Choctaw Jail: JIM HIRNI

A significant portion of the Kevin Ring indictment deals with a Justice Department grant to build a jail for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (paragraphs 164-198). The indictment calls this "Honest Services Fraud Relating to the DOJ". Originally, the Justice Department allocated $9 million toward the Choctaw jail. Team Abramoff, through their own unique kind of persuasion, succeeded in raising the amount allocated to $16 million. This post is the first in a series examining the events leading up to the $16 million allocation for the Choctaw jail.



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Scandal figure James Hirni pleaded guilty in December, 2008. The events described in his guilty plea involved a trip to the World Series that he hosted for Congressional aides Trevor Blackann and Fraser Verrusio. As part of his plea agreement, Mr. Hirni promised to provide assistance to the Justice Department in other cases. In March 2009, court documents confirmed that Mr. Hirni "has been cooperating with federal agents".

At the time of the March 2009 revelation that Mr. Hirni was cooperating, the ACR Blog wasn't sure what information Mr. Hirni could provide. While we suspected that Mr. Hirni was providing information about Mr. Ring, we thought it was background-type information. Here is what we wrote at the time:

KEVIN RING
Court documents filed in Mr. Hirni’s case never mention Mr. Ring. Nevertheless, the two had a close working relationship. Together, they worked on Team Abramoff at Greenberg Traurig and shared several clients. Best I can tell, neither Mr. Hirni nor the shared clients appear in Mr. Ring’s indictment. Nevertheless, Mr. Hirni may be able to provide prosecutors with color on how Mr. Ring did business.

According to documents reviewed by the ACR Blog, the following clients were shared by lobbyists James Hirni and Kevin Ring while both were at Greenberg Traurig:

Agua Caliente
Colorado Railcar
Municipal Leasing
Ross Schools
United Rentals
Viacom

The ACR Blog is changing its editorial position. We now believe that Mr. Hirni has knowledge of events surrounding the increase of funding for the Choctaw jail from $9 million to $16 million.

On November 6, 2001, Todd Boulanger sent an email to Mr. Hirni entitled "Choctaw Jail Info". Included as an attachment was a file entitled "Jail Talking Points.doc". Here is some of the text of the email:

Link to November 6, 2001 email

From: Boulanger, Todd (Dir-DC-Gov)
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 9:07 AM
To: 'Jim Hirni'[redacted]
Subject: Choctaw Jail Info

Importance: High

Jim, here is the info for [redacted]. I will send you the Choctaw justification letter via fax. Thanks for all your help with this.

Just as an FYI, [redacted] is trying to remove all Senate earmarks from the conferenced bill (we are in the senate, not the House). Matt Kirk is weighing in with [redacted] today, and the NRCC is pounding House conferees to let the choctaw request through.

Undoubtedly, Team Abramoff is trying to get Mr. Hirni (who was the Legislative Director for Sen. Tim Hutchison R-Ark. at the time this email was written) to intercede in favor of the Choctaw jail. In fact, when Mr. Boulanger thanks Mr. Hirni for his help, the email seems to suggest that Mr. Hirni has already helped Team Abramoff in this matter.

The ACR Blog believes that Mr. Hirni is helping prosecutors build their case against Mr. Ring regarding the alleged honest services fraud related to the Choctaw jail. That said, there is no direct evidence that Mr. Hirni did anything to help Team Abramoff in its efforts to secure the full $16 million for the Choctaw jail.

The very next day after Mr. Boulanger solicited Mr. Hirni's help on behalf of Team Abramoff, Jack Abramoff himself keyed an email to his administrative assistant:


Link to November 7, 2001 email

From: Abramoff, Jack (Dir-DC-Gov) ...
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2001 7:50 AM
To: Plocki, Julie (AdmAsst-DC-Legis)
Subject: RE: Opera

Right, I forgot. Have you distributed the tix yet? if not, give the CC's to Matt Kirk, and give Hirni two of the BBB's leaving 2 for me. the aisle bbb's should stay with me. please let me know. Thanks.

The ACR Blog freely admits that it has a provincial sense of culture. We could never be influenced by tickets to the opera.

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Be sure to catch the next installment in this series coming soon: "Choctaw Jail: WHO GOT THE JOKE?"

Shane Tessimond: SENTENCED - 17 Months

Last Wednesday, attorneys for admitted felon Shane Tessimond submitted the defense's Sentencing Memorandum to the court. According to the Sentencing Memo, Mr. Tessimond admitted that he stole funds from his employers to support his "self-indulgent lifestyle" (page 4). We learn more about Mr. Tessimond's state of mind during the period of his crimes:

Mr. Tessimond was living as an alcoholic in Washington, DC. He described to [United States Probation Officer] Ms. Brandon and counsel a lifestyle in which he would wake up in the morning, purchase alcohol, and drink until he lost consciousness ...

Mr. Tessimond realized that he was acting in a way that was totally wrong and changed his life. He quit his job in the political arena with which he'd become disillusioned, left Washington, DC, moved back to his home state of New Hampshire, stopped drinking, began attending meetings at Alcoholics Anonymous and got a job delivering flowers.

This is interesting. The ACR Blog believes that Mr. Tessimond was living in Alexandria, Va. when he committed his crimes. Nevertheless, his attorneys claim that these stories of ridiculously excessive alcohol abuse occurred when he lived in DC. We're sure that these stories are representative of Mr. Tessimond's time in Virginia (during the period of the crimes in this case) as well as Mr. Tessimond's time in DC (see: Frat Boyz N the Hill) when he ran around with the F Street Gang including his fraternity friends Todd Boulanger and Justin Sprinzen.

Mr. Tessimond was sentenced to 17 months in prison by US District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle last Thursday. AP ace Nedra Pickler made Mr. Tessimond's sentencing hearing national news. Let's look at a few quotes from that hearing:

Assistant US Attorney Lionel Andre: "This [Mr. Tessimond] is a man who was living large and wanted to drink and party and have a good time."

Uhh ... Yeah. I think the pages of the ACR Blog have documented that quite well over the past few weeks.

Shane Tessimond: "I knew what I was doing was wrong ... I'm here to accept full responsibility for it ... I became a terrible person ... I was poisonous to everyone who knew me, including myself."

That's quite an admission, and I'm sure it wasn't easy for Mr. Tessimond to make those statements in open court. I'd like to learn a little more about what Mr. Tessimond means when he says he was 'poisonous to everyone' he knew. Was Mr. Tessimond poisonous to his roommate (and admitted felon) Todd Boulanger? If so, how?

In order to help evaluate how sincere Mr. Tessimond's statements were, let's look at what sentencing Judge Huvelle had to say:

Huvelle told Tessimond that stealing such a large amount of money from a political campaign was "quite brazen." But she said she didn't think he would do it again and said she hoped he would turn his life around.

