Jackson Free Press

A U.S. Department of Justice investigation is creeping closer to Republican Sen. Thad Cochran. The DOJ indicted Ann Copland, Cochran's 29-year legislative aide, for accepting more than $25,000 worth of meals and event tickets from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, in exchange for aiding Abramoff's clients. The DOJ charged Copland with one count of conspiracy to commit honest-services fraud in connection to the Abramoff case.

Copland's interaction with Abramoff came to light when Abramoff's former deputy Todd Boulanger took a plea deal. He told authorities that he provided services to political aides in order to get legislation favorable to his clients. He admitted wrongdoing by adding that he also intentionally disguised the aides' identities in expense reports.

Boulanger said he arranged VIP seats and food at a hockey game, as well as music concert tickets in an effort to gain congressional votes favorable to his client, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. He said Copland was a willing party and often specified how many tickets she needed and where she would like to sit. In June 2003, she even sent an e-mail complaining that Boulanger had not stocked the lobbying firm's box suite at an ice-skating game.

"Ackkk. Only beer and no Hebrew National hot dogs," she wrote, lamenting about the condition of her 14 guests.

Boulanger revealed step-by-step exchanges of goods and services between Abramoff's firm and Cochran's office. When, for example, Copland asked Boulanger for seats at a 2003 Orioles game, he responded with an inquiry about whether a provision no longer favoring the Mississippi Band of Choctaws had been removed from an appropriations bill. (Cochran was head of the Senate Appropriations Committee at the time.) Copland assured him in e-mails that the bill reflected that the provision was "no longer necessary."

The indictment leads to questions about how conscious Cochran was of political bribery in his office. Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist with government watchdog group Public Citizen, said it was highly unlikely that Cochran knew nothing of the exchanges.

"There is a great deal of loyalty among staff people to the members. They don't want to embarrass the member, and they want to impress the member, so if they're getting some sort of inside wheeling and dealing that was something that a senior staffer would usually tell a member," Holman said. "It's hard to imagine that a senior staffer would keep any of that confidential."

Copland joins a list of 20 people who have been convicted or charged with crimes in the growing Abramoff scandal, according to The Washington Post.

Holman said it is no coincidence that the cancer of the investigation courses down the wizened fingers of the K-Street Project, an endeavor that the Republican Party created to pressure lobbying firms to hire Republican lobbyists and exclude Democrats. The project, kicked off in 1995 by Republican House majority leader Tom DeLay—who later resigned after his indictment on conspiracy charges—helped make lobbyists like Gov. Haley Barbour huge players in Washington.

"It was the K-Street culture that made (Copland's) type of activity acceptable," Holman said. "These were some of the standard tools for well-financed lobbyists to get what they wanted. It included gift-giving, free trips, wining and dining, sports tickets and box seats at big events, golf trips, even promises of lucrative employment once a politician retired. These were the standard tools of the trade.

Previous Comments

ID

144122

Comment

It's looking as if the Abramoff scandal has some deep, twisted roots in Mississippi that tangle Chief Martin of the Choctaws (another Abramoff client), former Sen. Tom Delay who reportedly manipulated legislation for the Choctaws, and the governor of the Mariana Islands. Follow the thread at Unheard No More (Hat tip to Folo.)

Author

Ronni_Mott

Date

2009-02-26T12:24:16-06:00