They Know Jack

House Report Details 485 Contacts Between Abramoff Team and White House Officials:

A 95-page report, which was released by the House Government Reform Committee on Thursday evening, includes an analysis of more than 14,000 pages of documents provided to the panel by Abramoff's former lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig.

…In total, the committee was able to document 485 contacts between White House officials and Abramoff and his lobbying team at the firm Greenberg Traurig from January 2001 to March 2004, with 82 of those contacts occurring in Rove¹s office, including 10 with Rove personally. The panel also said that Abramoff billed his clients nearly $25,000 for meals and drinks with White House officials during that period.

Bear in mind, Abramoff is a liar free of the burden of ethics, who may very well have billed his clients for meetings with White House officials that never took place in reality, in order to charge higher fees by exaggerating his influence. So it’s very unlikely that the White House was as accommodating as “485 contacts between Abramoff team and White House officials” sounds. Just because Abramoff emailed someone at the White House doesn’t mean they responded every time—and probably didn’t. Abramoff is nothing if not a fantasist. But the report does note some things that appear certain:

During the period examined by the committee, Bush administration officials repeatedly intervened on behalf of Abramoff’s clients, including helping a Mississippi Indian tribe obtain $16 million in federal funds for a jail the tribe wanted to build.

Abramoff was able to block the nomination of one Interior Department official using Christian conservative Ralph Reed as a go-between with Rove, according to e-mails between Abramoff and Reed.

…The committee was able to uncover numerous times when Abramoff and his associates attended social events with senior White House aides using tickets or passes supplied by Abramoff. For instance, Abramoff attended an NCAA Tournament college basketball game with Rove in March 2002. Afterward, Abramoff told an associate that Rove was “a great guy” who told him “anytime we need something, just let him know” via Rove’s assistant, Susan Ralston. Ralston worked for Abramoff before moving over to the White House.

Basically, the relationship between Abramoff and the White House appears to be not as awesome as Abramoff would have one believe, and more troublesome than the White House would have one believe.

And I highly doubt that anything will come of all this, unless it’s more trouble for Abramoff alone, because the GOP is not interested in pursuing it.