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House Committee Report: Abramoff Through Rove Influenced White House Policy
Back when the Jack Abramoff scandal was exploding across Washington in 2005 and 2006, the White House went to great lengths to publicly distance itself from the Republican uberlobbyist -- even though anyone who knew anything about Republican politics knew Abramoff was hard-wired into the very fabric of the modern GOP.
Following Abramoff's guilty plea in January 2006, President Bush said, "I don't know him." A White House spokesperson stated that Abramoff had only attended "a couple of holiday receptions . . . then a few staff-level meetings on top of that." And through a spokesperson, Rove said that he "remembers they had met at a political event in the 1990s. ... Since then, he would describe him as a casual acquaintance." Later, we learned that Rove and Abramoff met on D.C. street corners, Jack in his limo, to avoid detection in White House phone and visitor logs.
But the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform report issued today detailing the ties between Abramoff and the Bush White House specifically stated that the White House's own investigation into Abramoff's contacts there had been cursory at best.
This evidence suggests that the White House failed to conduct even the most basic internal investigation of the White House relationship with Mr. Abramoff before making public statements characterizing the connection between Mr. Abramoff and the White House.
In reality, the Committee uncovered extensive contacts between Abramoff team and the White House, including access to Rove and direct influence on White House policy, from unseating Department of Interior official Alan Stayman to affecting nominating processes:
One action that White House officials took at the request of Mr. Abramoff was to intervene to force the removal of a State Department official, Alan Stayman. In a previous position at the Office of Insular Affairs in the Department of the Interior, Mr. Stayman had advocated positions opposed by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, then a client of Mr. Abramoff. Mr. Stayman was appointed to his position at the Department of State during the Clinton Administration.In a recent Committee deposition, Monica Kladakis, then-Deputy Associate Director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel (OPP), confirmed that OPP became involved in Mr. Stayman's removal after White House officials were contacted by Mr. Abramoff's team.
The White House led the committee in 2006 to believe that the extent of the Abramoff connections existed only between Abramoff and Rove's mutual secretary, Susan Ralston. Ralston was painted to be the whole of Abramoff's connection to the White House and her resignation was the culmination of a 4-day investigation by the White House, described by the deputy press secretary as a "thorough" review of the matter.
But in the Committee's examination of Ralston's relevant correspondence, specific electronic conversations shed light on Ralston's role as a conduit between Abramoff and Rove, rather than a stopping point.
One example of the Abramoff team's access to the White House regarding the nomination process is a February 20, 2001, e-mail from Susan Ralston to Matt Schlapp to let him know that Jack Abramoff had called Karl Rove a few days earlier to discuss appointments at OIA.According to this e-mail, Mr. Abramoff had heard that Esther Kia'aina was going to be
considered for a position and "wanted to let Karl know that he didn't think this was a good idea."Ms. Ralston continued, "Karl asked that you return his call." Ms. Kia'aina was not appointed to a position at OIA.
Beyond nominations and appointments, Abramoff, through Rove, also played a hand in creating White House policy:
On a number of occasions, White House officials used information Mr. Abramoff provided in policy deliberations. For example, in September 2002, when Matt Schlapp, then-Deputy White House Political Director, asked Ms. Ralston if Karl Rove wanted "Fred Radewagon to get strong consideration" for appointment to the position of Director of OIA. Ms. Ralston replied minutes later with the note, "Definitely not Radewagon. Here's the intel I got on him."The rest of her e-mail quotes directly, without attribution, from an e-mail Jack Abramoff had sent her the previous month. In this e-mail, Ms. Ralston passed on information from Mr. Abramoff to support her assertion that Mr. Rove would not support Mr. Radewagon. Mr. Radewagon did not get the appointment.
These are important points.
Susan Ralston speaks for Rove. Whenever she appears with an opinion, she is speaking Karl's words. CREW has a recent batch of documents up from DISA, and their military activity WHCA the group that runs the President's communications. In the document, Susan writes to Karl's own political staff - giving his answer about a Presidential trip to Omaha with Senator Brownback (Page forthcoming).
Susan Ralston took the fall and resigned abruptly and without explanation. Karl remained at the White House.
Rove, Ralston et al used the Rove-enginneered clandestine RNC e-mail system to avoid keeping legally mandated records. Ralston even went so far as to tell Abramoff's lobbyists NOT to email her White House account:
and Abramoff's team knew this well:
If Susan Ralston asked for 7 ticketed events and got 9, you bet that some of those were for Karl. He was just too chicken*hit to ask for them.
