Abramoff Records Show Lobbying Firm Ties to Rep. Young

by Walter Alarkon - April 21, 2008

Records from the former firms of jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff show that his colleagues had more than 120 contacts with aides to Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) and at least 10 with Young himself, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

The billing records covered dealings between Abramoff firms and one of his clients, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Young oversaw the U.S. territory as chairman of the House Resources Committee from 1995 to 2001.

In 2000, Young had blocked a bill regulating Chinese-owned factories on the island, something that had concerned Abramoff and his firm, the records show. The newspaper also highlights one letter from Abramoff to the territory’s governor in which the lobbyist voiced concern over Young’s departure from the chairman’s seat due to term limits.

“The loss of Chairman Young’s authority cannot easily be measured — or replaced,” Abramoff wrote. “We have lost major institutional memory and friendship.”

Young told the newspaper in 2006, when it wrote about ties between Abramoff and Young, that Abarmoff was “inconsequential” to his work in Congress.

“I have never had any personal or professional relationship with Abramoff,” Young wrote in a letter to the newspaper.

A Congressman’s $10 Million Gift for Road Is Rebuffed

Excerpted from an article by DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK of the N.Y. Times

Published: August 18, 2007

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 — It is not often that a local government tries to turn down $10 million in federal construction money.

But then it is not every day that an Alaska congressman surprises a Florida community with the gift of a highway interchange that just happens to abut the property of a major political fund-raiser.

The money for the interchange was the work of Representative Don Young, the Alaska Republican who was chairman of the transportation committee before the last election.

Officials of Lee County considered the project a low priority, environmental groups opposed it and the Republican congressman from the district never asked for it.

But the interchange, on Interstate 75 at a place called Coconut Road, would be a boon to Daniel J. Aronoff, a Michigan real estate developer with adjacent property who helped raise $40,000 in donations to Mr. Young at a fund-raiser in the region shortly before Mr. Young inserted an earmark for the project in a transportation bill.

The connections were too much for the Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization, said Carla Johnston, its chairwoman and a Democrat.

On Friday, the members of the organization voted overwhelmingly to return the money in the hope that Congress would let them spend it elsewhere in the county.

Adding to the intrigue, a researcher commissioned by Ms. Johnston said Mr. Young had added the earmark for the interchange to a transportation bill after both chambers of Congress had approved it, at a time Congressional aides were cleaning up the bill for President Bush’s signature.

“People were really highly outraged at the process,” Ms. Johnston said. “It was a classic end run.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. Young did not return calls for comment.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Aronoff, the developer and fund-raiser, defended the project, saying a study had determined a need for the interchange in a building plan years ago, partly to help with hurricane evaluations.

“Unfortunately, the real story is getting lost in this funding debate,” the spokeswoman, Elizabeth Hirst, said.

ADAK, ALASKA

The IRS/FBI team should be mightily concerned about why Don Young got $2 million handed back to The Aleut Corp. (TAC)/Aleut Enterprise Corp. (AEC) (Alaska Native Corporation) after the IRS fined them $3 million. Given Ben and Ted and Ted's brother-in-law's lobbyist firm (Birch Horton Bittner & Cherot) involvement at Adak, along with Republican poli-artist Art Hackney, this must be suspect. Hackney and Ben were both on AEC's board in the late 1990's together. Why?

In 2002, I personally saw Don's fax come across the Aleut Corp president's local desk at Adak, when Don was advising that it was not a good idea right then -- in the Land Transfer Bill (spirited through the Senate by then Sen. Frank Murkowski!) -- to hand them back the full $3m. And it was a few years later that Don apparently snuck it in by earmark. It showed up as a credit on TAC's financial statements.

That should also mean a House Ethics investigation. It is dispicable, as it gives a Congressman "Pardon the IRS" powers, and makes them the arbiter instead of US Tax Courts, for their cronies. Tell me this is "legal" in the USA, (no, please don't = it can't be)!

There are two federal investigations ongoing right now at Adak, according to a magistrate; plus one state investigation, plus one by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (re electrical utility). And Adak was the site of the largest NOAA Fisheries fine in history = $3.44 million (caused by yours truly and my partner L. Davison, when we filed a Writ of Mandamus with John Ashcroft and the US District Court of Seattle etc. in Jan. 2002). We also suspect Ted of personally suppressing DOCommerce/EDA grant data from public disclosure when we were after a FOIA there... the whole EDA group was scared wet, so you know someone very powerful was behind that.

Adak is where Ted's 2004 Consolidated Appropriations fishery Rider gave the Aleut Corp. well over $10 million annually in pollock, as Ben Stevens himself (Ted's son - as if every American doesn't know that by now!) held a "secret option" for 25% of the seafoods operation there for a mere $500,000. Of course, Ben's financial disclosures as former state senator revealed six figure "consulting fees" by Adak Fisheries/Seafoods paid to him. On and on it goes... as one lobbyist told me in 2003, "It is all about Adak!" No kidding...