Breaking news here, the most important story of the year on the 2d day:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/po...rtner=homepage
Before this is over, this will be the end to the Republican Culture of Corruption that so pervades the corridors of power. Whats REALLY intersting is to hear the Republicans pretend this is a 'bi partisan" scandal. Its not---its almost an exclusively Republican scandal. Abramoff himself has said the got no traction at all in the Clinton Administration but when B ush took over it was YABADABADOOO!! Registered lobbyists have DOUBLED under the Bush administrationh, from 16000 to over 32000 as the Repubs line up to feed at the trough.
This scandal is all about the revolving door between Republicans and the lobbyistys with several major figures (like Scanlon) goiong back and forth between lobbying and Republiocan Congressional Staff jobs. This is about Republiocan wives collecting huge fees for doing.....nothing.
Before this is over, the republicans conduit of illegal funding will be well known--its already started to break wuith the Delay scandal. This will be worse than the Ronnie Earle indictment for Delay, the testimony will be all from the inside as the Republkican rats jump the ship and start squealing on each other, as is happeneing in the Enron case now.
2006 is going to be a good year, its starting off really well.
Republican Bagman Jack Abramofff to plead guilty. (emphasis:mine)
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - Jack Abramoff will plead guilty to three felony counts in Washington today as part of a settlement with federal prosecutors, ending an intense, months-long negotiation over whether the -->REPUBLICAN<-- lobbyist would testify against his former colleagues, people involved with the case said.
Mr. Abramoff, 46, is pleading guilty to fraud, public corruption and tax evasion, setting the stage for prosecutors to begin using him as a cooperating witness against his former business and political colleagues. In exchange, Mr. Abramoff faces a maximum of about 10 years in prison in the Washington case.
After entering his guilty plea in United States District Court in Washington, Mr. Abramoff will also announce a plea agreement in a related Florida case, in which he was indicted last year. In that case, he is pleading guilty to fraud and conspiracy in connection with his purchase of the SunCruz casino boat line, and will face a maximum of about seven years' prison time.
Mr. Abramoff has been talking to investigators in the corruption case for many months, said participants in the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation. They said he had provided a full picture of what evidence he could offer against other suspects.
His participation in Washington has taken place mostly below the radar, as prosecutors made the Miami case the focus of their public work and as Mr. Abramoff and his associates claimed they were preparing to stand trial, facing up to as many as 30 years in prison.
Mr. Abramoff will enter separate pleas in each location. But the deal reached with the Justice Department is all-encompassing, reducing the severe penalties Mr. Abramoff could have faced in either investigation, in exchange for his inside knowledge of certain lobbying work and legislative actions. One element of the deal is that he can serve prison time in the two cases concurrently, although the sentencing will not take place until much further along in the investigation.
Details of the long-sought plea agreement were not made final until after 9 p.m. on Monday night, following weeks of around-the-clock communications between numerous prosecutors in several Justice Department offices and lawyers for Mr. Abramoff. The deal, a so-called "global" arrangement because it encompasses separate prosecutions in Florida and Washington, comes less than a week before Mr. Abramoff was scheduled to stand trial in the Miami case.
Official Washington has been on edge for months awaiting word of Mr. Abramoff's legal future. Once a masterful -->REPUBLICAN<-- lobbyist with close ties to the former House majority leader, Representative Tom DeLay, he earned tens of millions of dollars representing Indian casino interests and farflung entities like the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. Through a complicated web of financial arrangements, he helped funnel donations to his lawmaker friends' and their campaigns, and took members of Congress, -->MAINLY THE REPUBLIICANS IN POWER<--, on lavish trips.
Now, after more than two years of investigations, prosecutors have developed a list of at least a dozen lawmakers, congressional aides and lobbyists whose work appears suspect and who are now at the core of the case. With Mr. Abramoff's cooperation, the Justice Department will have a potentially critical witness to alleged patterns of corruption or bribery within the -->REPUBLICAN<-- leadership ranks, which in some cases they believe also took the form of campaign donations and free meals at Mr. Abramoff's downtown restaurant, Signatures.
Already, prosecutors have a key witness in Michael Scanlon, once press secretary to Mr. DeLay. Mr. Scanlon reached a plea agreement last year, putting pressure on Mr. Abramoff to reach his own deal. Now that Mr. Abramoff has done the same, one person involved in the case said: "When some people hear about this, they will clamor to cut a deal of their own."