June 9, 2008 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
A (presently) fact-free aside. Looking back on the 2000 race, John McCain hated the Bushies and they hated him.
After Bush got elected, McCain did everything he possibly could to foist an independent investigation (aka the 9/11 Commission) onto the Bush Administration... (remember the Bushies were too busy "governing" to look back?)
Anyway, McCain was in charge of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee when all the Abramoff stuff was going down. And he held hearings. And collected documents. And it went pretty much nowhere.
Maybe, just maybe, will the Bushies (or the GOP) fatally damage McCain with the Abramoff stuff he covered up so they can run a candidate that might have a shot against Senator Obama?
The RNC convention hasn't happened yet... And no one has been nominated.
Maybe?
June 9, 2008 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good points on both your posts. 1. It seems to me Susan Ralston was more of a cutout than a conduit between Rove and Abramoff giving Rove plausible deniability. 2. I’m sure McBush will be asked to provide to the public, the documents he or his office have on his dealings with Abramoff.
June 9, 2008 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
The shock and awe long ago wore away, but, for the record I'll restate the preposterousness that was Susan's Ralston's work experience.
Susan Ralston worked for Ralph Reed.
then
Susan Ralston worked for Jack Abramoff.
then
Susan Ralston worled for Karl Rove.
An unbroken strong. If Karl didn't know what he was getting then he's even dumber then I thought.
June 9, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Susan Ralston's loyalties were to Abramoff and Rove.
I wonder if she took an oath to serve them and not to serve the people of the United States and our Constitution.
I think you need to add a tag with her name.
June 9, 2008 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
So are they just getting every single one of their ducks in a row before they slam him with inherent contempt? I really hope this is the case.
June 9, 2008 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm all for inherent contempt, as Murkesy doesn't support the rule of law, but based on my reading on the procedure in Congress for inherent contempt, it ain't happening!
June 9, 2008 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Boy, this is gonna make a great movie some day.
June 9, 2008 8:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Rove, Ralston et al used the Rove-enginneered clandestine RNC e-mail system to avoid keeping legally mandated records. Ralston even went so far as to tell Abramoff's lobbyists NOT to email her White House account."
According to this April 13, 2007 Press Gaggle with Dana Perino,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/04/20070413-1.html
the White House moved from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook sometime in 2002-2003.Some time later changes went through for those White House staff who maintained GWB accounts. In the midst of all this 5 million emails went AWOL.
And it came to pass in the removal of Wolfowitz from the World Bank, that some World Bank staffers noticed that email sent by Robin Cleveland was did not appear to originate from Lotus Notes which is the software the World Bank uses.
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/2007/04/wolfies_scandal.php
Why Lotus you ask?
Remember that anthrax scare? The one that led to the Congress-wide information purge?
http://www.lotusgeek.com/LotusGeek/LotusGeekBlog.nsf/archive?openview&type=Month&key=2008-2
BUT, this still leaves the following questions:
6. We were still puzzled why her phone number has 7 digits instead of 5. As was pointed out to worldbankpresident.org, 5 digits is more usual for internal phone numbers because that's how our internal phone system is set up.
7. We were puzzled why that letter q is at the start of the phone number.
8. And we wondered why Robin submitted a DRAFT version of her email instead of the version that she actually SENT.
I'm at a loss how to explain #6 and #7 But, personally, I think the more serious concern is #8.
The idea of a Word-generated forgery seems odd to me.
So many other details are EXACTLY right, including the font and the positioning of the subject line -- at least for people without an automated signature, not for those who do have that -- so why suddenly flub the phone number?"
More such comments are coming in thick and fast. I'll get them up when I can.
http://www.worldbankpresident.org/archives/000528.php
It would seem as if Robin Cleveland, (Principal, Olivet Consulting LLC)
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/2006/01/morning_report_263.php
currently hanging out at the congressionally mandated Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, known as the WMD Commission,
http://speaker.gov/newsroom/pressreleases?id=0666 a
has managed to hold onto her RNC email account throughout.
June 10, 2008 12:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds like a three-way to me. Not literally, of course; instead of exchanging bodily fluids, they were exchanging information and favors to benefit a select few cronies who paid for the privilege. And in the end, it was the American people who were getting fucked.
June 10, 2008 8:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
hello..
June 23, 2008 4:15 AM | Reply | Permalink