Judge Huvelle seems to believe that Mr. Tessimond is sincere, and the sentence handed down by Judge Huvelle is within federal guidelines. The ACR Blog believes that justice has been served in United States of America v. Shane E. Tessimond even though there haven't been any visible signs that prosecutors have connected this case to the larger Abramoff scandal at all.

Shane Tessimond: SENTENCING MEMO SUBMITTED

Theta Chi Fraternity, UNH, (The Granite, 1992-1993)
How many future felons can you identify in the photo?

The Justice Department has submitted its recommendation (.pdf) to US District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle indicating what it considers to be a fair and appropriate sentence for admitted felon and former UNH-Theta Chi fraternity president Shane Tessimond. On February 26, 2009, Mr. Tessimond pleaded guilty to one count of Conspiracy to Commit Mail Theft and one count of Bank Fraud.

Judge Huvelle previously ordered Mr. Tessimond (and co-conspirator Mark Parisi, who is jointly and severally liable) to pay $137,955 in restitution to the victims of their fraud: Kerry for President, Employer's Council on Flexible Compensation, and Bank of America.

In this new memo submitted by the Government, the DoJ recommends 15-21 months of incarceration for Mr. Tessimond, a former DC roommate of admitted felon Todd Boulanger. Clearly, the DoJ failed to take into account Mr. Tessimond's stated preference that he favors "increasing deterrents" to help prevent crime, presumably meaning he's in favor of longer jail terms. Such a pity, especially considering Mr. Tessimond admitted he used the stolen funds to support his "self-indulgent lifestyle."

There are a few additional things worth noting in the Sentencing Memo. In a section titled "The history and characteristics of the defendant" (pg 3), the Government writes:

Here, the PSR (Pre-Sentencing Report) reflects that the defendant was professionally, intellectually and emotionally capable of avoiding his criminal conduct, but instead chose to engage in it intentionally and repeatedly. The PSR reflects that the defendant graduated from college, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from a prestigious college. His formative years were void of abuse and his basis needs were always met. PSR ¶ 45. Defendant Tessimond has not been diagnosed with any mental illnesses and is relatively in good health. PSR ¶¶ 52-53. The defendant, in short, was someone who should have known better than to engage in his fraudulent theft scheme.

'Nuff said. The DoJ also recommended that Mr. Tessimond's period of incarceration be followed by a 5 year period of supervised release, along with a "requirement that defendant Tessimond seek and receive alcohol treatment." Is anyone surprised by that? Of course Judge Huvelle may decide to impose a harsher or more lenient sentence on Mr. Tessimond.

Now in light of yesterday's post on Zeta Chi, the ACR Blog wishes to unequivocally state the following:

1. We have no knowledge whether Mr. Tessimond played any role in the Jan/Feb 1993 formation of Zeta Chi, the successor fraternity to Theta Chi, which he claimed in his bio to have presided over as President during 1992-1993.

2. We have no knowledge of the leadership transition that occurred between President Tessimond's reign at Theta Chi to the founding of Zeta Chi by Todd Boulanger.

3. We have no knowledge whether Mr. Tessimond played any role in Zeta Chi post-1993, or had any role in the planning or execution of the fateful Zeta Chi rush party on February 21, 1994 that led to the convictions of the fraternity for selling alcohol to minors and prostitution.

But gentle readers, is the DoJ trying to send us a few sly clues, as they teasingly do when they name a new conspirator as "Staffer E" or "Lobbyist F" in an Information or Plea Agreement? In fact, page three of the DoJ Sentencing Memo provides four justifications (labeled A-D) as to why Mr. Tessimond needs to serve an appropriate sentence. Here, verbatim, is justification C:

(C) to protect the pubic from further crimes of the defendant;

That has got to be a most unfortunate typo! But in the unlikely event that it isn't a typo, rest assured the ACR Blog is on the case. We are going to vocus - er, focus - our efforts on obtaining the relevant court docs in the Zeta Chi case to explore the possibility that Mr. Tessimond played a part - any part - in one or more of the salacious matters that occurred in Durham in 1994. We will also vocus - er, focus - some additional research to explore whether he might have similar behavior in his background. After all, once a frat boy always a frat boy...

Zeta Chi: "A grubby, drunk, messy set of irresponsible underachievers"

ZX
This harsh description of the brothers of the Zeta Chi Fraternity at UNH-Durham, appears in a May 22, 1997 opinion issued by the Supreme Court of the State of New Hampshire. The Court's 1997 decision affirmed the 1995 convictions of the fraternity (as a corporation) in Strafford County Superior Court on one felony count of selling alcohol to a person under the age of twenty-one and one misdemeanor count of prostitution. But gentle readers, the colorful language in the title of this post describing the brothers of Zeta Chi is found not only in the opinion issued by the hallowed judges of the NH Supreme Court, but amazingly it originated in an appeal to the Court filed by the very attorney hired by the brothers to defend them.

But let's start at the beginning. Here's how the Supreme Court described what happened that fateful night in 1994:

On February 21, 1994, the defendant, a New Hampshire corporation and fraternity at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, held a "rush" at its fraternity house to attract new members. In order to encourage people to attend the rush, the defendant hired two female strippers to perform at the event. Fraternity brothers encouraged guests to give the strippers dollar bills so that they would continue to perform. The brothers also told guests that the more money the strippers were given, the more that they would do. One of the members of the fraternity was providing change for larger bills. As part of the performance, the dancers lay on a mattress brought out by members of the fraternity and simulated ...

OK, I will stop there, as the ACR Blog is a PG-rated family blog. And PG doesn't mean Preston Gates. You can use your imagination, or click on the link above to read a summary of the salacious details yourself. Now on to the alcohol-related charge:

In addition, Andrew Strachan, a nineteen-year-old guest at the fraternity party, testified that at some point during the evening he learned that beer was available from a soda machine. He made his way to an apartment in another part of the fraternity house where the machine was located, waited in line with three or four other people, and purchased three to five cans of beer. Strachan also testified that he noticed someone making change for the machine. The fraternity's secretary testified that the fraternity members voted not to provide alcohol at the rush and that they moved the vending machine that contained beer to a separate apartment in another part of the fraternity house for the rush. He also testified, however, that the fraternity had control over the vending machine and its proceeds and that only fraternity members would have an interest in making change for the machine.

Well, since I mentioned Preston-Gates above, do any of my readers wants to guess who was living in that "separate apartment" where the jury found the illegal sale of alcohol occurred? Yes, our old friend Todd Boulanger. Amazing, isn't it? But while the identity of the person living in the apartment was not disputed, in fairness to Mr. Boulanger here's what the attorney for Zeta Chi had to say about Mr. Boulanger's personal involvement in this case:

[T]he man who lived in the apartment, Todd Boulanger, said he locked it when he left at dinner time and found it open when he returned from work at midnight. Thus, it is likely that either Mr. Strachan is mistaken about buying the beer at Zeta Chi Fraternity rather than at some other location, or that he did not buy beer at Zeta Chi Fraternity on that evening rather than on some other occasion.

