Lobbyist Abramoff used aide, attacks to influence Congress

Susan Schmidt and James V. Grimaldi, with contributions from Alice Crites and Julie Tate, of The Washington Post report that lobbyist Jack Abramoff used an aide to Tom DeLay and attacks on allies to defeat the anti-gambling bill. Details of that campaign, reconstructed from dozens of interviews as well as from e-mails and financial records obtained by The Washington Post, provide an account of how one of Washington's most powerful lobbyists leveraged his client's money to influence Congress. A senior aide to Tom DeLay, Tony C. Rudy helped scuttle the bill in the House and, according to documents and the lobbyist's former associates, e-mailed Abramoff internal congressional communications and advice. Rudy received favors from Abramoff. "The work Abramoff did for eLottery is one focus of a wide-ranging federal corruption investigation into his dealings with members of Congress and government agencies."