Abramoff Gets 4 Years For Corruption

(AP)  Jack Abramoff, the once powerful lobbyist at the heart of a far-reaching political corruption scandal, was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday by a judge who said the case had shattered the public's confidence in government.

Abramoff, who fought back tears as he declared himself a broken man, appeared crestfallen as the judge handed down a sentence lengthier than prosecutors had sought.

Over the past three years, Abramoff has come to symbolize corruption and the secret deals cut between lobbyists and politicians in back rooms or on golf courses or private jets. The scandal shook Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to Capitol Hill and contributed to the Republicans' loss of Congress in 2006.

"I come before you as a broken man," Abramoff said at his sentencing before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle. "I'm not the same man who happily and arrogantly engaged in a lifestyle of political and business corruption."

He added later that, "My name is the butt of a joke, the source of a laugh and the title of a scandal."

Already two years into a prison term from a separate case in Florida, Abramoff, 49, will have spent about six years in prison by the time he is released, far longer than he and his attorneys expected for a man who became the key FBI witness in his own corruption case.

With Abramoff's help, the Justice Department has won corruption convictions against former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles and several top Capitol Hill aides.

Because of that cooperation, prosecutors were reserved in their comments to the court. Rather than regaling the court with a summary of the misdeeds and the seriousness of the corruption, the Justice Department said little in court while urging leniency.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell portrayed Abramoff as a conflicted man. Yes, he corrupted politicians with golf junkets, expensive meals and luxury seats at sporting events. But he also donated millions of dollars to charity, and his good deeds were catalogued in hundreds of letters from friends.

"How can we be talking about the same person?" Lowell said. "But that's the record: A modern-day 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."'

Although Abramoff expressed remorse Thursday, he also has spent his time in prison cooperating with a book that portrays him much differently: as a victim of Washington politics.

The book, set for publication later this month and obtained by The Associated Press, says Abramoff was pressured to plead guilty. The book blames The Washington Post and Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee whose Senate committee investigated Abramoff, for making him the fall guy.

"I never expected that I would have to go to prison," Abramoff says in the book, "until it became clear that the media could not allow this play to close without the hanging of the villain."

In "The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff," Boston journalist Gary Chafetz portrays Abramoff as an innocent man who excelled in an already corrupt system and was undone by biased prosecutors, reporters and political enemies.

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

That theory was nowhere to be found in court Thursday. Abramoff wept as his attorney discussed his family's suffering. He seemed shocked when Huvelle handed down her sentence, looking at his wife and children and shaking his head.

Huvelle could have sent Abramoff to prison for 11 years but showed leniency because of his work with the FBI. She rejected, however, proposals to reduce the sentence even further by giving Abramoff credit for the time he already has spent in prison on a fraudulent casino deal in Florida.

Abramoff could appeal the sentence because Justice Department infighting is partly responsible for the lengthy prison term. Prosecutors in Washington had hoped to combine the casino case and the corruption case into one plea deal. But Florida prosecutors refused to give up their piece, as did Washington prosecutors, so the deal was split in two.

Huvelle seemed perplexed by that decision, even as prosecutor Mary Butler asked her to treat the two cases as one. Neither Lowell nor the Justice Department spoke after court.

[bm6005]

Hang ''em, hang ''em high!!

[chimpyout]

This sentence ought to keep Abramoff quiet/incommunicado for long enough for Chimp and Cheney with help from the RNC to fabricate a "legacy".
If Abramoff gets loose right now and spills the beans, he can do massive damage to republitard politicians (the ones McSame is calling "the Washington crowd).

[jjp735i]

And the rest on the Hill will go free. A few aides and 2 Congressman are all that seem to have taken bribes. Once again another great investigation run down to nothing much after all.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Lets see, what did he do. He offered things to friends out of his pocket, even though had those friends NOT been bound by ethics and other rules it would NOT have mattered, then later asked them to do him favors." Posted by clgl_fubar

You don''t know too much about that upon which you comment, do you?

There%u2019s much more to the scandal than the Indian tribes rip-off McCain did disclose. The strand that runs through all the Abramoff-McCain relationship is foreign money %u2013 many, many millions %u2013 that Jack, Grover and Ralph funneled to GOP leaders from some of the world%u2019s worst bad guys as part of a foreign influence-peddling operation.

Until Jack was finally indicted on August 11, 2005, he did some truly sinister deals with a long list of bad guys, from al-Qaeda bankers, to Russian intelligence officers, to a South Asian leader involved with rogue nuclear programs. McCain%u2019s role was to limit the disclosures and the political damage that still threaten to destroy the GOP%u2019s foreign funding base and the party%u2019 hopes of ever regaining control in Washington.

Out of his own pocket, you say?

[maisondiva]

Lets'' hope the Abramoff sentencing isn''t buried by the mainstream news this week.

[maisondiva]

Lets'' hope this story isn''t buried by the mainstream news this week.

[cdfoxtrot3]

Amazing how this story is buried by the so-called "liberal" media.

[stn_sage]

Abramoff crimes should be considered capital crimes punishable by death! Life in prison is the least this scumbag should have gotten! But---if he voluntarily revealed the names of the rest of the people he violated the law with, his sentence could be greatly reduced or even suspended for FULL cooperation! NOT---just tossing out a couple of known already names!

It looks like the judicial system FAILED again!
Just FOUR years! Until we get judges who don''t have their noses up these rich defendants'' rearends, justice for these traitors will NEVER be achieved!

[stn_sage]

BOYCOTT THE ADVERTISERS OF CBS!!!!!

Posted by djm9063 at 07:19 PM : Sep 04, 2008
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You ungrateful TWERP! CBS lets you do nothing but insult and attack other posters, when they should kick your a$$ off the boards! And you call on people to boycott their sponsors! You unappreciative little b@stard! Sometimes I wonder how close I might live to posters like you---it would be nice to meet sometime!

[noloyalisti]

djm9063 talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Just face it, they don''t call it the Greasy Old Pervert party, the party of death, spending and corruption for nothing.