HEADS UP: DeLay aide's deal takes down Buckham (DeLay's Chief of staff)

[WilliamPitt]

Breaking from Roll Call:

Rudy’s Deal Implicates Buckham
By Paul Kane
Roll Call Staff

Friday, March 31

The Jack Abramoff scandal has now reached the deepest portions of Rep. Tom DeLay’s (R-Texas) inner circle. The plea agreement entered into today by Tony Rudy, a one-time senior staffer to the former Majority Leader and Majority Whip, officially names former DeLay Chief of Staff Ed Buckham as participating in the bribery scheme orchestrated by Rudy, ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and other members of Abramoff’s lobbying team. After leaving the Texan’s leadership office in December 1997, Buckham continued to exert a large degree of control over the DeLay political operation.

In his plea deal, which was publicly released after Rudy’s formal guilty plea this morning, Rudy officially accuses Buckham — who is identified as “Lobbyist B” in the filings — of helping set up $50,000 in payments to Rudy’s wife’s consulting firm in order to win Rudy’s help in killing a bill that would have outlawed Internet gaming. Abramoff at the time was representing Internet gambling clients who wanted to keep the practice legal. While Buckham is not identified in the documents, they leave no doubt that his firm, Alexander Strategy Group, is “Firm 3.”

In addition, the plea agreement says that Rudy, while working as deputy chief of staff for DeLay in 2000, arranged for other House staffers to travel to the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands and also secured appropriations money for the CNMI. The Marianas were a long-standing client of Abramoff’s, but the court filings say that Rudy did this work “in part to assist Abramoff, his firm and Lobbyist B with their lobbying businesses.”

Buckham and Abramoff were very close over the years — Abramoff steered donations from his clients into the coffers of nonprofits run by Buckham, such as the U.S. Family Network — and they did work together for some clients. Buckham is considered the single closest adviser to DeLay, even having served as the lawmaker’s minister.

More: http://www.rollcall.com/issues/1_1/breakingnews/12735-1.html (pay site)

[blm]

1. Great to hear - November is looking better.

.

[The Magistrate]

2. A Corrupt Rightist Christian Clergyman!?!

Oh, say it si not so, Mr. Pitt!

Whoever would have thought it....

[acmejack]

10. Isn't there something in those commandments that addresses corruption?

Nope, appears not. It must have been on that third tablet that Mel dropped in the "History of the World"...

[The Magistrate]

12. One Would Think, Sir

That "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods" would cover the case, but what does a hard old pagan know of ethical questions...?

[itzamirakul]

3. Well, I guess that this plea deal will knock 3 or 4 years off of

Abramoff's sentence. If he gets one or two more plea deals he (Abramoff) will end up spending less than 30 days in jail for his crimes.

[annofark]

4. Abramoff the Lepar

This is just a musing...but I live in DC and I often wonder what happens when Abramoff walks into places. Does everyone flee? Everything he touches seems to be going down.

[WilliamPitt]

5. If Abramoff's testimony rolls up even a third

of the 60 GOP congressfolk who are tied in with him, thus assisting us in seizing those 15 seats needed to put John Conyers in as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I say not only should Abramoff avoid prison, but should be given a tickertape parade down the Canyon of Heroes in New York.

[Coexist]

6. I would have to pinch myself every time I turned on C-Span

and saw the Hon. John Conyers in that position.

[blm]

15. I'll pinch you, too, and pop some popcorn - IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS, BABY!

;)

[Viva_La_Revolution]

16. Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush Sunday CSPAN2 4pm

Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush
Michael Ratner, Bill Goodman, Maria Lahud, and Shayana Kadidal


Center for Constitutional Rights attorneys Michael Ratner, Bill Goodman, Maria Lahud, and Shayana Kadidal talk about their book, "Articles of Impeachments," at the Culture Project in New York City. The participants argue that President Bush should be impeached because he is abusing his power. They discuss the NSA domestic spying case, the administration's arguments supporting the invasion of Iraq, and the administration's use of indefinite detention and torture to support their case. The panel is moderated by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is a New York based legal organization founded in 1966. Lawyers from CCR represented Guantanamo Bay detainees in the Supreme Court case Rasul v. Bush. The case challenged the Bush administration's power to indefinitely detain foreign nationals in Guantanamo without trial and argued that detainees should be allowed to contest their imprisonment in U.S. courts. The Supreme Court ruled in CCR's favor. For more information on the book or the Center for Constitutional Rights, visit www.ccr-ny.org .


:bounce:

[itzamirakul]

7. He will probably get that Wall Street Parade regardless...eom

[LSK]

8. you got that right!

[electropop]

9. This deal won't benefit Abramoff.

Because it's a former DeLay aide making the deal, not Abramoff.

[WilliamPitt]

11. It actually hurts him

Buckham and Abramoff have been tight for years. Abramoff steered donations from his clients into the coffers of nonprofits run by Buckham, such as the U.S. Family Network — and they did work together for some clients.

[formercia]

13. Especially if he didn't tell the prosecutor about it first

Withholding information is the quickest way to kill a plea deal.

[WilliamPitt]

14. TO report link

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/033106R.shtml