In short, the attorney for Zeta Chi said the fraternity was not liable for the selling of alcohol to a minor from Mr. Boulanger's apartment because Mr. Boulanger had locked the door and went to work that night. He didn't return until midnight. When Mr. Boulanger returned, he found his roommates there with the door unlocked, and well, clearly Mr. Boulanger was innocent of any wrongdoing as well. The ACR Blog obviously is in no position to judge the credibility of witnesses in a 15-year-old case, but the jury empowered to do so found the fraternity guilty as charged. Neither Mr. Boulanger nor any of the brothers were charged in the case, the fraternity faced charges as an organization. Apparently, at least according to the defense attorney, a big part of the reason for the verdict was that the State had confronted and impeached three Zeta Chi brothers who testified at trial "with a record book which was the fraternity secretary's minutes of fraternity meetings (held) during 1993."

Directly contradicting the sworn testimony of two of the three brothers who testified at trial that it was the fraternity's policy not to serve alcohol to people under 21, the prosecution cited specific passages in the January 1993 and February 1993 Zeta Chi minutes that appeared to describe precisely how the boyz planned to circumvent the law. Here's an exchange with one of the brothers under oath (pg 34):

Q: Now, Mr. Flanders, isn't it true that at that meeting (the February 1993 meeting) you explicitly, your organization actually made plans to sell liquor to people under 21?

A: That -- that -- like, that statement's not -- those minutes say that, but, like I said, I do not remember that. That was a year and a half -- I was not an officer then.

Oops. Oh, and did I mention that Mr. Boulanger was the other brother who testified under oath and had to deal with these same minutes? My readers will certainly want to hear what Mr. Boulanger had to say in his testimony (pg 36-37):

Q: Okay. And you (Mr. Boulanger) were a member back in 1993, right?

A: Yes.

Q: Were you present at the -- at the meeting where the official fraternity policies were discussed relative to deceiving the police?

[objection, question rephrased]

Q: Were you present in January of 1993, the meeting where the official policy was to prevent the police from receiving information about underage drinking?

A: I can't remember.

Q: Were you present in the February meeting when the organization conspired to sell alcohol to people under 21?

A: I can't remember.

Q: So, -- but you were a member then, right?

A: Oh, yes, I was.

Q: Okay. You don't remember that? You don't remember that?

A: No. I don't remember that.

Now the ACR Blog finds this passage even more amazing. For as you will recall from a previous post, the former President of Theta Chi¹ wrote in a January 1993 letter to the UNH student newspaper that as a result of the group losing its charter, the brothers were busy re-organizing as Zeta Chi. Meaning the January and February 1993 Zeta Chi minutes would have been among the very first minutes of this new fraternal organization, right? In a article that appeared in 2002, nearly a decade later, Todd Boulanger would be referred to as "a founder" of Zeta Chi. If we accept both of these items as fact, then we must conclude that Mr. Boulanger has no recollection of attending the founding meetings of the fraternal organization he founded. How's that for credibility? It makes the ACR Blog wonder just what his pledge to cooperate with the DOJ really means ... never forgetting to say I don't remember? And what role - if any - might Mr. Tessimond have played in this event that led to two criminal convictions for the fraternity? Recall that Mr. Tessimond claimed in his NH Directory of Elected Officials bio that he was the President of Theta Chi in 1992-1993, which would have immediately preceded the re-incorporation of the brothers as Zeta Chi. ¹

In closing, I want to thank an anonymous reader/commenter for the leads that led to the additional work uncovering these events. Further research has confirmed that the timeline in Frat Boyz N the Hill and the facts provided by the ACR Blog's reader were not inconsistent. There were two separate events involving the same group of frat boys. Theta Chi did lose its national charter in Fall of 1992 for insurance-related reasons; it subsequently reorganized as Zeta Chi in early 1993, and the salacious events described in this post (that I was not aware of prior to my anonymous tip) occurred on February 21, 1994. Judicial proceedings finally ended with the NH Supreme Court's decision in 1997 upholding the two felony convictions against Zeta Chi decided in the lower court in 1995, and subsequently Zeta Chi faced a number of sanctions and other penalties.

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¹ Shane Tessimond, in this bio, is listed as the President of Theta Chi Fraternity in 1992-1993. However, the letter to the editor of the student newspaper at UNH-Durham (The New Hampshire) dated January 29, 1993 is signed by a different individual also claiming to be the President of Theta Chi (neither his name nor a .pdf of the letter is included to protect his possible innocence). The ACR Blog cannot reconcile these differences; it is possible Mr. Tessimond's term ended earlier than planned as the brothers sought fresh "leadership" on their path to reorganization as Zeta Chi under "founder" Todd Boulanger.

'Mr. Blackann has cooperated with government agents'

Last week, the Justice Department and counsel for admitted felon Trevor Blackann asked US District Judge Richard W. Roberts to delay Mr. Blackann's sentencing (.pdf):

Mr. Blackann's case is not yet ready for sentencing. As part of his plea agreement, Mr. Blackann has agreed to cooperate with the government in any and all matters when required. Mr. Blackann has cooperated with government agents and prosecutors in conformity with this agreement, and the government anticipates that it will require his further cooperation in the foreseeable future ...

Accordingly, the parties jointly move the Court to defer setting a date for the sentencing of Mr. Blackann. The parties also ask that the Court set a new joint status report deadline not less than 90 days in the future to allow Mr. Blackann's cooperation to continue uninterrupted.

Good. It looks like Mr. Blackann is holding himself accountable for his actions. (Also notice that even though William Welch II is still the lead attorney in this case for the DoJ, rock star M. Kendall Day is the person who drafted and signed the Status Report.)

Back in February, I wondered what information Mr. Blackann could bring to the table. If Mr. Blackann was cooperating, against whom was he providing evidence? In his Factual Basis for Plea, Mr. Blackann described events involving Jim Hirni (pleaded guilty), Todd Boulanger (pleaded guilty), Fraser Verrusio (indicted) and Lobbyist F, a lobbyist at United Rentals that the Justice Department doesn't seem all that interested in any more.

The ACR Blog didn't believe that Mr. Blackann's cooperation was solely intended to help convict Fraser Verrusio. Evidence has recently come to our attention that Mr. Blackann may be able to provide information that could help convict the indicted Kevin Ring.

The ACR Blog is investigating the possibility that Mr. Blackann was an active member of the 'F Street Gang', a group of young staffers and lobbyists whose names have repeatedly surfaced in the Abramoff scandal.

The evidence that we have developed up to this point is far from conclusive. We do know of a flirtatious email exchange between Todd Boulanger and Erin Hass which indicates that Mr. Boulanger knew Mr. Blackann quite well:

Todd Boulanger
October 10, 2001

"BTW, it's Trevor's birthday today."

