Word: abscam
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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...greedy politicians at lower levels of government rushed to get their share of Abscam's bribe money, the FBI's operation was getting too complex and expensive. The agents had promised to hand over more money in bribes than they could deliver. At some point the spigot had to be turned off. "We found people climbing all over each other to get some of the action," claimed one FBI official. "We were mystified...
...video tape. Commented Pressler: "I find it somewhat repulsive that I'm on tape, but now I'm called a hero. It's a sad state of affairs when it's heroic to turn down a potential bribery situation." The fallout from Abscam was indeed a serious matter. Along with the further erosion of public confidence...
...Abscam tapes allegedly also record Senator Williams boasting that he had used his influence with the commission to save one group of hotel developers $3 million, apparently by getting the commission's approval to renovate rather than rebuild a structure housing its casino. The company Williams had helped had employed his wife Jeanette, first as a director, then a consultant, paying her $18,000 a year. At the same time, Mrs. Williams served full-time at a $33,000 salary on the staff of the Senate Labor Committee, of which the Senator is chairman...
...events in Abscam's aftermath will certainly stretch out for months, probably even years. First the relevant Justice Department prosecutors must decide just which of the roughly 30 cases to pursue by seeking grand jury indictments. The department's plan seems to be to split up the cases, rather than consolidate them, and then present evidence to grand juries in New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Any trials of indicted officials would be months away-and there could be lengthy legal clashes over the admissibility, for example, of the FBI's video tapes...
Actually, some of the Abscam victims might prefer to be judged by their colleagues in Congress rather than by criminal trial juries. Declares Leon Jaworski, who has been on both sides of such interbranch conflicts, as special Watergate prosecutor and special counsel to a House committee probing the Korea bribery scandal: "Congress has never done a very good job of investigating itself. The House committee should defer to a speedy and thorough investigation by the Justice Department...