Rohrabacher Defends Abramoff, a Friend

"The last thing I'm going to do is kick a friend when they're down," the nine-term congressman from Huntington Beach told The Times in an interview. He said the two met in the early 1980s, when Rohrabacher was a White House speechwriter and Abramoff was chairman of the College Republicans.

"I'm not excusing anything he did that was wrong or illegal," the congressman said. "It's just a sad commentary on democracy that when someone falls, there's this feeding frenzy and people are abandoned by those they thought were their friends."

Abramoff, once among the most powerful lobbyists in Washington, pleaded guilty last week to federal conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud. He also agreed to tell the FBI about alleged bribes to as many as 20 members of Congress and their aides.

About 130 members of Congress took contributions from Abramoff or his clients. Only one, U.S. Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), is alluded to in the plea agreement. The investigation also may have helped force Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who has been indicted in his home state on money-laundering charges, to lose his position as House majority leader.

"They're portraying Jack as a monster," Rohrabacher told Associated Press earlier Monday. "I see him more as a good person who's done bad things and has to be punished for doing bad things."

In the days that followed the plea, members of Congress expressed shock that Abramoff had admitted defrauding his clients. In e-mail exchanges obtained by investigators, he allegedly ridiculed Indian tribes for being gullible and making payments that went straight to him instead of to the purported recipients.

The connection between Rohrabacher and Abramoff has long been known. Rohrabacher said the two were young, idealistic conservatives who became and stayed friends long before Abramoff became a lobbyist and the congressman was elected in 1989.

Rohrabacher told The Times he had not been contacted by prosecutors in the probe and said Abramoff never tried to bribe him or ask him to vote a certain way on a bill.

Rohrabacher repeated a pledge, however, that he would return $3,000 in campaign cash he got from the lobbyist and would send back $4,500 that his campaign received from Indian tribes Abramoff represented, if the tribes wanted the money returned.