The ACR Blog has reviewed documents that indicate that Mr. Blackann's birthday is October 10, 1974. This small piece of evidence suggests to the ACR Blog that Trevor Blackann may be a member of the 'F Street Gang'. We will try to substantiate whether or not Mr. Blackann was indeed an active member of that infamous group.

Merely being friends with Mr. Boulanger doesn't tell us what assistance Mr. Blackann could provide to prosecutors. However, this email indicates that Mr. Blackann was actively helping Team Abramoff in its effort to increase funding from $9 million to $16 million for a jail for the Mississippi Band of the Choctaw Indians ¹:

From: Boulanger, Todd [Dir-DC-Gov]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 11:17 PM
To: Abramoff, Jack [Dir-DC-Gov]; Ring, Kevin [Shld-DC-Gov]; Rudy, Tony [Shld-DC-Gov]; Vasell, Shawn [Dir-DC-Gov]
Subject: Choctaw Jail Intel
Importance: High

Tracey Hanke [sic] was at the Sen. [redacted, but very short name ... perhaps Bond] staff retreat today. My friends over there weighed in with her pretty hard and told her that [redacted] was aware and supportive of the project - which wasn't true because he doesn't know what is going on, really - but he wanted to feel her out how adamant her position was with regard to increasing the $9 million figure.

They also played the political angle up with her ... she didn't seem overly impressed.

Trevor said that she is 100 percent not going to budge with what we've hit her with thus far. Her excuse was that they are already taking 1/3 of the budget -which isn't totally true because of the unobligated FY01 funds -and because "they're one of the richest tribes in the country" yadda yadda yadda, which does not mean anything because of the Feds trust responsibility.

What does that mean? Well, going after her directly won't work because she's protected and was placed in that position to "be a bitch".. I'm not really sure how to approach this, but it may take a meeting with Ashcroft and a call from [redacted] and/or/both from [redacted] to the AG and getting his verbal committment [sic] so she doesn't have a choice but to release the money.

She knows that we're gonna go above her and trevor [sic] didn't think that would bother her, but as long as the decision is hers and hers alone to make, you can be certain that $9 mill is all we're getting.

Thoughts? Kevin, this is your turf ...

The last sentence seems to indicate that Kevin Ring was aware of Mr. Blackann's efforts to help Team Abramoff. Therefore, it is plausible that Mr. Blackann could help prosecutors with the Honest Services Fraud Relating to the DOJ section of Kevin Ring's indictment.

Mr. Boulanger's email indicates that Mr. Blackann was assisting Team Abramoff in encouraging greater spending by Congress for a Team Abramoff client on January 17, 2002. Mr. Ring's indictment says, "On or about January 30 or 31, 2002, the DOJ reversed its prior decision and decided to award a $16.3 million federal grant to defendant RING's tribal client for construction of the jail." Wouldn't it be interesting to learn what Mr. Blackann knows about the events of January 2002?

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¹ A Legistorm search for the name 'Trevor' yield 33 hits. However, only two of those Trevors were employed on January 17, 2002: Trevor Blackann (Sen. Kit Bond; R-Mo.) and Trevor Miller (Sen. Russ Feingold; D-Wisc.). The ACR Blog obviously believes that the 'Trevor' mentioned in Mr. Boulanger's email is Trevor Blackann.

"Bigger Fish"

Peter Stone is a journalist for National Journal and the author of Heist, an excellent primer for anyone wanting to know more about the Jack Abramoff Scandal.

Yesterday, Mr. Stone penned a piece on the Abramoff scandal entitled Abramoff Scandal Lives On that appears in National Journal. Since it is behind a subscriber wall at National Journal, the ACR Blog was pleased to find that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has reprinted the article at their own website.

Most of what appears in the article has been covered on the ACR Blog. One notable difference in opinion is that Mr. Stone quotes an anonymous former prosecutor (it isn't clear if this person worked in the Public Integrity Section) who says, "[William] Welch was not just a distant supervisor on the Abramoff case but has been actively involved in parts of it." The ACR Blog takes the position that "Mr. Welch isn't really active in the Abramoff-related cases at all." Gentle reader, it is up to you to sort this out. The ACR Blog will stay with its position until it finds evidence that Mr. Welch was actively involved in the Abramoff-related cases. Until that time, we remain unconvinced that Mr. Welch was anything but a "distant supervisor on the Abramoff case." Regardless, the prosecutors actually doing the work on the Abramoff cases (Peter Sprung, M. Kendall Day, Nathaniel Edmonds, Michael Ferrara, and Michael Leotta) are certainly among the most competent and professional attorneys in America. Besides, even if Mr. Welch was an ineffective manager overseeing the Abramoff cases, that distraction will be removed as Mr. Welch is removed from the cases.

The ACR Blog agrees with CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan's assessment of the Abramoff investigation:

Sloan notes that attorneys for Doolittle and other former lawmakers still under scrutiny have been aggressively invoking the Constitution's "speech or debate clause," which protects members of Congress from prosecution for official actions.

Still, Sloan says, Justice "has done a really good job on the Abramoff case, but so far some of the really big fish remain uncharged." She cites Doolittle; former lobbyist Ed Buckham, who was chief of staff to then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas; and DeLay himself, who was one of Abramoff's key allies on Capitol Hill.

Doolittle, Buckham and DeLay. Can't argue that those aren't big fish, in fact they're probably the three biggest fish left. I'd also like to name a couple other big fish: former Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) and former Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.). Smaller fish include certain staff members for former Reps. DeLay and Doolittle as well as some former staffers at the Justice Department's Office of Judicial Programs, the group Team Abramoff turned to secure full funding for a jail for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.


Ed Buckham (L) and Tom DeLay (R)

Even though chronicling the events that lead up to criminal charges of the "big fish" is the reason for the ACR Blog's existence, we here at the ACR Blog have no expectations regarding the timing of any potential criminal charges. A couple of anonymous sources for Mr. Stone have some expectations, though:

According to two sources familiar with the investigation, another plea or indictment is expected later this spring or in early summer. The word is that it will represent a "bigger fish."

Sources predict that the next Abramoff ally to be charged could be Buckham or DeLay, both of whom have been under scrutiny by prosecutors for a long time. Buckham and DeLay were allies for Abramoff in seeking legislative help for his biggest clients, such as the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Indian tribes with casino operations. Abramoff, Buckham, and DeLay took three costly trips, which Abramoff clients paid for, to the Northern Marianas, Russia, and Scotland, where they golfed at the famed St. Andrews links.

Oh my! Those are big fish indeed! The ACR Blog has consistently taken the position that Mr. Buckham needs to be held responsible before former Rep. DeLay can be. Ideally, Mr. Buckham will provide evidence against Mr. DeLay. So given these two possibilities given by National Journal's Mr. Stone, the ACR Blog is giving shorter odds that Mr. Buckham will be indicted by early summer. Please, ACR Blog readers, keep your fingers crossed.

