HomeLeading The News Citing ongoing cooperation, district court postpones sentencing for former lobbyist Abramoff and ...
Leading The News
Citing ongoing cooperation, district court postpones sentencing for former lobbyist Abramoff and ...
By Susan Crabtree
Posted: 05/23/07 07:21 PM [ET]
Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associate Michael Scanlon have bought themselves more time as they cooperate with prosecutors amid renewed Justice Department activity in the case.
On Monday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia postponed the sentencing dates for Abramoff and Scanlon yet again. Abramoff and Scanlon were convicted of conspiring to bribe public officials more than a year ago, but the court has postponed the sentencing of each several times.
A status conference on their sentencing was scheduled for June 5, but the court filed a motion Monday to defer the conference to sometime after Aug. 21.
“Mr. Abramoff has been cooperating with government agents and prosecutors,” Justice Department prosecutors wrote. “The government anticipates that Mr. Abramoff’s cooperation will continue for the foreseeable future.”
Late last month, the court also put off sentencing hearings scheduled for convicted Abramoff associates Tony Rudy and Neil Volz, a former chief of staff to former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who is now in jail for his role in the Abramoff scandal. Rudy and Volz pleaded guilty to conspiring with Abramoff to bribe public officials.
In contrast, prosecutors note that the cooperation of William Heaton, another Ney chief of staff convicted in the scandal, is “substantially complete.” They said he had been cooperating with prosecutors “long before entry of his plea agreement,” and the court has said it would like to hold Heaton’s sentencing hearing in mid-July or August.
The postponements may be bad news for former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), who had close ties to Abramoff. Doolittle's Northern Virginia home was recently searched by the FBI, and since then the lawmaker has vehemently defended himself. Doolittle and DeLay have both lashed out at the FBI, demanding that agents “fish or cut bait” in their investigations.
Rudy and Scanlon both worked for DeLay before Abramoff hired them as lobbyists. Scanlon went on to open a public-relations firm that kicked back millions of dollars of Indian tribal money to Abramoff. Court records filed in Rudy’s guilty plea stated that while working for DeLay, Rudy arranged for the congressman to sign a letter opposing a postal-rate increase to help an Abramoff client and helped stop an anti-gambling bill opposed by another Abramoff client.
Around the same time, Abramoff arranged for $86,000 in consulting payments to be made to a firm operated by Rudy’s wife, Lisa. The FBI is now scrutinizing payments that Abramoff-related entities made to the wives of Doolittle and DeLay.
