Washington – Lobbyist Jack Abramoff paid at least a portion of the expenses for two Democratic members of Congress and two staff members to then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, during a pair of trips in the mid-1990s to the Northern Mariana Islands, according to a former Abramoff secretary and travel records published Tuesday on the Internet.
The payments represent two new instances in which lawmakers and staff members on overseas trips had their expenses initially covered by a registered lobbyist despite a blanket ban in congressional ethics rules on direct payments by lobbyists for travel-related expenses.
The two congressmen were James Clyburn of South Carolina, now vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, now the senior Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee.
The DeLay aides were Edwin Buckham, now a lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group, and Tony Rudy, now a member of Buckham’s lobbying firm.
In these instances, Abramoff was reimbursed by his law firm, Preston Gates Ellis. The island government, which had hired the law firm, eventually paid it back for the expenses incurred by Abramoff, according to a source close to the incidents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
House ethics rules contain no exemption for payments by lobbyists reimbursed by others.
Abramoff’s credit card was also used to pay travel expenses related to a trip to London and Scotland by DeLay in late May and early June 2000, according to a separate set of records disclosed by The Washington Post last month. Sources have said he was reimbursed in that instance by a nonprofit organization, which in turn had some of its expenses for that trip covered by gambling interests.
All three lawmakers have said in response to the disclosures that they had no way of knowing that Abramoff’s credit card was being used to pay for the trips. They said they believed that the charges were being incurred by nonprofit groups, as House rules permit.
Andrew Blum, Abramoff’s spokesman, declined to comment Tuesday but has said that lobbyists traditionally travel with lawmakers on educational trips and that Abramoff is being singled out for actions that he called proper.
Abramoff is now at the center of a federal criminal and tax investigation. In 1997, he was the chief Washington lobbyist for the Marianas, a U.S. protectorate in the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii. In 2001, he registered as a lobbyist for the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association, a major trade group based on one of the islands.