Ultimately, the Justice Department will proceed in this case as fast as circumstances and facts will allow them to. Remember that over two years ago, the Houston Chronicle said that the Justice Department could decide whether or not to charge Mr. Buckham "within weeks".

Frat Boyz N The Hill

In our last post on the Mysterious Case of Shane Tessimond - the ne'er-do-well who stole over $100,000 from the Kerry for President campaign in 2002/2003 - we learned some very interesting facts. According to campus directories, admitted felon Mr. Tessimond and Abramoff Lieutenant (and admitted felon) Todd Boulanger share a common history that extends back to their undergraduate days together at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) at Durham in 1991-1992. And according to the New Hampshire Directory of Elected Officials, Mr. Tessimond was President of Theta Chi Fraternity in 1992-1993 at UNH-Durham before being elected as one of the youngest Representatives in the New Hampshire statehouse in November 1994.

These must have been heady days for Mr. Tessimond. He went from fraternity president to college grad to New Hampshire State Representative, all within months of reaching his 24th birthday. Since Mr. Tessimond was assigned to the New Hampshire State-Federal Relations Committee, Mr. Tessimond may have reached out to New Hampshire's elected officials in Washington DC during his tenure in office (January 1995 - January 1997). It appears Mr. Tessimond enjoyed the thrill of political influence, and by golly living the charmed life he did, wouldn't you know it but at least two of his fellow Theta Chi fraternity brothers happened to be on Capitol Hill working as staffers before his term was over.

Those fraternity brothers / congressional staffers would be Todd Boulanger, of course, and another miscreant named Justin Sprinzen - UNH; Class of 1996 - according to the collection of Granites that I store in my garage.


Justin Sprinzen
Political Science

By the time Messrs. Boulanger and Sprinzen graduated (1995 and 1996, respectively), they weren't Theta Chi brothers any more. You see, Theta Chi lost its National Charter sometime during the Fall of 1992 because of "an inability to fund the National Fraternity's insurance program". But worry not, gentle readers, because by January of 1993 the brothers of Theta Chi were already engaged in the process of "negotiating an insurance package, renaming the fraternity (Zeta Chi Fraternity), and reaffirming some of the goals we felt made us special." The then-President of Theta Chi continued in his letter to the campus community:

The brothers of Theta Chi feel that their commitment to each other is strong enough to want to continue together. The fulfillment we received in implementing some of our programs (alcohol awareness, risk management) has helped us decide that we want to continue fraternity life with each other.

Source: The New Hampshire (student newspaper of UNH); January 29, 1993 (not available online)

Emphasis added

Strong commitment to each other - good. Its an admirable thing for a brother to help a brother. Alcohol awareness - another good thing, but I have a sneaking suspicion this means being aware of where alcohol is being served, preferably inexpensively, and drinking as much of it as you possibly can. I'll have more to say about that later in this post.

As for risk management - what is that? Maybe it means managing risk so that you ideally don't get caught, which unfortunately is not the case for Messrs. Boulanger and Tessimond, as both have pleaded guilty to felonies and are headed for prison.

Now we come to the final point: continue fraternity life. Who says you have to give up fraternity life once you graduate college? Why not join your brothers and move to DC, help each other out, achieve ever higher levels of alcohol awareness, manage your risk to the best of your ability (meaning: Don't Get Caught!), and become one of the Frat Boyz N The Hill? Which was exactly what Shane Tessimond decided to do.

By the time Mr. Tessimond left the New Hampshire statehouse in January 1997, his UNH fraternity brothers had graduated and were already working on Capitol Hill. Mr. Boulanger was working as a staffer for Senator Bob Smith (R-NH), and Mr. Sprinzen worked for a major law firm. But where were they living? And did Mr. Tessimond move in with them to continue fraternity life? We have good reason to believe this is the case, and that Mr. Tessimond moved in with Mr. Boulanger and Mr. Sprinzen at the 328 F Street NE address shortly after he left public office - by early 1997. At the very least, we can confirm that Messrs. Tessimond and Boulanger, Robert "Big Pappa" Turner, and Erin Hass were living in a shared house at 328 F Street NE in July 2000. But what about Mr. Sprinzen?

Sometime after the non-profit status for his business, The Churchill Group, was revoked¹ on January 28, 1999 (another story for another day), but before the July 1, 2000 party at the "House of the Homies," Mr. Sprinzen moved out of the 328 F Street address and moved in with his better half, Niki. In fact, by the time of the July 1, 2000 party, Justin and Niki were just getting settled enough to sell those "extra" things young couples often have when two people move in together - you know, things like extra lamps and most certanly that second BBQ grill (scroll all the way to the bottom, and see ad under "Community").

So although the ACR blog cannot definitively place Messrs. Tessimond, Boulanger, and Sprinzen all together at the 328 F Street address as far back as early 1997, we can with authority place each at this address for some period of time prior to 2000. Robert "Big Pappa" Turner is also associated with this address.

While living together, The Boyz promoted a very high level of alcohol awareness, engaged in a great deal of risk management, and continued on with fraternity life. Click here to see a picture of Mr. Tessimond (in baseball cap) teaching alcohol awareness in 1999 during the "F Street Spring Crawl" (photo courtesy of Web Archive); click here to see Mr. Turner at the "Spring Crawl", and here to see Messrs. Boulanger and Tessimond together at the same event.

Further confirming Mr. Turner's extreme level of alcohol awareness, just view the top part of this now familiar link.

Mr Turner fit in so well with The Frat Boyz N The Hill that, even though he came to DC from Texas, it almost looks like the Frat Boyz made him an honorary member of Zeta Chi. In fact, here is a photo of Mr. Turner on October 14, 2000 in Durham, N.H. attending the UNH-Zeta Chi reunion. Here's a photo of Mr. Boulanger (No, that's not Jessica Incitto he's hugging - he hadn't met her yet) at the same reunion. And here's a picture of Mr. Sprinzen (wearing vest). So proud are The Boyz of their high level of alcohol awareness, that post-reunion, Messrs. Sprinzen (left) and Boulanger (right) decided to pose in front of a truly impressive achievement in alcohol awareness that they left behind on 17 Madbury Road (click thumbnail for larger view):



Three months later, the frat boy on the right would leave his job at Preston Gates, and join his mentor Jack Abramoff as the newly hired Director of Government Affairs at Greenberg Traurig. The frat boy on the left would go on to work for Don Young.

Strangely, former frat boy president Shane Tessimond appears in none of the reunion photos. But you'll have to wait until the next installment to learn more...

--

¹ The ACR Blog wants to unambiguously state that it has no evidence to suggest that Mr. Sprinzen has done anything illegal, whether in his role as Agent for the Churchill Group or any other matter cited in this post. A non-profit status could be revoked simply as a consequence of not paying a yearly registration fee. Sometimes this is done intentionally as one's career takes off in a different direction.

