Via Judicial Watch, Jack Abramoff’s plea deal is now available online. If you look at pages 7 and 8 of the plea you can see that Abramoff attained an offense level 31, which corresponds to roughly 10 years in jail, plus a $25 million fine as compensation for the folks he swindled (read: Indian gambling interests). Ten years seems like the best-case scenario from Abramoff’s perspective, which means that the prosecutors must be rather satisfied with whatever he’s telling them. Never one to do things by half, Abramoff has also decided to sing to the press and I suppose his bail bondsman, his cellmate and the guy who unclogs the toilets as well.
President Bush met lobbyist Jack Abramoff almost a dozen times over the past five years and invited him to Crawford, Tex., in the summer of 2003, according to an e-mail Abramoff wrote to a reporter last month.
Bush “has one of the best memories of any politicians I have ever met,” Abramoff wrote to Kim Eisler of Washingtonian magazine. “The guys saw me in almost a dozen settings, and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids.”
If things pick up then we might see the wheels of justice turning in time for the 2006 midterms, which should do nothing to discourage Democrats’ efforts to push increasingly aggressive versions of ethics reform.
BTW, about that ‘level 31’ thing. If any legal scholars can weigh in, how hard is it for a white-collar criminal to attain level 31? Is there some sort of record out there for the highest offense level that a DC-affiliated white-collar criminal has ever attained? Just curious.
The Disenfranchised Voter
I have a question too. What is the highest level possible?
John Cole
Jeralynn Merritt actually had a discussion of sentencing guidelines when Libby was indicted. I don’t know if that helps. Fire off an email to her and maybe she will post about it.
Bob In Pacifica
Wasn’t Level 31 one of those eighties synth bands?
Marcus Wellby
I was a level 38 mage. Are we talking D&D or something else?
Pooh
Damnit, Marcus stepped on my line. What’s your THAC0?
nitpik
Level 42 was the band’s name, derived from the Milgram Experiments– the ones about obedience to authority.
norbizness
I saw Abramoff kill a frost giant with his bare hands. Of course, I was tripping my nads off at the time.
Joey
Heh, nice.
The Other Steve
I must say it’s been interesting to watch the Republican congress critters whine endlessly about how Democrats are making a big deal about ethics, considering it was overhyped “ethics” scandals which they used to entrench their own power.
DCleviathan
Attempted murder has a base level of 33 – 3 for cooperation is 30. Federal sentencing guidelines are available here.
waddayaknow
So its the same as the sentence for conspiricy to commit murder. Sure killed his career and maybe the briepublicans chances to take over the world. The Brain will be thrilled, won’t he Pinky?
Par R
This LA Times story suggests that the Dems Senatorial leader may have a few problems as well.
link
SeesThroughIt
All these D&D jokes keep reminding me of the time Al Gore and Gary Gygax guested on Futurama
GORE: I’m a 12th-level vice president!
GYGAX: It’s a [rolls dice]…pleasure to meet you.
CaseyL
“Suggests” being the operative word. One of the many things the article is at pains not to say is, what was the quo of the alleged quid pro.
Wanna know why?
(Well, I know you don’t want to know why; but someone who’s actually interested in the facts of the case might.)
Well, see, Reid did not, in fact, vote against raising the minimum wage in the Marianas Islands.
And, see, those Indian tribes Reid advocated for? He’s always advocated for.
And the tribes that contributed to Reid? Had contributed to Reid in the past.
See: here’s the thing about bribery. The person paying the bribe expects the person to whom the bribe was paid to vote differently than they would have without the bribe, or advocate policies for interested parties that they would not otherwise have advocated.
Reid didn’t do that.
Contributing money to a politician isn’t in and of itself illegal; changing your vote on the basis of the payment is. And Reid didn’t do that.
That’s why GOP efforts (aided and abetted by the idiots in the press) to tar Democrats with Abramoff are just more lies; just more desperate deceit by a bunch of scumbags; just more frantic flailing about by the deeply, totally corrupt and utterly worthless GOP.
Perry Como
This video suggests that Abramoff may have liked magic missiles:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4358523955513724459&q=summoner+geeks
“I am Abramoff, lobbyist of right.”
demimondian
Damn it, DougJ — would you please space-break your links? Page widening posts went out of style back when you were in grad school.
The Captain of the O
Looks like Abramoff is now entering the “bitter recriminations” of his emotional ideal.
The Captain of the O
I meant ordeal.
Zifnab
haha. You guys are all going to nerd hell.