Washington insiders Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon are probably going to be indicted, an author of a book about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) says.
Lou Dubose, one of the authors of The Hammer: God, Money, and the the Rise of the Republican Congress, says Abramoff was part of DeLay's so-called "kitchen cabinet" and Scanlon was DeLay's former press secretary. "They billed four Indian tribes $45 million, maybe $48 million -- that�s $14 million more than G.E. paid in the same period," he tells Mother Jones magazine.
"You've got a grand jury in Washington looking into the Abramoff/Scanlon deal with the Indians � $66 million in lobbying fees [collected from various Indian tribes], $3 million of which we now know went to a think tank in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, that was run by a former yoga instructor and a lifeguard," he says in another interview with The Austin Chronicle. "At least the lifeguard remained in his profession. Three million dollars [went] to something that didn't exist."
Abramoff, a former lobbyist with the firm Greenberg Traurig, refused to answer questions before a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing last month. Scanlon, a public relations consultant, refused to appear before the panel. Tribal leaders said they were told by the lobbyists that political activities could gain favor with DeLay.
The next hearing on the matter is scheduled for November 17.
Get the Story:Nailing the Hammer (Mother Jones 10/27)
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