M. Kendall Day: ROCK STAR

A little noticed story appeared in the Alaska Dispatch last week. As a result of the prosecutorial misconduct in the trial of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the Justice Department had to replace prosecutors in a related case. Alaska state lawmaker Bruce Weyhrauch has yet to go to trial. Now to the Alaska Dispatch:

The government is replacing assistant U.S. Attorneys Joe Bottini and Jim Goeke from Anchorage, and Nick Marsh and Ed Sullivan from Justice's Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C. M. Kendall Day and Marc Levin, also from Public Integrity, will prosecute Weyhrauch's [case] now (or who know[s], maybe drop the charges?). Day has been involved in at least one of the spinoff prosecutions that resulted from the Abramoff investigation.

Emphasis added

I've already called Mr. Day an "all star" (see comments). And in a single day (April 24, 2009), Mr. Day submitted two separate filings in USA v. Fraser Verrusio and USA v. Todd Boulanger. Now Mr. Day is being asked to clean up the wreckage left behind by the Sen. Stevens prosecution team? I'm sure Mr. Day would say that this is all in a day's work. This guy is indispensable. He's more than an all-star; he's a ROCK STAR!

Chief Glenn Marshall: SENTENCED

Disgraced former Chief Glenn Marshall of the Cape Cod-based Mashpee Wampanoag Indian tribe was sentenced in US District Court in Boston today to 41 months in prison, ordered to pay $383,000 in restitution to the tribal council (the amount he pled guilty to embezzling), and an additional $84,600 in restitution to the US Social Security Administration for collecting fraudulent disability payments. He must surrender to authorities on June 8, and, after serving his sentence, he will face three additional years of supervised release. Denise Lavoie at the Associated Press has an excellent summary here:

Marshall, 59, successfully led the push for the tribe to gain federal recognition as part of a plan to build a casino. He stepped down in 2007 after it became public that he was a convicted rapist and had lied about his military past.

In February, Marshall pleaded guilty to five charges, including making $60,000 in illegal campaign contributions to members of Congress, embezzling $383,000 in tribal funds, fraudulently receiving nearly $85,000 in Social Security disability benefits and filing false tax returns.

A much more in-depth article/profile of Mr. Marshall appeared in the Cape Cod Times just prior to his sentencing on May 3, in which reporter George Brennan (assisted by ace Stephanie Vosk) shows why newspapers are still relevant and worth buying:

He told inflated stories knowing there were people in East Falmouth who could poke holes in them, people who knew he was sitting in a classroom at Lawrence High in 1968 when he claimed to be fighting off the North Vietnamese in the Siege of Khe Sanh, arguably the most famous battle of the Vietnam War.

He did not receive a Silver Star or five Purple Hearts, as a lobbyist for the tribe reported to a Connecticut newspaper shortly before his resignation.

I first wrote about the Mashpee Wampanoag in 2007, and speculated that besides our friend Kevin Ring, former Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), and former Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) were involved in this scandal. But I added a cautionary note, and closed with a simple prediction:

If Congressmen were being investigated, I'd expect the Public Integrity Unit out of Washington, DC to be demanding Mashpee council records [rather than the US Attorney in Boston].

Mashpee Wampanoag. I'm sure you'll hear about them again.

Mr. Doolittle is certainly a focus of the Public Integrity Unit. As far as Mr. Pombo is concerned, the ACR Blog has no information indicating he is the subject of any active federal criminal investigation, but, due to his extensive involvement in this case, it is plausible that investigators have examined Mr. Pombo actions. Also note that the government is very careful in its choice of words in the Government's Sentencing Memo (.pdf):

The breadth of his [Marshall's] criminal activity – ranging from a campaign finance scheme aimed at corrupting the U.S. government’s tribal recognition process, to his embezzlement of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Tribe – evince a ready willingness to flout the law when it did not suit his interests.

Emphasis added

Note the emphasis added - the government does not say Mr. Marshall corrupted the US government's tribal recognition process, they say he aimed to corrupt it. If prosecutors had said Mr. Marshall had corrupted the process, or even if Mr Marshall had pled guilty to bribery (which he did not), then the ACR Blog would be more willing to entertain the notion that Mr. Pombo and Mr. Doolittle (and perhaps others) are in legal jeopardy due to this case.

The Sentencing Memo describes Team Abramoff's role with the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe:

Based on the political consultant's recommendation, Marshall hired Jack Abramoff, who ultimately advised Marshall that in order to advance its recognition effors, the Tribe needed to make significant political contributions to certain Members of Congress so that they might build political pressure on the DOI [Department of Interior] to act favorably on the petition.

Thereafter, in consultation with Abramoff's team and the Tribe's Boston-based lobbyist, the Tribe's political consultant recommended on numerous occasions to Marshall which state and federal legislators should receive campaign contributions.

When the Sentencing Memo mentions "Abramoff's team", the ACR Blog reads "Kevin Ring". After all, Mr. Ring's actions with regard to the Mashpee Wampanoag appear in Mr. Ring's indictment (.pdf).

There is one last item of interest in the Sentencing Memo. Mr. Marshall did not provide "substantial assistance" to the government - although the government acknowledges his "cooperation" insofar "as the defendant has made himself available for interview and truthfully answered the government’s questions." That does not sound to me like someone who is spilling his guts to anyone. Messrs. Ring, Pombo and Doolittle may sleep better tonight than they otherwise would. But don't be surprised if the Mashpee Wampanoag story resurfaces and one or all of these people are implicated.

'Cat Pack

I've been meaning to catch up on reading the piles of newspapers that clutter my living room. "Are you really going to read those ancient issues of Foster's Daily Democrat (Dover, N.H.)?", Mrs. AntiCorruption asked. "I mean, c'mon honey..."

"Why of course I am," I responded, albeit a little defensively. "In fact, I've already read though all the issues going back to December 1994, and have only the November 1994 issues left in my collection to go."

On November 9, 1994, The Dem (as I call it) dutifully reported the results of the election held the day before. Because the GOP won big nationally, and even seized control of the US House of Representatives for the first time in many years, one small article on page 24 managed to catch my eye: With No Competition, Dems Sweep Up in Dover Wards 1, 2, 3

I might not have read this article, had it not stood out from the many others describing the GOP's landslide victories in race after race, nationally and locally. Curious as to why our party would not even field candidates in these races, I started reading the article:

Four Democratic candidates running unopposed won four state representative seats in District 11 in Strafford County. Winners were incumbent Bill Knowles with 2,435 votes, Roland Hemon with 1,974 votes, Bill McCann Jr with 1,969 votes and newcomer Shane Tessimond with 1,564 votes.

Emphasis Added

Shane Tessimond?! I wondered: Could this possibly be the same Shane Tessimond who shared a house in DC in 2000 with admitted felon Todd Boulanger? The same Shane Tessimond who then went to work for the Kerry presidential campaign in 2002, and with the help of co-conspirator Mark Parisi, stole over $100,000 in funds from them? How many Shane Tessimonds can there be in this world?

