Congressional Staffer To Plead Guilty In Abramoff Bribery Case

Former Hill Staffer to Plead Guilty in Abramoff Probe

By Susan Schmidt and James V. Grimaldi

Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, April 24, 2007; A04

A former senior staffer on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the public by steering potential clients and inside government information to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff in return for cash, gifts and the promise of a high-paying job on K Street.

Mark Dennis Zachares admitted to prosecutors that he accepted more than $30,000 in tickets to 40 sporting events, a luxury golf trip to Scotland and $10,000 in cash from Abramoff and his lobbying team. He acknowledged providing them with information about the reorganization of the Homeland Security Department, federal disaster and highway aid, and maritime issues.

Zachares is scheduled to appear in court today to plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. The Justice Department's public integrity section filed a criminal information in U.S. District Court yesterday outlining the case against him.

Zachares is the 11th person to plead guilty in the Abramoff investigation. Earlier this month, the FBI searched the home office of Julie Doolittle, wife of Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.), another politician whose actions have drawn scrutiny from a task force of 40 federal prosecutors and investigators.

Edward B. MacMahon Jr., an attorney for Zachares, declined to comment on the court filing or on whether his client is cooperating in the investigation.

Zachares's case embodies two of Abramoff's hallmarks: seeking to place allies in government jobs so he could gain influence, and winning favors for clients by dangling lucrative lobbying jobs before congressional staffers.

"Zachares would and did use his Congressional position to develop the contacts and influence that would make Zachares valuable as a future lobbyist working with Abramoff, and would and did use his position to refer potential clients to Abramoff's lobbying firm," the court papers said. "In return, Abramoff would 'credit' Zachares with the 'business,' " ultimately "warranting a high annual salary."

Abramoff and Zachares met in the 1990s, when Zachares was working for the attorney general of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth that paid Abramoff $7 million to fight off attempts in Congress to impose minimum-wage laws there.

In late 2000 and 2001, Abramoff tried to get the Bush White House to hire Zachares as director of insular affairs at the Interior Department, a post in which he could aid the Northern Marianas and other Abramoff clients. The Washington Post previously reported that Abramoff contacted his former assistant, Susan Ralston, who went to work for White House political aide Karl Rove, seeking the position for Zachares. Ralston refused to arrange a meeting, and Zachares did not get the job.

Zachares told Abramoff in a Nov. 26, 2002, e-mail that he "really could make things happen if [Zachares] got over" to Homeland Security. That year, Zachares solicited and received two $5,000 payments from Capital Athletic Foundation, a purported charity controlled by Abramoff.

With assistance from Abramoff, according to the court documents, Zachares finally landed a job on the staff of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, then chaired by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska). Young's office did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.

In March 2003, when Zachares was staff director for the Coast Guard and maritime transportation subcommittee, Abramoff e-mailed a lobbying colleague about an upcoming meeting between Zachares and two other lobbyists at their firm, Greenberg Traurig. "We can get a ton of new clients together, and they can do the work, with Zack pulling our load inside," Abramoff wrote.

The same year, Zachares went on a luxury golfing trip to Scotland with Abramoff, other lobbyists, Hill staffers and Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.). In January, the House ethics committee said the trip violated House rules and Feeney reimbursed the U.S. Treasury $5,643 for the cost.

A Feeney spokeswoman said the Justice Department has contacted the congressman "to request more information."

FBI In Talks With GOP Rep Feeney In Abramoff Scandal

FBI asks Tom Feeney about trip with Abramoff

Early edition: Feeney's office said the congressman is cooperating voluntarily.

By ANITA KUMAR
Published April 23, 2007

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WASHINGTON - The FBI has asked U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney for information about his dealings with Jack Abramoff as part of its ongoing investigation into the lobbyist convicted of defrauding clients.

FBI agent Kevin Luebke refused to say whether Feeney, a Republican from the Orlando area, is under federal investigation.

Federal agents also have asked the St. Petersburg Times for an email sent to the newspaper by Feeney's office describing a golfing trip the congressman took with Abramoff to Scotland in 2003.

Feeney did not return calls for comment Monday. But his Washington office released a statement to the Times late Monday.

"Rep. Feeney considers this an embarrassing episode in his 17-year career as an elected official and an expensive lesson for him as a public servant," according to the statement.

Feeney is one of three House members who accompanied Abramoff to Scotland on trips that included rounds of golf at the legendary Royal & Ancient Golf Club at St. Andrews.

The others are: former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who is serving prison time for corruption, and former House Republican leader Tom DeLay, indicted in Texas for alleged improper fundraising, is under investigation.

"The Justice Department has been investigating activity surrounding Jack Abramoff," according to Feeney's statement. "The Justice Department has contacted Rep. Feeney to request more information regarding this matter and he is pleased to voluntarily cooperate."

The FBI contacted the Times last week to ask for the February 2006 email that Feeney's then chief of staff Jason Roe wrote to the newspaper in response to a series of questions about interactions between Feeney and Abramoff. The Times has referred the FBI's request to its attorney.

