The Abramoff scandal isn't over.  Today's guilty plea was from a former Capitol Hill staffer who worked for two Missouri Republicans, Senator Kit Bond and Rep. Roy Blunt:

Another Capitol Hill figure has pleaded guilty in connection with the Jack Abramoff public corruption scandal, the 15th person who has peaded (sic) guilty or is awaiting trial in the case.

Trevor L. Blackann, 34, formerly of the District, entered his plea today to making a false statement on his 2003 tax returns by failing to report as income about $4,100 in illegal gifts that he received from lobbyists.

Blackann was a legislative assistant in the House and Senate for Missouri Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond and Rep. Roy Blunt, both Republicans. He left Bond's office to work for Abramoff.

CREW has sued to obtain the records of Jack Abramoff's visits to the White House. The Hill is reporting on this development:

The Secret Service has 18 days to hand over White House visitor logs detailing disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s visits, according to Judicial Watch, a public interest legal group. 

Judicial Watch on Thursday announced that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia earlier in the week ruled against the Secret Service motion to dismiss the group’s open-records requests. The court’s Tuesday decision ordered the agency to finish processing the requests and provide all non-exempt records within 20 days of the court order.

It seems with every new arrest and new trial, the Abramoff scandal expands.  The upcoming trial of Kevin Ring brings us two top officials in the U.S. Department of Justice.  It never ends:

Two former top Justice Department officials emerged Wednesday as figures in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal as prosecutors disclosed plans to turn over some of the officials' correspondence to defense attorneys preparing for trial in the case.

The officials are former Solicitor General Paul Clement and David Ayres, one-time chief of staff to former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Clement and Ayres were among Justice Department officials in e-mail correspondence with Kevin Ring, a former team Abramoff lobbyist and Capitol Hill aide who's facing trial on 10 counts of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, bribery and fraud.

Ring is accused of trying to get lawmakers and government officials to help him and his clients by giving them gifts such as sports tickets and meals.

Clement and Ayres were referenced by title but not by name at a federal court hearing in Ring's case Wednesday.

Last week, CREW named Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) one of the most corrupt members of Congress.   So far, Doolittle hasn't been indicted, but his former chief of staff has been. And, Jack Abramoff is one of the reasons:

Kevin Ring said he knew nothing about efforts to get a job for the wife of California Republican Rep. John Doolittle, but then investigators found his e-mails.

Ring wrote two of them to his boss, a lobbyist named Jack Abramoff. In one, he said that Doolittle's chief of staff had asked him whether a job had yet been found for her. In the second, Ring wrote that he had met personally with Doolittle, who again asked about the job for his wife, Julie.

Ring's 10-count indictment, the latest chapter in the long-running Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, makes one thing clear: His apparent desire to protect the Doolittles is now figuring very prominently in his legal troubles.

While the Doolittles remain under federal investigation, they have not been charged with any crimes and have consistently maintained their innocence.

Two of the felony charges against Ring, an aide to Doolittle before he went to work for Abramoff, directly involve his relationship with Julie Doolittle. Prosecutors allege that he obstructed justice by trying to mislead the FBI when he said he did not recall conversations about getting a job for her. And in 2004, he allegedly used interstate wires to execute a scheme when he deposited a $5,000 check into a credit union account controlled by her.

Jack Abramoff has been in the news a lot lately.  Actually, former associates of Abramoff have been in the news lately, for example, Kevin Ring.   For his "extensive cooperation" with law enforcement authorities, Mr. Abramoff got his sentence cut.

A federal judge agreed yesterday to shave two years from former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff's prison sentence for a fraudulent Florida casino boat deal because of his extensive cooperation in that case and a wide-ranging political corruption probe that upended Washington politics.

The decision by US District Judge Paul Huck guarantees that Abramoff, 49, will serve no more than an additional four years in prison - the sentence imposed by a Washington, D.C., judge last week in the separate corruption case.

Abramoff's attorneys had sought to have the Florida sentence reduced from nearly six years to about two. Huck called that request "greedy" and said it would not reflect the gravity of the fraud involved in the 2000 purchase of SunCruz Casinos by Abramoff and a partner.

Yesterday, one of the central figures in the corruption scandal that rocked Washington was sentenced.   Jack Abramoff, who is already in prison, got a lighter sentence in the corruption case, because of his cooperation with federal authorities.  Sounds like federal authorities aren't finished with this investigation:

Jack Abramoff, the powerhouse Washington lobbyist who admitted running a wide-ranging corruption scheme that ensnared lawmakers, Capitol Hill aides and government officials, yesterday received a reduced sentence of four years in prison because of his cooperation with federal investigators.

Abramoff, 49, already has served nearly two years for his conviction in a related Florida fraud case. The sentence yesterday by U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle means that the former Republican lobbyist will likely remain in prison until 2012.

More than a dozen people, including an Ohio congressman and a deputy secretary of the interior, have been convicted in the Abramoff lobbying scandal, and Justice Department officials said the investigation is continuing. Still under scrutiny are former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and retiring Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.).

 

The notorious mastermind of a massive public corruption scandal, Jack Abramoff, may be getting out of jail early.   Apparently, he's been very cooperative:

The Justice Department on Wednesday recommended a reduction in jail time for the disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who became a crucial witness against lawmakers and Congressional aides.

Prosecutors asked federal judges in Washington and Florida to shave years off the sentence of Mr. Abramoff, citing his work in an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that sent numerous people to prison and contributed to the Republican Party’s loss of Congress.

Mr. Abramoff’s cooperation helped send to prison former Representative Bob Ney, a Republican, and former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles.

Jack Abramoff's associate, Ralph Reed, didn't bother showing up at the fundraiser for John McCain last night.  But, Reed sure created a firestorm by "humping" the event:

Reed was a no-show at a fund-raiser for John McCain Monday evening, following nearly a week of considerable drama surrounding his involvement in the senator’s campaign.

The Republican candidate had come under fire for associating with Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition who fell from grace after his involvement with lobbyist Jack Abramoff. McCain was one of the leaders of the investigation of Abramoff’s lobbying activities that led to his imprisonment. Reed was never charged.

By many accounts, Reed injected himself into the recent debate. He sent an email to friends announcing his participation in the fund raiser, which he says was a call for more support. Others took it as an assertion of his involvement with the campaign, going so far as to insinuate he was hosting the event.

From NBC's First Read:

Will Ralph Reed actually show up at today’s McCain fundraiser in Atlanta? We said it last week and we’ll say it again: Given the fact that McCain’s Senate Indian Affairs Committee helped uncover the Abramoff scandal and given that McCain has railed against Abramoff on the campaign trail, it’s striking 1) that Reed -- Abramoff’s former business partner -- has helped to raise money for today’s event and 2) that the McCain camp didn’t disassociate themselves from Reed’s participation. 

Last night, the Mouth of the Potomac, the blogs of the Washington Bureau of the NY Daily News, published yet another piece on the growing controversy over Ralph Reed's fundraiser for John McCain.  Something about this event doesn't add up without a big dose of hypocrisy thrown in:

John McCain, a champion of lobbying reform, is drawing fire today for allowing ex-Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed help organize a campaign fundraiser for him in Atlanta next Monday.

Democrats and watchdog groups are calling on McCain to pull the plug on the event because Reed is a lobbyist closely tied to convicted felon Jack Abramoff.

Abramoff and Reed both worked on behalf of the gambling lobby, a clientele that eventually led to Abramoff’s demise and conviction. Abramoff paid Reed millions of dollars to press Christian conservatives to oppose casinos that would compete with casinos owned by Abramoff’s gaming industry clients.

But here is the rub: McCain led a Senate investigation that helped bring down Abramoff and helped expose Reed’s role in the shady lobbying deals. Reed, who also worked closely with ex-Bush political boss Karl Rove, was angry over McCain’s proceedings and the two were all but enemies. McCain has even boasted that he helped take down Abramoff.

“Sen. McCain should not go to that fundraiser. McCain was a reformer who went after Abramoff. He says “I am an anti-lobbyist reformer,” but then he agrees to let Reed throw him a fundraiser. That is just so hypocritical,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the left-leaning legal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.