Word: abramoff
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Just how close was the relationship between the President and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff? Bush "saw me in almost a dozen settings," Abramoff wrote to a journalist friend in an e-mail that surfaced last week, "and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids." But the White House has continued to assert that the President has no recollection of ever meeting the admitted felon. Now a photograph of them together has finally come to light. The photo, taken on May 9, 2001, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House, shows...
...meeting was a relatively small gathering attended by some two dozen people, including Garza--who provided TIME with the photograph and who is under federal indictment for allegedly embezzling more than $300,000 from his tribe--as well as another Indian tribal leader who was also Abramoff's client. Abramoff has told friends that "after the [Garza] picture was taken, the President came over and shook hands with me, and we chatted and joked." A photograph of this scene as described by Abramoff was shown to TIME two weeks ago. Abramoff's lawyers have said their client has long...
Benigno Fitial, Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands and a former Abramoff client who also attended the 2001 meeting, told TIME that he recalled the President as being "very gracious" at the session, during which Bush gave a short speech on tax policy. "He knew quite a few of the people in the room," Fitial said of the President. "He called them by their first name...
...Talking about the photo, Abramoff has told friends, "I was standing right next to the window and after the picture was taken, the President came over and shook hands with me, and we chatted and joked." A photograph of that scene as described by Abramoff was shown to TIME two weeks ago. Abramoff's lawyers have said that their client has long had photographs of himself with Bush, but that he has no intention of releasing any of them. Abramoff would not comment on the matter...
...Benigno Fitial, the governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, told TIME he attended the 2001 meeting as well. Then an Abramoff client, the governor recalled asking the President a question about tax policy as part of a discussion among the small group after Bush had given a short speech on the subject. Fitial was seeking low-tax and relaxed labor regulations for the Northern Marianas at the time. Fitial said he used a photograph of himself with President Bush taken at the meeting in his campaign for governor...