Subpoenas, indictments, indictments, subpoenas…step right up…you could be the next contestant in the Corruption is Wrong (and indictable) game.
Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) has received a subpoena for documents he has related to the Abramoff scandal.
Abramoff was recently indicted on wire and mail fraud charges in Florida stemming from his acquisition of a casino boat chain. He remains under investigation in Washington by a task force of federal agencies led by the Justice Department. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee and Senate Finance Committee have also been conducting separate inquiries into Abramoff.
Ney has been an Abramoff shill for quite some time:
* “In 2000, he inserted statements into the Congressional Record on two occasions that may have helped Abramoff in his dealings with Sun Cruz, the Florida casino boat chain. In one statement, he praised Abramoff’s then-partner Adam Kidan, who was indicted with Abramoff in Florida earlier this year.”
* “In August 2002, Ney accompanied Abramoff on a golfing trip to Scotland paid for by Abramoff’s Indian tribe clients.”
* “Ney has also been accused of trying to insert a provision into the 2002 Help America Vote Act that would have helped one of Abramoff’s Indian tribe clients, the Tigua tribe of El Paso, reopen its casino. The provision was never included in the bill, but Ney did receive over $30,000 in contributions from the Tiguas.”
* “After Ney approved a 2002 license for an Israeli telecommunications company to install antennas for the House, records show the company paid Abramoff $280,000 for lobbying. Records obtained by the Post show the firm donated $50,000 to a charity Abramoff used to hide payments for lobbying activities.”
He was duped!, Ney says. Duped!
Speaking of Abramoff’s tentacles, one of our favourite indictees (is that a word?), Tom DeLay, was further exposed as an underhanded ass in the NYT today:
Representative Tom DeLay asked the lobbyist Jack Abramoff to raise money for him through a private charity controlled by Mr. Abramoff, an unusual request that led the lobbyist to try to gather at least $150,000 from his Indian tribe clients and their gambling operations, according to newly disclosed e-mail from the lobbyist’s files.
read excerpts from the e-mails in the NYT article…
Winning contestants in the Corruption is Wrong (and indictable) game are given an all-expense paid trip to jail along with several special perks including: new t-shirts and runners (shoe laces not included), a pad of paper to scribble “this is all the Democrats’ fault” all over, a new (big) friend named “Bubba”, a job in the prison laundry where they can sweat off their excess scum, a Bible (so they can actually read what it really says), and eventual conjugal visits with their Stepford spouses.
Good times…good times…
Update [2005-11-4 22:23:20 by catnip]:: In case you missed the news, FOX News paid almost $14,000 to have Tom “my tastes are very expensive” DeLay fly to Sugarland, TX in October – the weekend Tommy appeared on FOX News Sunday after his indictment. It’s listed as “officially connected travel”, but we already knew that FOX was “officially connected” to the Republicans via their continual propaganda IV drip.
(via the folks at PoliticalMoneyLine)
Good to know that DeLay will have someone sending him canteen money in prison. We can all sleep well now.