officials in return for congressional appropriations and other assistance for Abramoff's clients. The panel of seven women and five men also was unable to reach a verdict on another count, on...

A former government official facing corruption charges for accepting improper gifts from Jack Abramoff is taking an unusually aggressive approach in fighting the Justice Department’s case. Horace Cooper, a legal commentator and conservative writer who was a senior aide in then-Rep. Dick Armey’s (R-Texas) office, is accusing prosecutors of dozens of mistakes and has invoked the prosecutorial abuse investigation that overturned the conviction of former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) in an attempt to undermine the government’s case. Cooper, an attorney himself, pleaded not guilty last week to felony corruption charges, including accepting nearly $15,000 in gifts, tickets to sporting events...

I need some information on disruptions of meetings by Democrats. Not disruptions of rallys or things of that nature, but actual meetings where Democrats or left wingers were a disruption and did not get arrested. My boyfriend's contention is that Democrats were always arrested if they disrupted a public meeting but no one is being arrested at these town hall meetings and his implication is that there's a double standard at work. I say that's not true but can't find anything online to prove it. Please help me with this. I can't lose this argument! Thanks ;)

Filming just wrapped on "Casino Jack," in which Kevin Spacey plays jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Having gotten a peek at Norman Snider's deft script, we can tell you that some of its real-life characters have cause for concern. The screenplay paints George W. Bush and Karl Rove as much chummier with Abramoff than they've acknowledged. ("How you doing there, buff guy?" Bush asks the black-hatted con artist in one Oval Office scene.) Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay comes off worse. Cigar-smoking DeLay, played by Spencer Garrett, is seen golfing with Abramoff on that infamous junket to Scotland. He also...

Brief biographical sketches of six federal prosecutors under investigation for mishandling the trial of former Sen. Ted Stevens. BRENDA MORRIS: A longtime prosecutor with the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, Morris now serves as its principal deputy. She helped supervise the investigation into disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and has prosecuted corruption cases around the country. She teaches corruption investigations within the Justice Department and is a professor at Georgetown Law School. A graduate of Howard University law school, she served as the lead attorney in the Stevens trial, giving the government's opening statement and cross-examining Stevens. NICHOLAS MARSH: One of...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Dec 29, 2008 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Puerto Rico's governor, indicted on corruption charges, posted a video on the popular social networking site Facebook admitting to making mistakes. During the four-minute video, Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila apologized to Puerto Ricans saying he "committed errors." However, he did not address specific charges against him or admit to any criminal wrongdoing, according to the video posted Sunday. A federal indictment handed down earlier this year accused the Puerto Rican governor...

<p>Bernard Madoff, the investment fund manager and former Nasdaq chairman accused of a Ponzi scheme in which investors allegedly lost up to $50 billion, is a major contributor to Democratic causes, and his company spent almost $600,000 to curry favor in Washington, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.</p>

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to four years in federal prison Thursday for his corrupt lobbying activities, which led to the downfalls of a congressman and several other Washington officials.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose corruption scandal shook up Washington's power elite and contributed to the Republican loss of control in Congress, was sentenced on Thursday to four years in federal prison. Judge Ellen Huvelle issued the sentence on conspiracy and other charges after federal prosecutors recommended leniency due to Abramoff's cooperation in pursuing corruption cases against lawmakers and former administration officials. He faced a maximum of 11 years under a plea deal reached in 2006.

The Justice Department on Wednesday recommended a dramatic reduction in the prison sentence of imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who became the key witness against lawmakers and congressional aides he spent years corrupting. Prosecutors asked federal judges in Washington and Florida to shave years of prison time off his sentence, citing his work in an FBI investigation that sent numerous powerful people to prison and contributed to the Republican Party's loss of Congress.

