http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050811171109990007Updated: 05:11 PM EDT
More legal headaches arise for U.S. House of Representatives' second-ranking member
By WILLIAM C. MANN, AP
WASHINGTON (AP) - Legal questions kept piling up Thursday around the second-ranking lawmaker in the House of Representatives with federal allegations about those close to him in Florida and Washington.
Neither the grand jury in Florida nor the Federal Election Commission report in Washington mentioned Tom DeLay, the House majority leader from Texas.
Their targets, however, were lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whom DeLay once described as "one of my closest and dearest friends;" and a fundraising committee DeLay founded and whose executive director already is under indictment for his activities with a similar organization.
A federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, indicted Abramoff and an associate on bank fraud and conspiracy charges in the purchase five years ago of a company that owns floating casinos. Grand juries, usually 24 citizens, meet in private and determine whether prosecutors have evidence enough to bring criminal charges.
The charges allege that Abramoff and Kidan used a fake wire transfer to defraud two lenders of some $60 million (48.4 million) to finance the purchase of SunCruz Casinos.
Each defendant faces five counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. Each count is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 (201,530). Both men denied the charges.
DeLay's Washington problem involved a Federal Election Commission audit of ARMPAC, the Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee. Auditors found the committee failed to report more than $300,000 (241,840) in debts owed to vendors and incorrectly used money from another DeLay-connected political committee to pay its own debts.
The FEC could punish ARMPAC, but its audit report did not indicate whether it would.
The audit was posted Thursday on a Web site that tracks political fundraising and spending. Its contents were made available earlier to ARMPAC officials, who filed corrected reports on contributions and spending in May and June.
ARMPAC's executive director, Jim Ellis, faces a Texas indictment about a separate DeLay-connected committee, Texans for a Republican Majority. In that case, Ellis is charged with money laundering .
DeLay has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case and has contended the Texas actions are a political action because the state's attorney general, is a Democrat.
DeLay, who was known as "The Hammer" for his iron-fisted enforcement of Republican discipline when he was party whip in the House, has asked the House ethics committee to determine whether he violated ethical standards by taking trips that news reports said were paid for by Abramoff. DeLay has denied knowledge that Abramoff paid for them.
Until last year, Abramoff, 46, was among the most powerful Washington lobbyists, representatives of private interests whose job is to win friends and votes for their employers in Congress or the White House. Members of Congress from both parties and their staffs dealt with him.
Documents showed that two Democratic House members, Reps. James Clyburn of South Carolina and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, also took trips financed by Abramoff or his lobbying firm.
Abramoff's fall has been fast and far.
Among allegations against him are that he collected huge amounts of money from American Indian tribes for little work. He and an associate are known to have collected at least $66 million from six tribes. A federal grand jury in Washington is investigating those activities.
In an appearance before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in June, Abramoff repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment, refusing to testify under the U.S. constitutional guarantee that people may not be forced to incriminate themselves.
The chairman, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, asked the Justice Department to undertake its own investigation into whether Abramoff's tribal billings and the movement of the money associated with them constitute mail or wire fraud.
08/11/05 17:09 EDT
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