Abramoff, White House Tied to Firing of Official
By Peter Wallsten
LA Times Staff Writer
Washington — For five years, Allen Stayman wondered who ordered his removal from a U.S. State Department job negotiating agreements with tiny Pacific island nations -- even when his own bosses wanted him to stay.
Now he knows.
The ax fell after intervention by one of the highest officials at the White House: Ken Mehlman, who acted on behalf of one of the most influential lobbyists in town, Jack Abramoff.
E-mails recently made public disclose that Abramoff, whose client list included the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianna Islands, had long opposed Stayman's work advocating labor reforms in that U.S. protectorate, and considered what his lobbying team called the "Stayman project" a high priority.
"Mehlman said he would get him fired," an Abramoff associate wrote after meeting with Mehlman, who was then White House political director.
The exchange illustrates how, more than two years after the corruption scandal surrounding the now-disgraced Abramoff first came to light, people are still learning the extent of the lobbyist's ability to pull the levers of power in Washington, D.C. The latest revelations provide more detail than the administration has acknowledged about how Abramoff and his team reached into high levels of the White House, not just Capitol Hill, which has so far been the main focus of the influence-peddling investigation.The e-mails, disclosed by the House Government Reform Committee, show how Abramoff managed to manipulate the system through officials such as Mehlman, now the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Doing so, Abramoff directed government appointments, influenced policy decisions and won White House endorsements for political candidates -- all in the service of his clients. The report found more than 400 lobbying contacts between Abramoff's team and the White House.
Besides the Stayman matter, the newly disclosed e-mails reveal Mehlman's role in helping an Abramoff client, the Mississippi Band of the Choctaw Indians, secure $16.3 million for a new jail that government analysts concluded was not necessary. Mehlman also helped Abramoff obtain a White House endorsement in 2002 of the Republican gubernatorial ticket in the U.S. Territory of Guam.
(More here.)
LA Times Staff Writer
Washington — For five years, Allen Stayman wondered who ordered his removal from a U.S. State Department job negotiating agreements with tiny Pacific island nations -- even when his own bosses wanted him to stay.
Now he knows.
The ax fell after intervention by one of the highest officials at the White House: Ken Mehlman, who acted on behalf of one of the most influential lobbyists in town, Jack Abramoff.
E-mails recently made public disclose that Abramoff, whose client list included the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianna Islands, had long opposed Stayman's work advocating labor reforms in that U.S. protectorate, and considered what his lobbying team called the "Stayman project" a high priority.
"Mehlman said he would get him fired," an Abramoff associate wrote after meeting with Mehlman, who was then White House political director.
The exchange illustrates how, more than two years after the corruption scandal surrounding the now-disgraced Abramoff first came to light, people are still learning the extent of the lobbyist's ability to pull the levers of power in Washington, D.C. The latest revelations provide more detail than the administration has acknowledged about how Abramoff and his team reached into high levels of the White House, not just Capitol Hill, which has so far been the main focus of the influence-peddling investigation.The e-mails, disclosed by the House Government Reform Committee, show how Abramoff managed to manipulate the system through officials such as Mehlman, now the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Doing so, Abramoff directed government appointments, influenced policy decisions and won White House endorsements for political candidates -- all in the service of his clients. The report found more than 400 lobbying contacts between Abramoff's team and the White House.
Besides the Stayman matter, the newly disclosed e-mails reveal Mehlman's role in helping an Abramoff client, the Mississippi Band of the Choctaw Indians, secure $16.3 million for a new jail that government analysts concluded was not necessary. Mehlman also helped Abramoff obtain a White House endorsement in 2002 of the Republican gubernatorial ticket in the U.S. Territory of Guam.
(More here.)
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