Papers show more White House appointments with Abramoff

RAW STORY
Published: Friday July 7, 2006

Judicial Watch, a conservative good-government watchdog group, has received documents showing that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff had seven previously undisclosed appointments for meetings at the White House.

An earlier set of documents released to the group indicated just two visits, on March 6, 2001, and Jan. 20, 2004. But a Justice Department lawyer in a letter to the group Friday said the administration had "unexpectedly discovered" more records.

The new document release shows Abramoff had at least seven other appointments, but it did not indicate whether the meetings had actually taken place. The appointments were for March 1, 2001; March 6, 2001; April 20, 2001; May 9, 2001; May 17, 2001; December 7, 2001; and December 10, 2001.

March 6 appears in both the earlier documents and the new ones. Chris Farrell, director of research for Judicial Watch, told RAW STORY it was unclear whether the entries were for the same meeting or a meeting and another appointment on the same day.

Farrell said it was "open to speculation" as to which of the appointments had led to actual meetings.

The April 21, 2001, appointment was with Cesar Conda, Vice President Cheney's assistant for domestic policy. Five days later, the Associated Press reported, Patrick Pizzella, one of Abramoff's former lobbying colleagues, was nominated to be assistant secretary of labor.

The documents were released by the Secret Service via a federal lawyer at 5:20 p.m. Friday, Farrell told RAW STORY, a time when Washingon figures traditionally release bad news. The records came first in two failed fax attempts, and then by e-mail -- and even then never included explanations for any of the codings used.

"If the Bush administration were declaring victory on something," Farrell said, "they would release 5-by-7 glossies in triplicate." Instead, the document release fit the administration's "penchant for not being forthright" on negative information.

Judicial Watch, citing the Freedom of Information Act, had obtained a court order for all logs of Abramoff's visits to the White House, and had followed up by filing a "motion to compel" the documents' release.

“Obviously we wish the Secret Service had complied with the original court order, but we’re pleased to have forced the release of additional documents regarding Abramoff’s visits to the White House,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “The public has a right to know why an admitted felon had appointments with the Bush White House.”

Farrell said the group would continue to press its motion to compel. After the administration had insisted the original two visits were the only Abramoff ties documented, only two discover seven other records, he said, "we have no reason to believe there isn't more."

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Read Judicial Watch's report and view the documents here.