This part of the article in The Dem especially caught my attention:

Shane Tessimond, 25, has lived in Dover for six years and currently works as a bartender at York Beach and plans on attending graduate school at the University of New Hampshire for political science. He received his bachelor's degree in history from UNH.

Guess who also received his bachelor's degree from University of New Hampshire (UNH)? My readers, being generally smarter than I am, probably know the answer: Todd Boulanger. Now all of this really sent my head spinning. Could it be that these two jailbirds of a feather had been flocking together in Durham, N.H. for many years prior to 1999, the year the ACR Blog can first definitively place Mr. Tessimond on Capitol Hill living with and cavorting with Boulanger and the F Street Gang?

Well, first things first, I thought. Let me head out to the garage and check my collection of UNH yearbooks (the 'Granite') to see if their attendance at UNH might have coincided. After all, at first glance Mr. Tessimond and Mr. Boulanger would appear to be about the same age. Sure enough, Mr. Tessimond appears as a graduating senior in the 1993 Granite¹, and Mr. Boulanger appears as a graduating senior in the 1995 Granite. (Another miscreant appears in the 1996 Granite, but we'll save that story for another day.)



So the ACR Blog can definitively place Mr. Boulanger and Mr. Tessimond as undergraduates at UNH-Durham with a substantial period of overlap in time. In fact, the 1991-1992 UNH Directory lists both as Freshman; however this description may not be an accurate reflection of Mr. Tessimond's "true status" as records indicate that he attended a different school first and may have experienced some problems transferring credits. Thus while Mr. Boulanger makes the expected orderly transitions to Sophomore in 1992-1993, Junior in 1993-1994, and Senior in 1994-1995, by 1993-1994 Mr. Tessimond is listed as a Senior¹ in the student directory.

And in November 1994 - only months after graduating - Mr. Tessimond was reportedly elected as a representative to the New Hampshire statehouse. This would certainly have made him among the youngest elected officials in the United States. Fortunately, the state of New Hampshire publishes a "Directory of New Hampshire Elected Officials" after each election as a guide for NH residents. Here's what the 1995 edition has to say about Shane E. Tessimond's priorities for public service as one of the newly elected delegates from Dover:

PRIORITIES: improving NH's educational system; improving the criminal system through preventative measures and increasing deterrents.

Ummm - "increasing deterrents"? The ACR Blog has to wonder whether Mr. Tessimond informed US District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle at his plea hearing that one of his priorities as an elected official was to increase deterrents, presumably meaning he's in favor of longer jail terms for admitted criminals. Fortunately, Mr. Tessimond has not been sentenced yet (nor has Mr. Boulanger), so there is still time for Judge Huvelle to factor Mr. Tessimond's preferences into several of her upcoming sentencing decisions.

The New Hampshire Directory of Elected Officials reveals a second noteworthy fact pertaining to Representative Tessimond: his Committee Assignments. While Rep. Tessimond served only a single 2 year term (January 1995-January 1997), his assignment to the State-Federal Relations Committee likely brought him into contact (frequent?) with elected officials representing the Granite State on the Hill. After all, New Hampshire is a very small state. Ultimately, we must consider this to be speculative.

Finally, we learn one other important thing about Mr. Tessimond's years as a Wildcat from the Elected Officials Directory. His bio states that he was President of the UNH chapter of Theta Chi Fraternity, from 1992-1993. It is not a big leap to assume that Mr. Tessimond's 1994 campaign might have been assisted by his fraternity brothers from UNH. Do any of my readers want to guess who his fraternity brothers might include? Stay tuned for the ACR Blog's next installment in this series: Frat Boyz N The Hill...

==

¹ Mr. Tessimond appears as a Senior in the 1993 Granite. He also is listed as a Senior in the 1993-1994 student directory. The ACR Blog can not reconcile these two facts, and ultimately we have concluded that the discrepancy is immaterial.

Fraser Verrusio Status Hearing -- May 5, 2009

As we expected, little information came out of Fraser Verrusio's status hearing yesterday. In fact, this is all that appears on PACER:

Minute Entry for proceedings held before Judge Richard W. Roberts:Status Conference as to FRASER C. VERRUSIO held on 5/5/2009 Status Conference set for 7/31/2009 09:30 AM in Courtroom 9 before Judge Richard W. Roberts. Speedy Trial time excluded between 5/5/09 and 7/31/09 in the interest of justice due to complexity of case

Since we're not lawyers here at the ACR Blog, we won't even attempt to draw any conclusions as to what the exclusion of speedy trial time means. Well, except to say that it seems reasonable that Mr. Verrusio agreed to exclude the speedy trial time. After all, the right to a speedy trial belongs to the defendant.

On the Docket: May 5, 2009

Found on PACER for case 1:09-cr-64, United States of America v. Fraser Verrusio:

Status Conference set for 5/5/2009 at 09:15 AM in Courtroom 9 before Judge Richard W. Roberts.

The ACR Blog doesn't know what to expect from tomorrow's status conference. But if there is anything to learn at all, you'll find it on these pages.

Who is Daniel Lapin?

Rabbi Daniel Lapin is a naturalized US citizen born in South Africa. An Orthodox rabbi, Lapin is most well known for founding Toward Tradition, an organization that claims to promote Judeo-Christian values.

Kevin Ring Indictment

In the post entitled Part V -- Kevin Ring Indictment: DAVID LOPEZ, we examined paragraph 84 of the Kevin Ring Indictment (.pdf):

84. On or about September 20, 2000, defendant RING sent an email to Abramoff in which defendant RING wrote that Representative 5's [John Doolittle's] Chief of Staff reported that Representative 5 [John Doolittle] was excited and appreciative of a possible employment opportunity for his wife and wanted to speak with Abramoff about the job.

When we reviewed the actual September 20, 2000 e-mail written from Ring to Abramoff and mentioned in the indictment, we learned some specifics of the employment opportunity. It turns out that Kevin Ring was hopeful that Daniel Lapin's Toward Tradition would hire Julie Doolittle:

David [Lopez] told me that Doolittle (JTD) is very excited and appreciative about the Toward Tradition position for Jule. JTD knows of the group and would like to talk to you about it. Can you call him whenever you get a free moment - does not need to be today.

It is certainly clear that Kevin Ring took steps to facilitate a potential job for Julie Doolittle at Toward Tradition. While it isn't unreasonable to think that Daniel Lapin entertained discussions about the job for Julie Doolittle mentioned in the indictment, we don't have any evidence what, if anything, Daniel Lapin did to further Julie Doolittle's employment prospects.

The ACR Blog has no evidence that Julie Doolittle ever worked for Toward Tradition. However, we do know that Toward Tradition did hire an aide to our former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Ft. Bend County):

The government's interest in Toward Tradition has apparently focused on the payments to Lisa Rudy....

