Blogging Against Senator Sam Brownback Since March 2005
As I previously mentioned, Brownback has already pledged to return campaign contributions he received from Jack Abramoff, the disgraced republican lobbyist.
What remains to be discovered is whether Brownback was involved in the influence peddling web that Abramoff ran for so long. Perhaps Abramoff gave money to some politicians without implicit favors being discussed, but I doubt it.
Methinks Senator Brownback and many other republican lawmakers are not sleeping well tonight.
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Blogging Against Senator Sam Brownback Since March 2005
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January 5th, 2006 at 7:22 pm
Brownback - Abramoff Connection! Brownback while serving on the Senate Judiciary committee in 2002 willingly took over 42,000 dollors from Abramoff for his Restore America PAC. In 2002, Abramoff was retained under a secret contract by the Guam Superior Court to lobby against a bill proposing to put the Superior Court under the authority of the Guam Supreme Court.The $324,000 was paid to Abramoff through a Laguna Beach, California, lawyer by means of 36 checks of $9,000 each. If done to avoid the federal reporting requirements for payment transfers this would constitute illegal ’structuring’ under 31 USC 5324(a). The form of payment might also be illegal if it was used to evade federal contracting rules requiring an open tender for contracts over $10,000.On Nov. 18, 2002, a grand jury issued a subpoena demanding that the administrator of the Guam Superior Court release all records relating to the contract.On Nov. 19, 2002, U.S. Atty. Frederick A. Black, the chief prosecutor for Guam and the instigator of the indictment, was unexpectedly demoted and removed from the office he had held since 1991. The federal grand jury investigation was quickly wound down and took no further action.In May 2003 Black was succeeded by Leonardo Rapadas at the recommendation of the Guam Republican Party. He was confirmed without any debate. “Fred Radewagen, a lobbyist who had been under contract to the Gutierrez administration, said he carried that recommendation to top Bush aide Karl Rove in early 2003.”