Roe, now deputy campaign manager for presidential candidate Mitt Romney, said Monday he has not been contacted by the FBI and has no knowledge of an investigation. But, he said, he was not surprised to hear federal agents are asking questions.

"I'm sure they're doing due diligence," he said. "I guess it would be my expectation they would look into everything" associated with Abramoff.

Feeney, 48, who spent a decade in the Florida Legislature where he was speaker of the House, has paid $23,000 in legal fees this year - more than any other expense - according to his latest campaign finance reports.

"Rep. Feeney anticipates voluntarily cooperating with the Justice Department in any further investigation of this trip and looks forward to promptly resolving this matter," according to Feeney's statement.

The U.S. House announced in January that Feeney violated its rules by apparently letting Abramoff pay for the trip to Scotland. Feeney agreed to pay the cost of the trip - $5,643 - to the U.S. Treasury.

Feeney said he thought a conservative think tank - the National Center for Public Policy Research - was paying for the trip. He said he learned later from newspaper reporters that Abramoff may have paid in violation of House rules that forbid members from taking free trips from lobbyists and asked the ethics committee to investigate.

"Any assertion that this office knew Abramoff paid for the Scotland trip is a g--d----- lie," Roe wrote in the email being sought by the FBI. The email was quoted in a newspaper article last year.

Records and media reports show lawmakers - including Ney and DeLay - have helped Abramoff with his lobbying.

Last week, Rep. John Doolittle, R--Calif., gave up his coveted seat on the House Appropriations Committee after the FBI raided his home.

In last year's email, Roe vehemently denied any improper relationship with Abramoff as a result of the trip.

"Tom has never written a letter for Abramoff. Abramoff has never been in our office. Abramoff has never asked anything of us," Roe wrote in the email. "There is no accusation of a quid pro quo. No quid pro quo exists."

Feeney received $4,000 from Abramoff and three of his clients but recently gave the $1,000 from Abramoff to charity. Money also went the other direction: Feeney paid the tab at Abramoff's Washington restaurant, Signatures, at least three times, twice when the costs were more than $2,000, according to Feeney's campaign finance reports.

Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report. Times staff writer Anita Kumar can be reached at akumar@sptimes.com or 202-463-0576.

Former Deputy Interior Secretary will plead guilty to one count of obstruction of justice in the Jack Abramoff corruption investigation

Ex-Interior No. 2 to plead guilty in Abramoff probe

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles will plead guilty to one count of obstruction of justice in the Jack Abramoff corruption investigation, The Associated Press has learned.

Griles, an oil and gas lobbyist who became an architect of President Bush's energy policies while at the Interior Department between July 2001 and July 2005, is the highest ranking Bush administration official implicated in the Washington lobbying scandal.

ON DEADLINE: More on Griles; Abramoff's reduced sentence in the works

The former No. 2 official at the Interior Department has agreed to a felony plea admitting that he lied five times to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and its investigators about his relationship with Abramoff, people involved in the case told the AP.

Griles will admit in federal court Friday that he concealed that he had a unique relationship with Abramoff, people involved in the case said on condition of anonymity, because a federal judge had not yet approved the plea deal. Griles and Abramoff met on March 1, 2001, through Italia Federici, a Republican environmental activist whom Griles had been dating.

That was just one week before Griles, who had been serving on Bush's transition team for Interior, was nominated by the president as deputy to Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Second in rank only to Norton, Griles effectively was Interior's chief operating officer and its top representative on Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force.

Prosecutors dropped earlier allegations that Griles did anything improper to help Abramoff or gained anything of value from the former Republican lobbyist, the AP was told. The agreement does not require Griles to help investigators with their grand jury probe.

In exchange for the plea, federal prosecutors will seek no more than a 10-month prison sentence for Griles — the minimum they could seek under sentencing guidelines — but they will agree to let him serve half that in home confinement, according to one person involved in the case.

Griles lives in Virginia with Sue Ellen Wooldridge, who until January was an assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's environmental division.

The AP reported in February that Wooldridge, as the nation's environmental prosecutor, bought a $980,000 vacation home last year with Griles and Donald R. Duncan, the top Washington lobbyist for ConocoPhillips. Nine months later, she signed an agreement giving the company more time to clean up air pollution at some of its refineries.

The Justice Department planned to file papers proposing the plea deal with Griles. He was scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle in a Washington at 11 a.m. ET Friday. Huvelle will decide Friday whether to accept or reject the plea, but her decision on sentencing is likely to come two to three months later.

In government papers, Griles acknowledges he obstructed the Senate committee's investigation into Abramoff and his associates' dealings with Indian casino clients. Griles admits he testified falsely four times to the committee on Nov. 2, 2005, and once to the panel's investigators two weeks earlier.

Abramoff persuaded his Indian clients to pay him tens of millions of dollars to influence decisions coming out of Congress and the Interior Department. Part of his pitch to clients was that he had serious pull at the department, especially with Griles.

Awaiting sentencing in the bribery scandal, Abramoff already is serving six years in prison for a bogus Florida casino deal. A congressman, several congressional aides and the administration's top procurement official also have either pleaded guilty or been convicted in the case.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.