House Clears Bush in Abramoff Case

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The New York Sun

WASHINGTON — Then-lobbyist Jack Abramoff influenced some White House decisions by lavishing exclusive sports tickets and meals on political staff members, but there is no evidence that President Bush was involved, a congressional panel said in a draft report yesterday.

The findings of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee show that the White House had more contacts with Abramoff than it previously acknowledged. But congressional investigators said they found no evidence that Abramoff lobbied Mr. Bush on the six occasions the two met or that the president took action in response to any request from the disgraced lobbyist, now in prison.

In January 2006, after Abramoff pleaded guilty, the then-White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, said he had “checked” into contacts at the executive mansion and found “only a couple of holiday receptions that he attended and then a few staff-level meetings.” The committee found that neither Mr. McClellan nor his successor, Tony Snow, had checked with five staff members who were key points of contacts for Abramoff’s lobby team.

Primary among successes by Abramoff’s team, the report found, was persuading Mr. Bush officials to seek the removal of Alan Stayman from the State Department position overseeing the relationship with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a major client of Abramoff’s and his firm, Greenberg Traurig.


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