Bill Moyers Investigates Abramoff Lobbying Scandal

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The fallout continues from the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. A new bi-partisan House report released on Friday details extensive lobbying contacts between convicted lobbyist Abramoff and the Bush White House. Investigators found that between January 2001 and March 2004, Abramoff and his associates had more than 400 contacts with White House officials. The committee conducting the investigation noted that the records showed "an unusually detailed glimpse into a sordid subculture of fraud and attempted influence peddling."

"Capitol Crimes," a new documentary by veteran journalist Bill Moyers examines the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal in detail and reveals the web of relationships, secret deals and political manipulation that went on between some of the most powerful men in Washington D.C. Moyers and his team untangle thousands of emails, documents and facts to report on what he calls a "swashbuckling spectacle of corruption." The report airs on Wednesday night on PBS.

• Bill Moyers, was the host of the PBS show "NOW with Bill Moyers" for three years. He was one of the organizers of the Peace Corps, a spokesperson for Lyndon Johnson, a publisher of Newsday, senior correspondent for CBS News and a producer of many groundbreaking series on public television. He is the winner of more than 30 Emmy Awards and the author three best-selling books. His new three-part investigative series, Moyers on America, debuts on PBS this Wedensday.

AMY GOODMAN: Capitol Crimes, a new documentary by veteran journalist Bill Moyers, examines the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal in detail and reveals the web of relationships, secret deals and political manipulation that went on between some of the most powerful men in Washington D.C. Moyers and his team untangled thousands of emails, documents and facts to report on what he calls a “swashbuckling spectacle of corruption.” The report airs Wednesday night on PBS. This is an excerpt.

BILL MOYERS: Jack Abramoff was a forlorn figure at the Senate hearing that sealed his downfall.

JACK ABRAMOFF: I respectfully invoke the privileges stated, sir.

BILL MOYERS: Again and again, he invoked the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination.

SEN. BYRON DORGAN: The tribe was never told that $10,000 of their money would be sent to “Reed for Chairman” when Ralph Reed was seeking the chairmanship of the Georgia Republican Party. This tribe was never told about the secret scheme that allowed Jack Abramoff to skim $5 million from the money --

BILL MOYERS: The evidence kept piling up, of money, politics, and the buying and selling of influence, a sordid betrayal of democracy.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Those two men walked away with money that would have gone and should have gone to the children and elders of the tribe. Why? Because Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon were all about the money.

BILL MOYERS: For years he had been a major domo of Republican Washington. He took lawmakers on junkets around the world, fed them free meals in his own restaurant, turned over his luxury sports sky boxes to politicians with their hands out, and raked in millions of dollars for himself at the same time that he directed millions more to favorite politicians and conservative causes.

JEFFREY SMITH: Put yourself in the mind of a lobbyist. You want to figure out a way to get money to a lawmaker without people knowing about it. Well, Abramoff was good at that. He was really good at that.

SEN. BYRON DORGAN: Why would a tribe be making a donation to Americans for Tax Reform?

BERNIE SPRAGUE: It's because Mr. Abramoff suggests that we make these donations to these various groups.

BILL MOYERS: He was no lone ranger. Lawmakers, corporations and contributors were joined in a spectacle of corruption. Much of it centered around one of the most powerful men in Congress.

JEFFREY SMITH: It was like there was a giant machine, and the man in the center controlling all the knobs and levers was Tom DeLay.

BILL MOYERS: Jack Abramoff's most marketable asset was his connection to the House majority leader, Tom DeLay.

R.G. RATCLIFFE: Definitely the people giving money thought they had to give money to get close to Tom DeLay.

JACK ABRAMOFF: Tom DeLay is who all of us want to be when we grow up.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Here, here!

LOU DUBOSE: Without Tom DeLay, there's no Jack Abramoff, and without Jack Abramoff, there is no Tom DeLay. They move money in circles, and the circles moved. It was an enormous money laundering scheme.