Abramoff and Co. Logged Nearly 200 Contacts With Bush Adm. In First 10 Months Alone...

Associated Press January 9, 2006 at 07:11 PM
READ MORE: Jack Abramoff, George W. Bush, Investigations, Dick Cheney, Halliburton

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In President Bush's first 10 months, GOP fundraiser Jack Abramoff and his lobbying team logged nearly 200 contacts with the new administration as they pressed for friendly hires at federal agencies and sought to keep the Northern Mariana Islands exempt from the minimum wage and other laws, records show.

The meetings between Abramoff's lobbying team and the administration ranged from Attorney General John Ashcroft to policy advisers in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, according to his lobbying firm billing records. Abramoff, a $100,000-plus fundraiser for Bush, is now under criminal investigation for some of his lobbying work. His firm boasted its lobbying team helped revise a section of the Republican Party's 2000 platform to make it favorable to its island client.

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