This is an upcoming book, available on Amazon.com for pre-sale,presumably due to release closer to the November 2008 election to do more harm to McCain. Here is the book description, as provided on Amazon: The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Jack Abramoff (Hardcover) by Gary S. Chafetz (Author) Product Details Hardcover: 480 pagesPublisher: Martin & Lawrence Press (September 5, 2008)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 097738988XISBN-13: 978-0977389889 Product Description Gary Chafetz is a liberal Boston journalist who set out to chronicle the scandal involving conservative gun-for-hire and super-lobbyist, Jack Abramoff. Instead he uncovered a Shakespearean tragedy of deceit, betrayal and political...

WASHINGTON — John McCain’s presidential campaign is denying any connection to Jack Abramoff ally Ralph Reed and accusing Barack Obama and Democrats of taking “desperate” measures to link the two men together. “It’s unfortunate that Barack and his allies have sunk to such depths that they are trying to draw connections that don’t exist and everyone knows don’t exist,” McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds told FOXNews.com. Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition whose political career was thwarted last year by links to convicted lobbyist Abramoff, recently sent an e-mail to his friends urging them to attend a McCain...

(CNN) — Barack Obama's campaign is linking John McCain to the infamous Jack Abramoff scandal that ended several Republicans' political careers three years ago in a new campaign ad hitting Georgia airwaves Wednesday. The 30-second spot is the Obama campaign’s second negative ad in the past 24 hours. It attacks the Arizona senator for his association with former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed, one of the Republicans implicated in the scandal. The ad also seems to suggest McCain didn't call Reed to testify before a Senate panel he chaired in return for political favors. “When the Senate investigated, the senator...

Two months ago Obama declared of the McCain campaign, "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." And while Obama has sharpened his message of late, today he pulled out a pocketknife and McCain responded by pulling out a .44 Magnum. The Obama campaign sent out an email announcing they were releasing a new ad in Georgia linking McCain to Ralph Reed and, by association, Jack Abramoff. [Video at link] Brian Rogers, spokesman for the McCain campaign, fired back with this: "Barack Obama's ad is ridiculous. Because of John McCain, corruption was exposed and people like...

The Democratic National Committee has a website set up to attack potential McCain running mates as "The Next Cheney" (if only); if you want to see there are pages dedicated to Bobby Jindal, Mitt Romney, John Thune, Tom Ridge, Tim Pawlenty, Carly Fiorina, Charlie Crist, Fred Smith and Eric Cantor. Lest there be any doubt as to the origins of this site, there's a disclaimer at the bottom of each page: "Paid for by the Democratic National Committee — 430 S. Capitol St. SE, Washington DC 20003." If you go to the page on Congressman Cantor, you will see a...

"Jack Abramoff liked Eric Cantor so much that he named a tuna-based stacker sandwich after him," said Jared Leopold, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Virginia. "Now Cantor wants to have his sandwich and eat it, too. He wants to do favors for lobbyists, but deny responsibility." Rob Collins, Cantor's chief of staff, said the Democrats have misfired. In a 2000 GOP primary, Abramoff bankrolled a group that attacked Cantor.

The Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals today overturned the conviction of former Bush administration official David Safavian, who was entangled in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, and ordered that he should be given a new trial.

The chief of staff to a former senior member of the House Appropriations Committee pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to commit fraud, becoming the latest casualty of the scandal centered on disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. John C. Albaugh admitted to accepting gifts -- including tickets to sporting events, concerts by groups such as the Wiggles and a Disney on Ice show -- in exchange for helping lobbyists and their clients, according to prosecutors. Albaugh is scheduled to be sentenced in September. He faces as much as two years in prison and has agreed to become a cooperating witness under...

U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall took $1,500 in contributions from two firms that once employed disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Udall's campaign spokeswoman Taylor West said the donations from the companies' political-action committees to the Eldorado Springs Democrat's congressional campaigns were legal. But, she said, Udall plans to donate the $1,500 to an organization in the Marianas Islands that assists victims of human trafficking. Abramoff and the islands have become an issue in Udall's Senate race against former Congressman Bob Schaffer... Schaffer's campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, ripped Udall on Wednesday, questioning why he waited to return donations he received in 2000...

