Post by MacBeth on Feb 11, 2009 10:58:16 GMT -5
WASHINGTON – The food and drinks weren't quite what the Senate aide expected when she arrived at the lobbyist's luxury suite for the Orioles baseball game at Baltimore's Camden Yards.
"Ackkk. Only beer and no Hebrew National hot dogs," Ann Copland complained in a June 2003 e-mail now on file in federal court.
It was one of many such exchanges Copland had with the lobbyist, Todd Boulanger, as she allegedly took tickets, meals and other gifts worth more than $25,000 from his firm, where he worked under now-imprisoned superlobbyist Jack Abramoff. All the while, she used her position as a senior adviser to Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., to provide legislative favors benefiting the firm's clients, according to court documents.
The e-mails, contained in a plea agreement Boulanger struck recently, suggest that the long-running Abramoff scandal could be shifting uncomfortably close to home for Cochran, a 30-year senator whose low-key politics and mild demeanor belie his status as one of the most powerful people in Washington.
During Abramoff's heyday, Cochran was a top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, with direct control of the federal purse strings that Abramoff was so desperately seeking to pull. Previous documents have shown that Abramoff's firm considered Cochran's office one of its greatest assets and rewarded him with top-dollar campaign donations.
The new information raises questions about how much Cochran knew of his staff's involvement with the lobbyists and whether he was aware that one of his closest advisers allegedly was doing their bidding.
In Boulanger's plea deal, the Mississippi aide is identified only as Staffer E. An attorney with knowledge of the case and former co-workers say the staffer is Copland, who worked for Cochran for three decades until last year.
Copland has not responded to repeated requests by The Associated Press for comment.
Cochran, a popular figure in Mississippi, declined to discuss whether he has spoken with Copland or the Justice Department about the case but said he is available if the Justice Department needs his help.
"As I understand it, it's still under consideration by the Department of Justice. I can't comment on press reports," Cochran told the AP. "That's all I can say."
Although the plea agreement with Boulanger suggests prosecutors could be turning their sights on Copland, she has not been charged in the case.
The documents say Copland "on repeated occasions" provided official actions benefiting Abramoff's firm, particularly one of its best-paying clients, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
For example, when Copland asked Boulanger for the suite at the Orioles game in 2003, he responded in part by asking whether a Choctaw provision the firm no longer wanted had been removed from an appropriations bill.
Copland assured him it had, and the final version of the bill contained an explicit statement that the provision "is no longer necessary."
On another occasion, Copland e-mailed Boulanger to make sure there would be refreshments for the "special guests" she was hosting at the firm's box suite for a Liza Minnelli concert.
Boulanger then asked her thoughts about a spending provision that would benefit a client that was trying to win funding for a television network catering to emergency first responders.
Copland apparently grew so comfortable accepting gifts that she sounded angry in one e-mail from the firm's box suite at a Washington ice-skating event after no food had arrived for her party of 14 people.
"I'm freaking out here," she wrote Boulanger.
He responded that she would be reimbursed if she had to buy food herself.
The firm went out of its way to keep her happy because, as Boulanger once wrote to Abramoff, "she's more valuable to us than a rank and file house member."
There's no indication from the documents that Cochran knew of the exchanges or is being investigated. Aides say he has never allowed campaign contributions or favors to influence his decisions.
Campaign finance records show that Abramoff, his associates and his clients gave Cochran at least $82,500 during the years in question, from 2001 to 2004.
Melanie Sloan, a former prosecutor who now heads Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Cochran could be hard-pressed to explain what happened on his watch — with or without his knowledge.
"It's kind of hard to imagine that all of these staffers were busy sneaking things into bills and their bosses never knew," Sloan said. "Ultimately, it's the members of Congress who are responsible for the earmarks and legislation, not the staffers."
Copland abruptly left Cochran's office last spring after Abramoff prosecutors had netted a dozen convictions in the scandal, including several against congressional staffers under similar circumstances.
In March, she took a state job at Mississippi Public Broadcasting, an agency that Cochran has strongly supported. Cochran kept her on his congressional payroll for almost two months after she started the new job, giving her a combined government salary equivalent to more than $230,000 a year. Cochran's office said she worked both jobs simultaneously — one in Mississippi and one in Washington — while transitioning out of his office. They also said some of the pay was for unused leave.
