Ann Copland

Cochran Aide Charged In Abramoff Probe

Zachary Roth | February 23, 2009, 9:23AM

The next domino is set to fall in the Jack Abramoff saga.

Ann Copland, a former longtime aide to Sen. Thad Cochrain (R-MS), was charged late last week with accepting gifts from, and doing favors for, the corrupt lobbyist and his cronies.

Reports the Associated Press:

Court documents filed Thursday say Ann Copland took thousands of dollars worth of event tickets and meals out in Washington from Abramoff and associates at his firm. Prosecutors say the gifts were in exchange for her favors benefiting one of their top clients, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

For weeks, there had been speculation that this move might be coming. When Team Abramoff member Todd Boulanger was charged last month, court documents referred to a Cochran staffer as having accepted gifts from Boulanger, in exchange for doing legislative favors for the Choctaw. The Associated Press quickly identified the staffer as Copland.

Then when Boulanger pleaded guilty shortly after, court documents revealed email exchanges between him and Copland, in which she complained that there were no "Hebrew National hotdogs" in the corporate suite at a Baltimore Orioles game that Abramoff's firm had provided her, and declared she was "freaking out" because no food was provided for her party at a Washington ice skating event.

Boulanger once wrote to Abramoff of Copland:

She's more valuable to us than a rank and file house member.

Copland abruptly left Cochran's office last year as Abramoff prosecutors gained more convictions of Hill aides. She had worked there 29 years.

So: Could the wide-ranging probe now have Cochran in its sights? We may be about to find out...

PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (12)
Topics: Ann Copland, Jack Abramoff, Lobbyists, Thad Cochran, Todd Boulanger

Jack Abramoff

Cochran Aide To Abramoff Crony: Why No Hebrew National Hotdogs?

Zachary Roth | February 11, 2009, 3:41PM

We've told you about Ann Copland, the former aide to Mississippi GOP senator Thad Cochran, who, according to court documents, accepted tickets to ball-games, concerts, and other events from Abramoff crony Todd Boulanger, in return for getting Cochran to take actions benefiting Abramoff's clients.

Well today the Associated Press offers some more great details about how things worked between Copland and Boulanger.

In June 2003, Copland emailed Boulanger from a suite a luxury suite at Baltimore's Camden Yards, where she had taken a group to watch an Orioles game:

"Ackkk. Only beer and no Hebrew National hot dogs," complained Copland.

Ackkk indeed.

That email was included in Boulanger's plea agreement last week, when he pleaded guilty to bribing several Hill aides.

Here's another good exchange. Reports the AP:

Copland apparently grew so comfortable accepting gifts that she sounded angry in one e-mail from the firm's box suite at a Washington ice-skating event after no food had arrived for her party of 14 people.

"I'm freaking out here," she wrote Boulanger.

He responded that she would be reimbursed if she had to buy food herself.

What was Copland giving in return? The AP explains:

For example, when Copland asked Boulanger for the suite at the Orioles game in 2003, he responded in part by asking whether a Choctaw provision the firm no longer wanted had been removed from an appropriations bill.

Copland assured him it had, and the final version of the bill contained an explicit statement that the provision "is no longer necessary."

Boulanger once wrote to Abramoff, of Copland:

She's more valuable to us than a rank and file house member.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)
Topics: Jack Abramoff, Lobbyists, Todd Boulanger

Jack Abramoff

Report: Staffer Who Got Gifts From Team Abramoff Was Gregg Aide

Zachary Roth | February 4, 2009, 2:50PM

Last week, when Todd Boulanger pleaded guilty to his role in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, he cited a Staffer F in his plea. That staffer had received tickets to hockey and baseball games (with champagne and filet mignon provided, in the latter case) from Boulanger and Team Abramoff.

And today the Associated Press reports that Staffer F is Kevin Koonce, a former legislative director for New Hampshire GOP senator Judd Gregg.

Koonce, who has not been charged with a crime, now works at a private firm, Sorini Samet & Associates. But he told the AP he's on personal leave. Another staffer who received similar favors from Team Abramoff, Trevor Blackann, pleaded guilty last fall to failing to disclose the gifts on his tax returns.

Gregg was announced yesterday as President Obama's pick for Commerce Secretary.
Asked about that inconvenient fact by a reporter just now at a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stressed that Gregg is not a target of the investigation, and that Koonce left Gregg's office in 2004.

Some good details from the AP's rundown:

As part of the plea documents, prosecutors said Staffer F tried to help insert spending measures and add other amendments to legislation for Boulanger's clients. Later, the staffer asked Boulanger if he could "score some hockey tickets," and Boulanger got him front-row seats.

Boulanger later got the staffer box tickets to see the Baltimore Orioles, but he wanted more.

"Could you make sure there's beer this time," he wrote in an e-mail. I "mean, the red sox, crab cakes, and fillet mignon's were nice but ... haha."

Later, Boulanger sent an e-mail to Abramoff expressing confidence that the senator for whom the staffer worked would give them a favor. "Easy money," Boulanger wrote, adding that the aide "practically lives in our various suites. We are shady."

PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (12)
Topics: Jack Abramoff, Kevin Koonce, Lobbyists, Todd Boulanger