Lisa Rudy is the wife of Tony Rudy, at the time a senior aide to DeLay, who was then majority whip in Congress. Tony Rudy later went to work as a lobbyist for Abramoff, according to The Washington Post.

Lisa Rudy couldn't be reach for comment.

At the time he approached Lapin about hiring Lisa Rudy, Abramoff was working in the D.C. office of Seattle's Preston Gates.

Toward Tradition's board approved hiring Lisa Rudy in 2000 and soon after Abramoff sent a $25,000 check from a firm called eLottery. It came with instructions that Rudy was to be paid $5,000 a month.

eLottery is a Connecticut company that provides states with online lotteries. The company hired Abramoff to help stop the federal Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.

Lapin said other checks came from another Abramoff client, the Magazine Publishers of America. Those checks, too, came with directions to keep paying Rudy.

Abramoff was lobbying for the association and, according to his plea agreement, was trying to stop a bill that would have raised postal rates.

A total of $50,000 was paid to Rudy. Abramoff's plea agreement says the money was obtained from clients that benefited from the aide's "official actions regarding the legislation on Internet gambling or opposing postal rate increases."

According to the Seattle Times, the FBI interviewed employees of Toward Tradition and acquired documents from the organization in 2005.

==

Possible Violation of Non-Profit Status

Back in January 2007, we reviewed a report issued by the Senate Finance Committee that suggested that Daniel Lapin's Toward Tradition was among a number of non-profits that had allowed Jack Abramoff to "launder payments" through them:

Washington Post; October 13, 2006

Five conservative nonprofit organizations, including one run by prominent Republican Grover Norquist, "appear to have perpetrated a fraud" on taxpayers by selling their clout to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Senate investigators said in a report issued yesterday....

The groups named in the report are Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform; the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, which was co-founded by Norquist and Gale Norton before she became secretary of the interior; Citizens Against Government Waste; the National Center for Public Policy Research ... and Toward Tradition, a Seattle-based religious group founded by Rabbi Daniel Lapin.

==

Tom DeLay

New York Times

In a 2002 interview with The New York Times, Mr. Abramoff said he first met Mr. DeLay through Daniel Lapin, who would meet frequently with members of Congress to press conservative causes.

'Nuff said.

==

Phony Awards

In 2000, Jack Abramoff wanted to join some DC-based organization called the Cosmos Club. Abramoff didn't think he'd qualify for the Cosmos Club because he hadn't won enough awards. Not a problem for a guy of Abramoff's ingenuity. He just called upon his friend Daniel Lapin. As reported by NPR:

Now, in late 2000, came Abramoff's moment to cross over, to make the transition from being just another muscular political operative to something more fixed in the capital's firmament: a Cosmos Club member. Hence the e-mail to his friend, Rabbi Daniel Lapin; it's among documents released as part of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee's investigation of Abramoff.

"I hate to ask your help with something so silly, but I have been nominated for membership in the Cosmos Club," Abramoff wrote. He noted that the club has "Nobel Prize winners, etc. Problem for me is that most prospective members have received awards and I have received none."

Although he introduced Abramoff to DeLay, Lapin could not be considered Washington establishment. He lives in Washington state. Like Abramoff, the rabbi is Orthodox Jewish, and he runs a socially conservative Jewish advocacy group called Toward Tradition.

Abramoff's e-mail continued: "I was wondering if you thought it possible that I could put that I have received an award from Toward Tradition with a sufficiently academic title, perhaps something like Scholar of Talmudic Studies? …Indeed, it would be even better if it were possible that I received these in years past, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I think you see what I am trying to finagle here!"

Lapin saw. "Mazel tov," he e-mailed back, "the Cosmos Club is a big deal."

Their e-mails continued sporadically for a few days. They apparently talked by phone. Finally Lapin e-mailed, "I just need to know what needs to be produced….letters? plaques? Neither?"

Abramoff wrote: "Probably just a few clever titles of awards, dates and that's it. As long as you are the person to verify them [or we can have someone else verify one and you the other], we should be set. Do you have any creative titles, or should I dip into my bag of tricks?"

Abramoff and his attorney declined to comment for this story. But now we can see what might have been in Abramoff's bag of tricks. Even though Abramoff left his last law firm, Greenberg Traurig LLP, early in 2004, his biography still exists on an archived version of the firm's Web site^[1]. It lists these six honors:

• Scholar of Biblical and American History, 1994, from Lapin's organization Toward Tradition. Lapin says, "We never issued any such award."

• Biblical Mercantile Award, 1999, from the Cascadia Business Institute, another creation of Rabbi Lapin. Lapin says the institute was a concept that never really came to fruition, "and it certainly never gave any award." In fact, Lapin says Abramoff used the names of the two organizations without his knowledge. But weren't Abramoff and Lapin good friends? "We certainly were," Lapin says.

• Outstanding Public Affairs Professional, 1998, and Winston Churchill Award, 1997, both from the National Center for Public Policy Research. Abramoff was on the center's board at the time. He was also an old friend of center director Amy Ridenour, and he funneled money through the center for, among other things, DeLay's Scotland trip. Aside from Abramoff's biography, there's no evidence the center ever gave either award to Abramoff or anyone else. Ridenour didn't respond to NPR's request to comment; she did tell the Indian Affairs Committee that she thought Abramoff defrauded the center in his financial dealings, and she's no longer speaking to him.

• National Order of Merit, 1983, from the USA Foundation. The Greenberg Traurig biography notes that Abramoff was the foundation's chairman at the time.

• Distinguished Biblical Scholar Award, 1988, from the Keter Torah Institute. NPR could find no evidence that the institute exists.

Emphasis added

^[1] The ACR Blog began researching for this post on Tuesday, April 28, 2009. On that date, the ACR Blog viewed and saved Jack Abramoff's Greenberg bio on Web Archive which was cited in the above NPR article. As we went back this evening to post a link to the bio, we noticed it had suspiciously disappeared. Abramoff's Greenberg bio appeared here. The ACR Blog has saved Abramoff's Greenberg bio in html format and will attempt to provide it to anyone who requests it.

Here is the Awards section of Abramoff's bio:

Awards and Recognition

* "Star Rainmakers: The Hill's list of top lobbyists," listed in The Hill Magazine, 2002; 2003
* "Who’s Who and Who’s Where on K Street," listed in The Hill Magazine, 2001
* Biblical Mercantile Award from Cascadia Business Institute, 1999
* Outstanding Public Affairs Professional from National Center for Public Policy Research, 1998
* Winston Churchill Award from National Center for Public Policy Research, 1997
* Scholar of Biblical and American History from Toward Tradition, 1994
* Distinguished Biblical Scholar Award, Keter Torah Institute, 1988
* National Order of Merit, USA Foundation, 1983

Also, be sure to check out a parody of Jack Abramoff's "Who's Who in America" entry created by the conservative Weekly Standard magazine. It is clearly inspired by Daniel Lapin's apparent phony awards to Jack Abramoff.