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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...

WASHINGTON - Republican activists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed landed more than 100 meetings inside the Bush White House, according to documents released Wednesday that provide the first official accounting of the access and influence the two presidential allies have enjoyed. The White House released the Secret Service visit records to settle a lawsuit by the Democratic Party and an ethics watchdog group seeking visitors logs for the two GOP strategists and others who emerged as figures in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Earlier this month, the White House suggested to the judge in that lawsuit that such records need...

WASHINGTON - Republicans decided long ago their party won't pay a significant price at the polls for the scandal spawned by lobbyist Jack Abramoff. It's a proposition likely to be tested anew in the aftermath of Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record)'s agreement to plead guilty to corruption charges. Within minutes of the disclosure of Ney's signed plea bargain papers on Friday, House Democrats circulated a list meant to suggest guilt by association. It highlighted the names of more than 60 Republican incumbents who have accepted political donations from the six-term lawmaker. "Americans are ready for a new direction...

Republican Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making false statements as part of a deal in which he will cooperate with an influence peddling investigation, the Justice Department said.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 — Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio, has agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges related to his dealings with the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff, lawyers and others with knowledge of the investigation said Thursday. A guilty plea would make Mr. Ney, a six-term congressman, the first member of Congress to admit to criminal charges in the Abramoff investigation, which has focused on the actions of several current and former Republican lawmakers who had been close to the former lobbyist. People with detailed knowledge of the investigation said Mr. Ney had entered an in-patient rehabilitation facility...

WASHINGTON - Unable to agree on sweeping ethics legislation, the House this week will try to pass a narrower bill to shed light on pet projects that lawmakers tuck into spending and tax bills. The measure on "earmarks," a rules change that would apply only to the House, is a small part of comprehensive lobbying and ethics legislation that the House and Senate both passed last spring in the wake of a spate of scandals involving lawmakers and lobbyists. But the two chambers have been unable to find common ground, and prospects for legislation that was deemed a top priority...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), enmeshed in a congressional corruption scandal, abruptly abandoned his race for re-election Monday after months of prodding from Republican leaders worried about losing his seat this fall. Ney said in a statement he is innocent of any wrongdoing, and had acted for the sake of his family. "I must think of them first, and I can no longer put them through this ordeal," he said. The six-term lawmaker has long been involved in the influence-peddling investigation spawned by Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and is the second congressman to announce his...

U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, dogged by an influence peddling probe in Washington, will not seek re-election, state Sen. Joy Padgett said early Monday. Ney called Padgett on Saturday and asked the fellow Republican to run in his place, saying that defending himself has been a strain on his family, she said. "It's a very sad time," Padgett said of Ney's decision, first reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on its Web site. She said Ney told her, "that there's only so much he can take. He said, 'I have to do this.'" Padgett told The Associated Press she would run for...

Reed loses first election amid Abramoff scandal GREG BLUESTEIN Associated Press ATLANTA - Successful campaign strategist Ralph Reed's famed base of supporters proved more invisible than invincible Tuesday as he lost his first run for public office in his bid for Georgia's No. 2 job. State Sen. Casey Cagle's victory ended, for now, the political career of Reed, the former leader of the Christian Coalition and veteran Republican operative who has helped others win election. And Reed's loss gave national Democrats a political casualty to associate with Republican ethics scandals, as Reed's campaign was hampered by his ties to disgraced...

The front page of Sunday's Washington Post featured a revealing look at the impact convicted felon Jack Abramoff's downfall is having on his erstwhile colleague, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist. Under the headline "Powerful GOP Activist Sees His Influence Slip Over Abramoff Dealings" the article recounts previously published e-mails concerning arrangements between the two that would appear to involve the laundering of Abramoff clients' funds through Norquist's tax-exempt Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). It goes on to describe how radioactive Norquist has become in the eyes of some legislators and fellow conservatives in the wake of his seeming ties to the...

WASHINGTON - A Texas Indian tribe filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday alleging that ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed and their associates engaged in fraud and racketeering to shut down the tribe's casino. The Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Livingston, Texas, alleged the defendants defrauded the tribe, the people of Texas and the Legislature to benefit another of Abramoff's clients — the Louisiana Coushatta tribe — and "line their pockets with money." "Ultimately, the defendants' greed and corruption led to the Alabama-Coushatta tribe permanently shutting its casino. The funding for economic programs evaporated, over 300 jobs were lost in...

Conservative activist Grover Norquist says a Senate report connecting him with convicted felon Jack Abramoff is a personal attack from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that could hurt the senator’s recent efforts to woo the right for a presidential bid. Norquist says a Senate Indian Affairs Committee report last month outlining his efforts to funnel money from Abramoff’s tribal clients to former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed is riddled with half-truths and falsely implicates his nonprofit group, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), in wrongdoing. The activist says McCain, chairman of the committee, issued the report in retaliation for Norquist’s efforts to...

WASHINGTON - The Secret Service on Friday revealed four more visits to the White House in 2001 by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, including one to see a domestic policy aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. The newly released records of Abramoff's access to the White House bring the total number of his known visits to seven. One Abramoff White House visit, according to Secret Service logs, was on April 20, 2001, to see Cesar Conda, at the time Cheney's assistant for domestic policy. Five days after the Conda meeting, one of Abramoff's former lobbying colleagues, Patrick Pizzella, was nominated by...

WASHINGTON - An Interior Department employee is charged with filing a false financial report in a case arising from the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. The misdemeanor charge, filed in federal court, says that Roger Stillwell, an employee of the Interior Department's insular affairs office, knowingly filed a false financial disclosure statement. Prosecutors say Stillwell failed to list gifts he received from a prohibited source. A Justice Department official confirmed that the charge is part of the Abramoff investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the two-page document filed Tuesday by the Justice Department's public integrity section does not...

Brett Pfeffer, a former legislative assistant to U. S. Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana, was sentenced May 27 by a judge in Alexandria to eight years in prison for conspiring to bribe the embattled Louisiana Democrat. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III told Pfeffer that his sentence could be reduced significantly for cooperation with investigators. But, “it would be difficult to overstate the seriousness of this offense,” Ellis said at Pfeffer’s hearing. In January, Pfeffer, 37, pleaded guilty in Federal Court in Alexandria to conspiracy to commit bribery and aiding and abetting the solicitation of bribes by a member of...

WASHINGTON - Wanted: Face time with President Bush or top adviser Karl Rove. Suggested donation: $100,000. The middleman: lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Blunt e-mails that connect money and access in Washington show that prominent Republican activist Grover Norquist facilitated some administration contacts for Abramoff's clients while the lobbyist simultaneously solicited those clients for large donations to Norquist's tax-exempt group. Those who were solicited or landed administration introductions included foreign figures and American Indian tribes, according to e-mails gathered by Senate investigators and federal prosecutors or obtained independently by The Associated Press. "Can the tribes contribute $100,000 for the effort to bring...

WASHINGTON - In Jack Abramoff's world, prominent Washington tax-cut advocate Grover Norquist was a godsend. Moving money from a casino-operating Indian tribe to Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition founder and professed gambling opponent, was a problem. Lobbyist Abramoff turned to his longtime friend Norquist, apparently to provide a buffer for Reed. The result, according to evidence gathered by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, was that Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform became a conduit for more than a million dollars from the Mississippi Choctaw to Reed's operation, while Norquist, a close White House ally, took a cut. Without citing any specific...