.
Roy Temple is a very busy man - spreading the news about Mr Abramoff and more justice De-layed, Texas-Style, by way of Mother Russia. Follow along, please! ((((Say, somebody please call Section 8 Productions and ask Clooney's people to hurry and write a film treatment -- his other K Street was pure as the driven piss -- did I say--write--type--that? Am I hung over? Cheap VwODKA! --geez louise!))))
DeLay, Abramoff, Blunt And The U.S. Family Network
Submitted by Roy Temple on Sat, 12/31/2005 - 12:16am. GOP AbraMafia GOP Culture of Corruption Link: http://www.firedupamerica.com/delay_abramoff_blunt_family_network
The Washington Post has a blockbuster story on ties betweeen lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Rep. Tom DeLay and a shadowy group known as the U.S. Family Network.
The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.
During its five-year existence, the U.S. Family Network raised $2.5 million but kept its donor list secret. The list, obtained by The Washington Post, shows that $1 million of its revenue came in a single 1998 check from a now-defunct London law firm whose former partners would not identify the money's origins.
Two former associates of Edwin A. Buckham, the congressman's former chief of staff and the organizer of the U.S. Family Network, said Buckham told them the funds came from Russian oil and gas executives. Abramoff had been working closely with two such Russian energy executives on their Washington agenda, and the lobbyist and Buckham had helped organize a 1997 Moscow visit by DeLay (R-Tex.).
The WaPo (THE WASHINGTON POST) story also mentions mentions some other interesting links between DeLay, his political allies and the U.S. Family Network:
Some of the U.S. Family Network's revenue was used to pay for radio ads attacking vulnerable Democratic lawmakers in 1999; other funds were used to finance the cash purchase of a townhouse three blocks from DeLay's congressional office. DeLay's associates at the time called it "the Safe House." (not the crack house?)
DeLay made his own fundraising telephone pitches from the townhouse's second-floor master suite every few weeks, according to two former associates. Other rooms in the townhouse were used by Alexander Strategy Group, Buckham's newly formed lobbying firm, and Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC), DeLay's leadership committee.
They paid modest rent to the U.S. Family Network, which occupied a single small room in the back.
The unnamed U.S. Family Network staffer was Robert Mills, a former campaign manager of DeLay's.
Another critical link is Jim Ellis. At the time, Ellis was running ARMPAC and Roy Blunt's PAC, the ROYB Fund. Both were run out the the townhouse at 132 D St., SE in DC along with Buckham's Alexander Strategy Group. Here's a link to the campaign finance report which shows rental payments to the U.S. Family Network from Roy Blunt's PAC.
The WaPo story does not mention the $500,000 check the U.S. Family Network took from the National Republican Congressional Committee, or the $280,000 fine the NRCC ending up paying for the contribution.
The U.S. Family Network funneled a large portion of the $500,000 to another Ellis-Buckham affiliated group, the Americans for Economic Growth.
At the time of these transactions, the finance director at the NRCC was none other than Ms.
Abigail Perlman, the future wife of Rep. Roy Blunt (R-K Street).
Here's previous Fired Up! coverage on these ties, here and here.
-->
a trackback URL for this post:
http://www.firedupamerica.com/trackback/362
###
-
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment