Two Former Aides to DeLay Paved Way for Lobbyist's Deal
SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands — Two former top aides of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's brokered a political deal here five years ago that helped land island government contracts worth $1.6 million for a Washington lobbyist now the target of a federal corruption probe.
Using promises of U.S. tax dollars as bartering chips, Edwin A. Buckham and Michael Scanlon traveled to these remote Pacific islands in late 1999 to convince two local legislators to switch their votes for speaker of the territory's 18-member House of Representatives. They succeeded.
Once in office, the new speaker pressed the governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to reinstate an expired lobbying pact with Jack Abramoff, now under grand jury and congressional investigation.
Within months of the visit, Abramoff's law firm had a contract paying $100,000 a month from the Marianas government. Also, the island districts of the legislators who switched sides soon won federal budget benefits from Congress, apparently supported by DeLay.
Although Abramoff collected most of his fees from the island government, his lobbying efforts most benefited owners and operators of apparel manufacturing firms using the territory's cheap labor.
The lawyer-lobbyist, whose fees then were reportedly as high as $500 an hour, helped beat back congressional efforts to raise the minimum wage here to $5.15 an hour.
New details of the Buckham-Scanlon overseas mission that benefited Abramoff, and the trade of political favors nearly half the globe from Capitol Hill, come from interviews, government documents and e-mails reviewed by The Times.
The latest disclosures coming out of the Marianas may add fuel to the year-long political scandal swirling around Abramoff and his ties to congressional leaders, especially DeLay. The Republican majority leader lately has sought to distance himself from the besieged lobbyist he once called a close friend.
DeLay has been stung by charges that Abramoff paid some of the congressman's expenses on foreign travel, including a golf junket to Scotland, in potential violation of House ethics rules. DeLay said he thought expenses were properly paid by a think tank.
Abramoff's prominent lobbying career crashed last year after the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs accused him and Scanlon of ripping off six Indian tribes who had paid them $66 million. Both men took the 5th Amendment at the hearings. A federal grand jury is now investigating.
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