Nonprofits helped Abramoff clients for cash

James Grimaldi and Susan Schmidt of The Washington Post present details from a new Senate committee report that says former power lobbyist Jack Abramoff paid conservative nonprofit groups to use their influence to benefit his clients. "The report includes previously unreleased e-mails between the now-disgraced lobbyist and officers of the nonprofit groups, showing that Abramoff funneled money from his clients to the groups. In exchange, the groups, among other things, produced ostensibly independent newspaper op-ed columns or news releases that favored the clients' positions." Grimaldi, Schmidt and R. Jeffrey Smith of The Post won a 2006 Pulitzer Prize for exposing the scandal that led to a prison sentence for Abramoff, who has agreed to cooperate with ongoing federal investigations.