Last month, Copland left the state job and moved back to Washington, telling associates that she needed to focus on the investigation. She had kept her house outside the capital, in Fairfax, Va.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090211/ap_on_go_co/abramoff_senator
"Ackkk. Only beer and no Hebrew National hot dogs," Ann Copland complained in a June 2003 e-mail now on file in federal court.
It was one of many such exchanges Copland had with the lobbyist, Todd Boulanger, as she allegedly took tickets, meals and other gifts worth more than $25,000 from his firm, where he worked under now-imprisoned superlobbyist Jack Abramoff. All the while, she used her position as a senior adviser to Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., to provide legislative favors benefiting the firm's clients, according to court documents.
The e-mails, contained in a plea agreement Boulanger struck recently, suggest that the long-running Abramoff scandal could be shifting uncomfortably close to home for Cochran, a 30-year senator whose low-key politics and mild demeanor belie his status as one of the most powerful people in Washington.
During Abramoff's heyday, Cochran was a top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, with direct control of the federal purse strings that Abramoff was so desperately seeking to pull. Previous documents have shown that Abramoff's firm considered Cochran's office one of its greatest assets and rewarded him with top-dollar campaign donations.
The new information raises questions about how much Cochran knew of his staff's involvement with the lobbyists and whether he was aware that one of his closest advisers allegedly was doing their bidding.
In Boulanger's plea deal, the Mississippi aide is identified only as Staffer E. An attorney with knowledge of the case and former co-workers say the staffer is Copland, who worked for Cochran for three decades until last year.
Copland has not responded to repeated requests by The Associated Press for comment.
Cochran, a popular figure in Mississippi, declined to discuss whether he has spoken with Copland or the Justice Department about the case but said he is available if the Justice Department needs his help.
"As I understand it, it's still under consideration by the Department of Justice. I can't comment on press reports," Cochran told the AP. "That's all I can say."
Although the plea agreement with Boulanger suggests prosecutors could be turning their sights on Copland, she has not been charged in the case.
The documents say Copland "on repeated occasions" provided official actions benefiting Abramoff's firm, particularly one of its best-paying clients, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
For example, when Copland asked Boulanger for the suite at the Orioles game in 2003, he responded in part by asking whether a Choctaw provision the firm no longer wanted had been removed from an appropriations bill.
Copland assured him it had, and the final version of the bill contained an explicit statement that the provision "is no longer necessary."
On another occasion, Copland e-mailed Boulanger to make sure there would be refreshments for the "special guests" she was hosting at the firm's box suite for a Liza Minnelli concert.
Boulanger then asked her thoughts about a spending provision that would benefit a client that was trying to win funding for a television network catering to emergency first responders.
Copland apparently grew so comfortable accepting gifts that she sounded angry in one e-mail from the firm's box suite at a Washington ice-skating event after no food had arrived for her party of 14 people.
"I'm freaking out here," she wrote Boulanger.
He responded that she would be reimbursed if she had to buy food herself.
The firm went out of its way to keep her happy because, as Boulanger once wrote to Abramoff, "she's more valuable to us than a rank and file house member."
There's no indication from the documents that Cochran knew of the exchanges or is being investigated. Aides say he has never allowed campaign contributions or favors to influence his decisions.
Campaign finance records show that Abramoff, his associates and his clients gave Cochran at least $82,500 during the years in question, from 2001 to 2004.
Melanie Sloan, a former prosecutor who now heads Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Cochran could be hard-pressed to explain what happened on his watch — with or without his knowledge.
"It's kind of hard to imagine that all of these staffers were busy sneaking things into bills and their bosses never knew," Sloan said. "Ultimately, it's the members of Congress who are responsible for the earmarks and legislation, not the staffers."
Copland abruptly left Cochran's office last spring after Abramoff prosecutors had netted a dozen convictions in the scandal, including several against congressional staffers under similar circumstances.
In March, she took a state job at Mississippi Public Broadcasting, an agency that Cochran has strongly supported. Cochran kept her on his congressional payroll for almost two months after she started the new job, giving her a combined government salary equivalent to more than $230,000 a year. Cochran's office said she worked both jobs simultaneously — one in Mississippi and one in Washington — while transitioning out of his office. They also said some of the pay was for unused leave.
Last month, Copland left the state job and moved back to Washington, telling associates that she needed to focus on the investigation. She had kept her house outside the capital, in Fairfax, Va.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090211/ap_on_go_co/abramoff_senator