According to the liberal website Raw Story, and confirmed by examining Federal Election Committee records, top brass at Greenberg Traurig, the law firm convicted lobbyist Abramoff worked for between 2001 and 2004, have given thousands of dollars to Barack Obama's campaign

Burns, a Republican, narrowly lost reelection to a fourth term in 2006 after Democrats made his relationship with Abramoff a key issue. Abramoff is at the center of a corruption investigation that has led to convictions of a former congressman, legislative aides, lobbyists and Bush administration officials.

WASHINGTON - Former Sen. Conrad Burns is no longer part of a federal investigation of jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the Justice Department said Wednesday. Burns, R-Mont., narrowly lost re-election to a fourth term in 2006 after Democrats made his relationship with Abramoff a central issue. Abramoff is the key figure in a corruption investigation that has led to convictions of a former congressman, legislative aides, lobbyists and officials in the Bush administration. Burns said in a statement that he "never doubted that the baseless and politically motivated charges leveled against me would be found to be without merit." "My family...

WASHINGTON - White House visitor logs are public documents, a federal judge ruled Monday, rejecting a legal strategy that the Bush administration had hoped would get around public records laws. The ruling is a blow to the Bush administration, which is fighting the release of records showing visits by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and prominent religious conservatives.

The Bush administration is laying out a new secrecy defense in an effort to end a court battle about the White House visits of now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The administration agreed last year to produce all responsive records about the visits "without redactions or claims of exemption," according to a court order. But in a court filing Friday night, administration lawyers said that sometime in the past year the Secret Service identified a category of highly sensitive documents that might contain information sought in a lawsuit about Abramoff's trips to the White House. The Justice Department declared that the contents...

Congress is trying again to exert more control over the Northern Marianas, this time minus the interference of jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who for years dissuaded lawmakers from tinkering with the troubled Pacific islands. Legislation that could clear the House in December would apply federal immigration and labor rules to the U.S. Commonwealth of The Northern Mariana Islands, which in the past three decades of local control has been tainted with charges of sweatshop and human trafficking abuses. The bill is opposed by commonwealth Gov. Benigno Fitial, who says it ignores recent improvements in labor standards and could cripple attempts...

If Rep. John Doolittle is the Republican nominee here in 2008, the seat is a certain loss for the GOP. ... Doolittle ... has pledged to fight plans to push him off the ballot in 2008. ... Charlie Brown, who nearly beat Doolittle in 2006, is back again. But given the Republican nature of this district, he needs Doolittle on the ballot to win.

Caught in the Searchlight: Hsu, Reid, and the Searchlight Leadership Fund Harry Reid’s Mob Money, Part 5By Fedora Fugitive fundraiser Norman Hsu’s donations to Hillary Clinton have understandably grabbed the limelight, but there is another story lurking in the shadows of the affair. Federal Election Commission documents record that on May 17, 2007, Hsu donated $1,000 to the Searchlight Leadership Fund, a political action committee associated with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. On the same day, Searchlight received a $1,000 contribution from Winkle Paw, described by Hsu’s lawyer as a business associate of Hsu. Also donating $1,000 to Searchlight that...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Two of GOP Rep. John Doolittle's top aides have been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury investigating ties between Doolittle, his wife and jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The grand jury subpoenas from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia were issued to Chief of Staff Ron Rogers and Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Blankenburg. They were announced on the House floor as Congress returned from its August recess Tuesday after the aides informed the House speaker about the subpoenas, as required under House rules. Blankenburg and Rogers wrote in identical letters to House...

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. -- The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians appeared Thursday to have elected a new chief for the first time in three decades. Eight-term incumbent Chief Phillip Martin, 81, trailed former Tribal Council member Beasley Denson by 211 votes according to complete but unofficial returns from Tuesday's runoff. The results of the close race are expected to be certified Friday. During Martin's tenure, the 9,000-member tribe emerged from extreme poverty thanks in large part to the development of a sprawling resort with casinos and a water park on tribal land in the red clay hills of east central Mississippi....

