The White House inadequately investigated ties between Jack Abramoff and its aides after new contacts were found between the convicted lobbyist and administration officials, according to a congressional report.

On Monday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report that revealed 70 more contacts between the team of lobbyists at Greenberg Traurig and White House aides than the panel originally reported. The report also shows about a half-dozen more instances where administration officials accepted tickets to high-priced concerts and sporting events from Abramoff and his lobbyists.
In addition, the White House released six photographs of Abramoff and President George W. Bush taken at various political functions and fundraising receptions.

The committee’s chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), and its ranking member, Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), released a draft of the report Monday. The panel will mark up the report at a meeting Thursday and plans to post the supporting documents on the committee’s website.  

In response, the White House dismissed the report out of hand.

“It’s warmed-up leftovers — there’s nothing new in it,” said Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman. “If anything, it confirms that whatever Abramoff’s efforts, he was decidedly unsuccessful in trying to influence administration policy.”

“Much of what the congressional committees know and what the Justice Department knows results from our client’s cooperation. He continues to work hard to make amends for that of which he has pled guilty,” said Abramoff attorney Abbe Lowell.

The White House had a similar reaction to the committee’s report in 2006, saying Abramoff had very little contact with presidential aides. In addition, representatives for the White House said the previous report was based on Abramoff’s own billing records, which could be fraudulent.

Nevertheless, that investigation led to the resignation of Susan Ralston, then-assistant to Karl Rove, President Bush’s senior political adviser. Ralston, who accepted several gifts from Abramoff’s lobbying team and was a conduit of inside information for them, was also an assistant to Abramoff before joining the White House.

In seeking more information from the White House and other agencies, panel aides sought to confirm much of their original report.

But they soon ran into roadblocks, as many officials and lobbyists affiliated with Abramoff refused to testify and the Justice Department warned off the panel because it could stymie the pending criminal investigation. Plus, the Republican National Committee could not provide to the committee much of the e-mail traffic between White House aides because it retained little or none of those exchanges for those officials.

The report does provide collaborative evidence that some actions taken by the administration were lobbied for by Abramoff and were noted and acted upon by relevant White House aides.

In depositions, some aides did not recall communications with Abramoff or his lobbyists on many of the issues.

Allen Stayman, a State Department official, was targeted by Abramoff on behalf of his client, the government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), because of his stance of establishing tough immigration controls to the islands in the Pacific Ocean.

In e-mails to White House officials, Abramoff and his lobbyists soon began calling for Stayman to be fired. In new e-mails and documents provided to the committee, White House aides weighed in with the State Department to speed his exit.

“We pulled the plug on him,” read one e-mail from an aide, according to the report. Then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and Rove were kept aware of Stayman’s firing as well.

“This just further documents that corrupt lobbyists were influencing decision-making at the White House, including personnel and policy,” said Stayman. “No one was asking why Abramoff was blocking these reforms.”

Stayman, now an aide to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has since worked on legislation that would extend U.S. immigration controls into the CNMI. Bush signed the bill into law this May.

Abramoff was also active in lobbying the White House about political endorsements that could help or hinder his clients.

The lobbyist asked the White House not to offer a presidential endorsement of Juan Babauta, the Republican Party’s nominee for governor of Guam in 2002. The White House did hold off, despite a recommendation to endorse by the Republican National Committee, but Babauta won nonetheless. Abramoff was allied with Benigno Fitial, Babauta’s then-Democratic opponent.

Abramoff also advised White House aides on candidates for positions in the Interior Department’s Office of Insular Affairs. At times, the aides faxed résumés to Abramoff for him to review.

Abramoff was ultimately unsuccessful in installing Mark Zachares, a former Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) staffer who has pleaded guilty to charges related to the scandal, in the agency.

New e-mails reveal that White House aides also took in more tickets for concerts as well as NCAA basketball and Baltimore Orioles games. Ralston thanked Abramoff for her “special” evening at a Sarah Brightman event.  

The report argues the White House provided “an incomplete and internal review” of its contacts with Abramoff. Several White House officials were never interviewed about their contacts with the lobbyist or his team, according to the report.