DeLay Aide Rudy to cop a plea? And other Scandal Jack News
by dengre
Fri Dec 16, 2005 at 09:00:03 PM PDT
This is the biggest development since Michael Scanlon made his deal last month. The Plank, the blog of The New Republic, posted an entry tonight that former staffer to Burns and DeLay and lobbyist for Team Abramoff and the Alexander Strategy Group is getting ready to cop a plea:
Hot stuff: In the latest National Journal, Abramoff-beat ace Peter Stone writes that Tony Rudy, the former Tom DeLay chief of staff who went on to work for Jack Abramoff, "may be close to a plea bargain agreement with federal prosecutors." Stone attributes this to "legal sources familiar with the probe."
If you're in the GOP this has just made you mess your pants.
Add this to the mountain of other Abramoff Scandal news of the last forty-eight hours and it looks like this scandal may start to grow at the rate similar to Moore's Law.
Let's go to the jump...
dengre's diary :: ::
The Abramoff scandal is growing so fast and in so many directions that it is getting hard to track all the new developments.
Here are some of the recent highlights and oddities:
- Adam Kidan pleaded guilty in the Sun Cruz case and agreed to testify against Team Abramoff and his GOP pals. Kidan has worked with Jack since their College GOP days and the Saipan Tribune reported on their visits to Saipan and plans for an international fleet of gambling ships (and floating Money Laundromats).
- George W. Bush is interviewed by Brit Hume and tells two Abramoff lies in one short answer.
- The Austin America Statesman reports that charitable contributions Abramoff claimed he made were never sent to the charities. The article connects the missing donations to a Tom DeLay charity scam for the GOP Convention. Perhaps Scanlon or Rudy will walk prosecutors through this transaction and all of Tom and Jack's "charity" work.
- Asia Week is out with a story on Susan Ralston and her connection to the CIA Leak investigation. It oddly omits her connections to Abramoff.
- Gannett News Service reports on the recent Nightline report about Congressman Ney and his ties to Abramoff. The focus is on Texas political consultant Marc Schwartz allegation that Ney took bribes in 2002.
- Business Week reports on Abramoff's successful efforts to buy conservative columnists since at least 1997. Josh Marshall weighs in with more details, as does the The Plank and The NYTs.
- Ralph Reed now regrets taking Jack's money and is talking about it as the scandal is hurting his run for Lt. Governor in Georgia. No word yet on is he's decided to give the Millions of dollars he got in the swindle back to the Tribes.
- Meanwhile the pressure is growing on Jack's GOP pals to give back money he poured into their coffers. Rep. Pombo will match the $7,000 Jack gave him directly and give it to charity in the hopes that nobody will notice all of the other Abramoff-related money. And Conrad Burns has flip-flopped. Two days ago he wasn't giving any of t he $150,000 back. Now he'll match the amount as a charitable donation, in the hope that nobody will notice what he did for the money. It might not be working The Missoulian today, called for Burns to step down and not run for re-election.
- Overseas, the scandal is also making news. The Telegraph reports that the scandal is a political storm that will hit at the heart of the Right. And a story out of India on the Top financial scandals that rocked the world makes a connection between Jack, Iran-Contra, the Duke Scandal and Cocaine sales in the 1980s. Normally that might be tin foil hat time, but as this scandal grows it is beginning to seem that almost anything might be possible.
I'm sure I've missed some things. Feel free to add them to the comments.
And this weekend's headlines will bring more news. Perhaps even some new details that connect even more GOP players to Jack in meaningful ways.
And the pressure is really on Jack to make a deal himself before his Jan. 9, 2006 SunCruz trial. With Tony Rudy cutting a deal it won't be long before all the good ones are taken (unless you can give up some BIG fish--Tom, George, Karl, etc.)
This is going to get very interesting...
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