WASHINGTON) — The Interior Department's former No. 2 official was sentenced to 10 months in prison Tuesday for lying to senators in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, the highest administration official sentenced in the probe. J. Steven Griles, who was the department's deputy secretary, had pleaded guilty to obstructing justice. Griles admitted to lying to Senate investigators about his relationship with Abramoff, the central figure in a corruption investigation that has led to convictions of a former congressman, legislative aides, lobbyists and officials in the Bush administration. Griles had asked to be spared prison time. Under his plea deal with...

"Have Mercy" "Cubin, Sansonetti plead for a friend" "Two Wyoming political figures have written letters to a federal judge, requesting leniency in sentencing the former No. 2 offical in the Interior Department who pleded guilty to obstructing justice by lying to a Senate commitee."

WASHINGTON --The head of a Republican environmental advocacy group is set to plead guilty in the Jack Abramoff scandal and is cooperating with an FBI investigation into corruption involving Congress and the Bush administration, two people close to the case said Wednesday. Italia Federici served as a go-between for Abramoff, the once-powerful lobbyist, and J. Steven Griles, the deputy interior secretary during President Bush's first term, prosecutors said Wednesday in documents charging her with tax evasion and obstructing a Senate inquiry into the Abramoff scandal. Under a deal with the Justice Department, she must cooperate with authorities and is identifying...

Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., under scrutiny in the Jack Abramoff congressional corruption case, charged Wednesday the government tried to strong-arm his wife to get him to admit to committing a crime. When he wouldn’t, FBI agents searched his home to intimidate and pressure him and his wife, Doolittle said. The congressman made the claims during a radio interview with his wife, Julie, on “The Tom Sullivan Show” on KFBK-AM radio in Sacramento, Calif. Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra declined comment. Doolittle had published an op-ed over the weekend in the Auburn Journal in his district accusing the government of leaking...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Rep. John Doolittle has decided to temporarily give up his House Appropriations Committee seat after FBI agents searched his house in an influence-peddling investigation. The decision by Doolittle, R-Calif., to be announced Thursday, was confirmed by two Republican congressional staffers who spoke on condition of anonymity because the news was not yet public. The lawmaker's decision followed by a day the disclosure of the raid on his Oakton, Va., home last Friday. FBI agents had a search warrant for information connected with a fundraising business run by Doolittle's wife, Julie, that had done work for convicted lobbyist...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- FBI agents have searched the Oakton, Va., home of California GOP Rep. John Doolittle, who is under investigation in the congressional corruption investigation surrounding convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Doolittle's attorney said Wednesday. The search last Friday focused on records of Doolittle's wife's company, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions Inc., said attorney David Barger.

FBI Raids Doolittle's Home: The FBI has raided the Northern Virginia home of Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), according to Congressional sources. No details are publicly available yet about the circumstances of the raid, but Doolittle and his wife, Julie, have been under federal investigation for their ties to the scandal surrounding imprisoned former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

A lobbyist tied to the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal has resigned from the law firm where he worked, company officials said Monday. Kevin Ring worked with Abramoff until early 2005 and previously was an aide to California GOP Rep. John Doolittle, whose ties to the convicted GOP lobbyist are under investigation in the ongoing corruption probe. Ring resigned effective last Friday from Barnes & Thornburg LLP, said managing partner Alan A. Levin. Ring joined Barnes & Thornburg after leaving Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig LLP. Barnes & Thornburg is based in Indianapolis and has offices throughout the Midwest and in Washington....

WASHINGTON - The White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal declaring that records identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public. The Bush administration didn't reveal the existence of the memorandum of understanding until last fall. The White House is using it to deal with a legal problem on a separate front, a ruling by a federal judge ordering the production of Secret Service logs identifying visitors to the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. In a federal appeals court filing three...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Investigators probing convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with U.S. congressional members said Abramoff allegedly named Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. A spokesman for Reid said the Senate's next majority leader has done nothing illegal or unethical, ABC News said. "We have no idea what Abramoff is telling prosecutors to save his skin but I do know that these kind of old allegations are completely ridiculous and untrue," spokesman Jim Manley told ABC News. A source close to the investigation told ABC that Abramoff alleged that more than $30,000 in campaign contributions to Reid came from Abramoff's...

