Follow the Money by John Anderson

Author:John Anderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

The wheels on the Abramoff Money Machine almost fell off in November 2002—but not because of his and Scanlon’s recent dealings with the Alabama Coushattas and Tiguas. Indeed, the near disaster had nothing to do with any of Jack Abramoff’s Indian tribal clients, whether in Texas or elsewhere.

The venue was instead the U.S. territory of Guam.

There, acting U.S. attorney Frederick A. Black was conducting a grand jury investigation into Jack Abramoff’s congressional lobbying efforts on behalf of the local superior court.

In short, a bill pending before Congress would have made that island’s superior court inferior to its supreme court. Abramoff had, in turn, been hired, apparently under the table, by the superior court to lobby against the bill. * All this seemed a little strange to Acting U.S. Attorney Black, a career federal prosecutor. Once he got wind of it, Black promptly opened a grand jury investigation into the scheme.

Black was himself already in hot water with Abramoff’s other Pacific islands clients, having earlier put in motion a post-9/11 review study that cited “substantial security risks in Guam and the Northern Marianas” as a result of loose immigration regulations. Why this should have infuriated Marianas boss Willie Tan and his friends is easy to see: those same loose regulations, in effect, made possible the cheap immigrant labor so beloved of garment-manufacturing magnates such as Tan. *

Abramoff was quickly on top of the threat, warning his Marianas clients, “It will require some major action from the Hill and a press attack to get this back in the bottle.” Greenberg Traurig records show that Abramoff and his aides expected to meet with Justice Department officials.

In the end, that’s exactly what happened. The federal grand jury having subpoenaed Guam superior court records concerning Abramoff on November 18, Fred Black found himself removed from office precisely one day later.

A position that had gone unfilled for more than a decade—Black had held office as acting U.S. attorney that whole time—was now deemed worthy of a full-time political officeholder. Immediately.

Black’s successor, Leonardo Rapadas, came highly recommended by the Guam Republican Party—and by Karl Rove. †

Jack Abramoff, one might suspect, breathed a sigh of relief.

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