Who is Jack Abramoff?

Answer 1

Where to begin examining the extraordinary career of Jack Abramoff? His work trying to secure a visa for the great Zairian kleptocrat Mobutu Sese Seko, perhaps, or the bilking of an estimated $66 million out of Native American tribes, clients he described as "monkeys," "troglodytes," and "idiots"? Or his leadership of a 1980s think tank financed, unbeknownst to him apparently, by the intelligence arm of South Africa's apartheid regime?

No, the chapter of our man's story that matters most at the moment begins with a toast given by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay during a New Year's trip they both took to Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands in 1997. "When one of my closest and dearest friends, Jack Abramoff, your most able representative in Washington, D.C., invited me to the islands, I wanted to see firsthand the free-market success and the progress and reform you have made," DeLay said before an audience of Abramoff's clients in the islands' garment industry—whom, upon his return to Washington, he helped win an extended exemption from federal immigration and labor laws.

The most salient fact about Abramoff these days is that he may prove DeLay's undoing. The former House majority leader has so far commanded extraordinary, tight-lipped loyalty from the Republican ranks in Congress in the face of scandals detailed here. But precedent is not on his side. Newt Gingrich's political demise was a slow death by a thousand cuts. Today there is already plenty of speculation in Washington that the White House is wavering about DeLay: As much as the president prizes loyalty, he is intolerant of sleaze and impatient with damaging distractions from his agenda. "Within six months, Karl will force him out," a senior administration official from the first term says, speaking, of course, of Karl Rove. At least one conservative redoubt, the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, has already thrown open the door. Mr. DeLay has "an unsavory whiff that could have GOP loyalists reaching for the political Glade if it gets any worse,"

Abramoff himself pled guilty on January 3, 2006, to three criminal felony counts in a Washington, D.C., federal court related to the defrauding of American Indian tribes and corruption of public officials.[1] The following day, on January 4th, he pled guilty to two criminal felony counts in a separate federal court, in Miami, related to his fraudulent dealings with SunCruz Casinos.[2]

On March 29, 2006, he was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of more than $21 million. His prison sentence was the minimum permitted under a plea bargain with federal prosecutors, in part because of his purported cooperation in the federal investigation and also because over 100 influential political allies—some very recognizable names in American public policy—wrote the sentencing judge on Abramoff's behalf, urging leniency. In October 2006, over six months after his sentencing, he was ordered by a federal judge to report to federal prison by November 15, 2006.

The delay in Abramoff's imprisonment allowed him to testify in a related investigation involving the Florida gang-style murder of SunCruz Casinos owner Konstantinos Boulis and to continue cooperation with a vast investigation related to federal lobbying and related activities.

Answer 2

Jack Abramoff was a top contributor to George Bush, a golfing buddy with Tom DeLay, a friend of the American Indian who showed them how to spend their money, the top republican lobbyist on K street, a college friend of Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist, who helped him liberate the Indians money. He's the man who helped Tom Delay keep the Marianas a slave labor camp, and a prime example of the family values of the Republican party. As to 'claiming to represent groups he did not', He DID represent Tom Delay, Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist.

Answer 3

He was a professional briber (sorry, lobbyist) who bribed (lobbied) Congress on behalf of Indian casino gambling interests for an to the tune of $85 million.

Answer 4

A Lobbyist turned Jail Bird,But i think he will get Presidential Pardon at the End of Bush's Term.

Answer 5

Pretty much a big shot,I guess...He's certainly got a bunch of friends in Washington,and the ole "birds of a feather,flock together" thing has got me worried that there may be a "whole flock "of em in Wash.D C

Answer 6

He wasn't a judge as some answerer said. He's a convicted lobbyist who cospired with Republicans to rip lots of innocent people off.

Answer 7

A dishonest lobbiest who caused a lot of trouble for the Republican party.

He claimed to represent groups he did not. He was allegedly the bagman in hundreds of cases of corrupt dealings.

Answer 8

a businessman who learned to maipulate the system for his own ends. he has no honor and is the cousin of Jack Meoff.

Answer 9

Buddy of Son of Bush, George.

Answer 10

Just another very crooked rebulicun judge, who got caught.