Democrats are preparing to stage a move that would attempt to force the White House to turn over photographs of the President with his onetime fundraiser and now-guilty lobbyist Jack Abramoff, RAW STORY has learned.
House Democratic insiders, saying they were reticent to tip their hand, were quiet on the specifics of the effort or when it would occur. But indications suggest that the move is being coordinated with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the ranking Democrat on the Government Reform Committee, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA).
As the leading Democrat on Government Reform, Waxman has had significant success in the past in forcing the Bush Administration to turn over documentation that sheds unfavorable light on Administration activities, and has been ardently critical of government waste.
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"They have to come clean on who was there and what was discussed," one aide remarked.
Abramoff recently pled guilty to influence-peddling and other charges with regard to members of Congress. At one time, he was a $200,000-level fundraiser for President Bush.
The White House says the photographs mean nothing.
"Trying to say there's more to it than the president taking a picture in a photo line is just absurd," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters Monday. McClellan said Bush does not remember meeting Abramoff and asserts that the President did nothing to favor the disgraced lobbyist.
Democrats will stress that they are seeking the photographs -- and other documents related to Abramoff and his associates' work -- in the efforts of government transparency. They will try to duck charges that they are aiming at the photos for political gain.
RAW STORY has already requested all Secret Service logs of Abramoff's entrances and exits to and from the White House under the Freedom of Information Act. To date, nothing has been received in response.
The photographs of President Bush with Abramoff and his family are likely to come out either way. Both Time Magazine and the Washingtonian say they have seen the photos, and Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff said earlier this week that he knew Abramoff had shopped the images to at least one of the magazines.
Andrew Blum, a spokesperson for Mr. Abramoff, returned a call for comment but made no statement on the record. Blum did not immediately confirm or deny Abramoff was sharing the photographs.
One aide said Democrats have particular interest in what role former DeLay aide and Abramoff partner Tony Rudy may have had in orchestrating the Medicare reform bill, which was cheered by the pharmaceutical industry.
Alexander Strategy Group, the lobbying firm where Rudy worked, lobbied on behalf of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. The firm collected $720,000 for lobbying on the 2003 Medicare bill alone -- more than any other lobbying group in Washington (View list).
Prosecutors are trying to convince Rudy to cooperate, the Washington Post reported earlier this month.
Sarah Feinberg, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said there were no campaign-related efforts afoot to procure the photographs. A spokeswoman for Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Rahm Emmanuel (D-IL) said that the congressman plans no effort on the photos.
Aides say their efforts come out of frustration that the Republican-led Congress is unwilling to investigate Administration activities.
"It's part of a pattern of the unwilling to scrutinize any of its activities [with] oversight," the aide said. "Whether you're seeing Katrina, or the war, or energy policy. They're just not willing to take a look at it."
Liberal lobby groups are also angling for the images, presumably for use in campaign ads. A staffer at one leading group compared the photographs to the image of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein.
Democrats are preparing to stage a move that would attempt to force the White House to turn over photographs of the President with his onetime fundraiser and now-guilty lobbyist Jack Abramoff,