Harry Ried (D-Nev.) reacts to reports that he has been named to federal prosecutors by Jack Abramoff.

WASHINGTON — After years of using expensive gifts, campaign donations and exotic trips to win access to the White House and Congress, Jack Abramoff's illegal dealings won him an open door from a final government agency Wednesday, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Abramoff was to report to federal prison to begin serving a nearly six-year prison sentence for a fraudulent deal to buy a fleet of casino ships in Florida. He also is awaiting sentencing for corrupting government officials and their staff members.

Remember Nancy Pelosi standing before the cameras and sanctimoniously stating that she was going to drain the GOP swamp? Remember how she said this was going to be ‘the most ethical congress ever? I think perhaps she might better think about just skimming the scum off the top of the swamp instead, or she might just find out that certain little (or not so little) uglies that she’d rather not have revealed are floating just underneath the surface. Hat tip to HotAir.com for some of the following information: Democraticleader.house.gov quotes Nancy Pelosi as recently stating (March 30, 2006) that “Members...

Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff is scheduled to report to federal prison tomorrow, over the objections of federal prosecutors who say they still need his help to pursue leads on officials he allegedly bribed.

On Sunday October 15, 2006, the Los Angeles Times published a 1488-word, front-page article entitled, "Displease a Lobbyist, Get Fired," by Times staffer Peter Wallsten. The gist of the piece (if you can't glean it from the title): Lobbyist Jack Abramoff "manipulated the system" and used his influence at the White House to get Allen Stayman, a State Department official who was working against the interests of Abramoff's clients, fired. Wallsten's lengthy piece portrays Stayman as an unwitting government official who was innocently bulldozed for standing in the way of Abramoff and his interests. However, Wallsten's article left out a...

WASHINGTON - The government is pushing for three years in prison for a former Bush administration official found guilty of covering up his relationship with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The prison time could be years less than what David Safavian, former chief of staff of the General Services Administration, was initially expected to face for lying and hiding details of his connections with Abramoff from investigators and lawmakers. Federal prosecutors calculated that Safavian's sentence should be between 30 and 37 months, based on federal guidelines, and asked that he be sentenced "at the high end of that range." Safavian could...

White House aide to Rove resigns 13 minutes ago A key aide to presidential political strategist Karl Rove resigned Friday in the wake of congressional report that listed hundreds of contacts between disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House. Susan Ralston, special assistant to President Bush, submitted a resignation letter to him less than five weeks before the midterm elections. "She did not want to be a distraction to the White House at such an important time and so we have accepted her resignation," White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said. "We support her decision and consider the...

Sept. 28, 2006 — A Congressional report due out tomorrow is expected to show now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates had far more extensive contacts with the White House than President Bush's staff ever acknowledged. The report from the Republican-led House Government Affairs Committee will state that Abramoff had as many as 450 contacts with the White House, and prime among his lobbying targets was former White House political director Ken Mehlman, and Bush's adviser Karl Rove. Mehlman is now the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, which issued this statement in response to the report: "In his capacity as...

<p>ROLL CALL reports tonight: Hundreds of contacts between top White House officials and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates “raise serious questions about the legality and actions” of those officials, according to a draft bipartisan report prepared by the House Government Reform Committee.</p>

MIAMI - Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a former business partner sought a second delay in starting their federal prison sentences for fraud involving the purchase of a gambling fleet. The request, filed jointly by prosecutors and defense attorneys, said that Abramoff is continuing to cooperate in a Washington corruption investigation, and Adam Kidan is providing information about the murder of former SunCruz Casinos owner Konstantinos Boulis. U.S. District Judge Paul Huck was to consider the request, which seeks a 90-day delay, on Thursday afternoon. Abramoff and Kidan are currently scheduled to surrender Oct. 2 to serve prison sentences of...