Posted on 06/06/2007 5:29:39 PM PDT by calcowgirl
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 other criminal targets, one of the people said.
Authorities believe Federici may be able to provide information about former Interior Secretary Gale Norton, other Bush administration officials and the contacts that she, Abramoff and Griles cultivated in Congress, the second individual said.
Both spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing and the plea deal will not be official until a court hearing scheduled for Friday.
Federici introduced Abramoff to Griles, an introduction that Griles said gave the lobbyist more credibility and allowed him greater access to the department. After making his entree, Abramoff repeatedly sought Griles' intervention at the Interior Department on behalf of Indian tribal clients.
Federici "regrets her past trust and confidence in Jack Abramoff, a then-highly regarded Washington lobbyist who professed a shared interest in Ms. Federici's environmental advocacy," Federici's attorneys said in a statement.
Federici is accused of lying about this relationship in testimony before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which in 2005 was investigating Abramoff's dealings with the Interior Department.
Federici's attorneys said she accepted responsibility for her mistakes.
"Such conduct is not only inconsistent with her own ideals and expectations, but also contradicts her years of public service in the not-for-profit community," said attorneys Jonathan Rosen and Noam Fischman.
Federici co-founded the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy - also known as CREA - with Norton and Grover Norquist, a college friend of Abramoff and a close ally of President Bush. Norquist helped set up contacts with the Bush administration for Abramoff's clients, while Abramoff pushed his clients to donate to Norquist's tax reform group, e-mails in the case have shown.
Prosecutors say Federici supplemented her salary at the nonprofit by making ATM withdrawals directly from the organization's bank accounts. She did not pay income tax from 2001-2003 and owes tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes, prosecutors said.
In March, Griles became the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the lobbying scandal when he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing justice by lying to the Indian Affairs Committee in 2005.
During that period, Abramoff was directing his tribal clients to give $500,000 to CREA. Abramoff is serving time in federal prison for a fraudulent Florida casino deal and is awaiting sentencing in the Washington public corruption case.
He is the government's star witness in a case that has already landed former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, in prison, and has ensnared members of the Bush administration and several congressional aides.
As Michelle Malkin said, "WHAT SAY YOU NOW, GROVER NORQUIST?"
It's way past time this guy got exposed for having his hand in every dirty, corrupt, underhanded thing that has happed out of DC in the last not so few years. He put Abromoff in as part of the 'transition team' for the Interior Dept.
When he's not running his scam enviro or tax group, he's messing in the Chamber of Commerce, NRA, and running the Islamic Institute, which has had terrorist tied and indicted big whigs in it.
When you witness the terrible immigration 'reform' coming out of the whitehouse, it's under the direction of Grover Norquist. The charges of racism, bigotry, etc. are right out of his playbook.
http://www.michellemalkin.com/archives/000318.htm
llegal-immigration bill weakened by unlikely alliance - Deja Vu! The 1998 Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration was awarded to Marcus Stern for this series of Articles.
[snip]Grover Norquist, a social conservative and anti-tax Republican lobbyist, reveled unapologetically in the tactics he used to undermine the verification initiative and to mock Simpson personally.
The peel-off bar-code tattoos were supposed to remind people of the way Nazis tattooed Jews during World War II.
"It was great," recalled Norquist, who is close to House Speaker Newt Gingrich. "We had our guys walking around with tattoos on their arms. It drove Simpson nuts because the implication was he's a Nazi."
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2006/01/llegal-immigration-bill-weakened-by.html
Does the NRA still have Grover Norquist on their board? What’s their excuse?
I keep hoping we will see Norquist indicted for his Islamist ties or helping sleazebags like Abramoff.
I’m just amazed how this guys slides out of all the indictments. He’s got to have Hillary’s FBI files. It sure as heck isn’t his pleasant personality.
As far as I know, yes. Well, you sure don't see them come out as a group against this travesty of Amnesty, do you?
A pal of mine warned me that the NRA had gone sour a few years ago, looks like he is right.
Federici co-founded the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy - also known as CREA - with Norton and Grover Norquist, a college friend of Abramoff and a close ally of President Bush. Norquist helped set up contacts with the Bush administration for Abramoff’s clients, while Abramoff pushed his clients to donate to Norquist’s tax reform group, e-mails in the case have shown.
—
Grover Norquist?
‘nuff said.
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