(Updated) Heather Wilson: Office Tied to Abramoff Corruption Network?

Update: Heather Wilson has released what I think is a very weak response to the material in the Kevin Ring indictment that mentions the Abramoff firm's suspicious emails with a Wilson staffer. You can read her complete statement at (scroll down) and a report on it by Peter St. Cyr. Basically she claims she has no idea about the emails and that Sandia Pueblo officials found their way to Abramoff's lobbying firm without any help from her. Do you believe that? Wilson provided no documentation to bolster her explanations. And notice how she phrases this denial: "At no time did I take any action on behalf of Greenberg Traurig with Sandia Pueblo." She doesn't say that no-one in her office did, now does she....
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Today's reports:

The Abramoff corruption probe has already snared one GOP Congressman, Bob Ney, and implicated a few more, most prominently Rep. John Doolittle of California. But could there be another to add to the list: Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico?

An examination by TPMmuckraker of the indictment of former Jack Abramoff associate Kevin Ring, filed yesterday, suggests that Wilson's office was tied in to Abramoff's corruption network at a level not previously known. And John McCain's 2005 investigation into Abramoff's fleecing of Indian tribes, which McCain conducted as chair of the Senate India Affairs Committee, made no mention of that fact.

No wonder Heather has been such a public and outspoken cheerleader for McCain of late. One hand washes the other, even if McCain and Palen have been posing as the white horse mavericks arriving to save the day and clear out the crooks in Washington. Odd, since the duo has reportedly been in cahoots with the right-wing lobbying-corruption machine in any number of ways. McCain, for instance, protected the interests of a number of folks entwined in the Abramoff web, while pretending to conduct a serious probe of the corruption. According to TPM:

Wilson may have good reason to hold the GOP nominee in high regard. In his 2005 Senate investigation, McCain had access to the Greenberg Traurig email trove, presumably including the ones cited by prosecutors in the Ring indictment highlighted above. But his final report generally avoided focusing on members of Congress, and omitted any mention of Wilson.

The TPM article goes on to list a number of references made by prosecutors in the Ring indictment to the alleged involvement of at least one Wilson staffer in pushing for Sandia Pueblo to continue to pay Ring and the Abramoff machine -- supposedly to lobby on the tribe's behalf. We know from previous revelations in the Abramoff scandal that the lobbyists were very good at obtaining large sums of money from various tribes, while doing almost nothing to help them and sometimes backing actions that would hurt them. Lots of snickering went on among Abramoff's K Street offices and hangouts about such scams, and how easy it was to fool tribal officers.

In the case of Sandia Pueblo, it's pretty clear from the prosecutor statements that Wilson, or at least someone in her Congessional office, was shilling for Ring and Abramoff in trying to convince the tribe to extend their contract with Abramoff's firm. TPM continues:

It's clear from identifying details in the indictment -- which refers to a New Mexico Indian tribe that hired Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig around March 2002 -- that the tribe is the Sandia Pueblo Indians, who are represented in Congress by Wilson. So in other words, a staffer for Wilson was actively involved in helping Ring and Greenberg Traurig (Firm B, where Ring worked at the time), retain their contract to represent the Sandia Indians. And Ring's Greenberg partner -- most likely Abramoff himself, but certainly a member of Abramoff's team at Greenberg -- believed he had the power to affect decisions made by Rep. Wilson concerning the tribe's interests.

Hmm. As more is revealed in the Kevin Ring case, it will be fascinating to see what other details may emerge about Heather Wilson's ties to the scandal, won't it?

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