Woo vs. Harmon - Witness Jack Abramoff

David C. Farmer, Successor-Trustee vs. Harmon

(Formerly Woo vs. Harmon & Nicholson vs. Harmon)

CV05-00030 DAE KSC

U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii

Judges: David A. Ezra; Kevin S. Chang

—

DEFENDANT’S WITNESS

JACK ABRAMOFF

Address to be determined.

Washington lobbyist with political and financial connections to numerous entities in this case.

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NEW DISCOVERY (05-22-08):

May 22, 2008

House subpoenas Karl Rove

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday subpoenaed former White House top political adviser Karl Rove to testify about whether the White House improperly meddled with the Justice Department.

Accusations of politics influencing decisions at the department led to last year's resignation of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The subpoena issued Thursday orders Rove to testify before the House panel on July 10. He is expected to face questions about the White House's role in firing nine U.S. attorneys in 2006 and the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, a Democrat.

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers had negotiated with Rove's attorneys for more than a year over whether the former top aide to President Bush would testify voluntarily.

"It is unfortunate that Mr. Rove has failed to cooperate with our requests," Conyers, D-Mich., said in a statement. "Although he does not seem the least bit hesitant to discuss these very issues weekly on cable television and in the print news media, Mr. Rove and his attorney have apparently concluded that a public hearing room would not be appropriate."

"Unfortunately, I have no choice today but to compel his testimony on these very important matters," Conyers said.

Neither Rove nor his attorney, Robert Luskin, could be immediately reached for comment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080522/ap_on_go_co/rove_subpoena

http://judiciary.house.gov/

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NEW DISCOVERY (04-22-08): David Farmer’s undisclosed connections with AIPAC and Lobbyist Jack Abramoff:

From Exhibit: “CONNECTING THE DIRTY DOTS TO AIPAC”:

David C. Farmer, Successor-Trustee vs. Harmon

(Formerly Woo vs. Harmon & Nicholson vs. Harmon)

CV05-00030 DAE KSC

U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii

Judges: David A. Ezra; Kevin S. Chang

—

DEFENDANT’S EXHIBIT

—

A few words of explanation:

In his "MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION TO DEBTOR'S MOTION FOR ORDER TO DISAPPROVE APPOINTMENT OF DAVID C. FARMER AS SUCCESSOR TRUSTEE", filed with the Court on August 24, 2007, the Trustee's attorney, Steven Guttman, Esq., of the law firm, Kessner Umebayashi Bain & Matsunaga, stated to the Court:

"... Harmon is once again attempting to create issues of conflict where none exist by attempting to draw connections between phantom dots."...

Mr. Guttman does not elaborate beyond this simple statement of HIS PERSONAL OPINION, as to WHICH of the thousands of connections I have cited that he wishes the Court to accept, without question, as being merely "phantom dots". In other court filings, Mr. Guttman has characterized my Motions as consisting of "conspiracy theories" -- again with no specific references.

Despite these unnamed "phantom dots" and "conspiracy theories", the Court has blithely and unquestionably gone along with Mr. Guttman's opinions and has repeatedly denied ALL Motions that I have made. In fact, both Courts involved have ruled that the Court Clerk shall not accept any future filings from me without the Courts' prior approval - which it has repeatedly declined to give.

Therefore, due to the fact that I continue to discover new, material FACTS almost daily, I am preparing a set of NEW EXHIBITS in which I intend to document the financial, professional, personal, and political connections between the many various entities involved in this case.

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The following is a listing of named witnesses in this case who have factual connections with the subject entity. Each underlined name has been linked to a detailed description of that witness to enable the reader to more easily CONNECT THE DOTS TO...

Judith Neustadter Fuqua

James B. “Jim” Nicholson

Dan Inouye

LEARN MORE ABOUT AIPAC:

http://www.stopaipac.org/

http://www.stopaipac.org/spystory.htm

www.hadassah.org/education/content/influentials_israel.asp

http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/021108/hawaii.shtml

http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1721.htm

http://www.antiwar.com/cole/?articleid=3467

http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2007/06/lfow.html

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=AIPAC

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/03/6138/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zidtiC-UPNU

http://www.franklingate.com/aipac-cheney.htm

http://www.kycbs.net/AIPAC-Obama.mht

http://www.kycbs.net/AIPAC-Bush-Abramoff-Greenberg.mht

http://www.kycbs.net/AIPAC-Mische-7-11-7.mht

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vwV6O5AGKyw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8gHmJUa720

http://ifamericaknew.com/us_ints/mc-aipac.html

http://www.antiwar.com/glantz/?articleid=9697

www.literarylotus.com/2007/12/wimr-brian-schatz.html

http://www.kycbs.net/AIPAC-Lingle-Abramoff-Brownstein.mht

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December 13, 2007

Lawmakers vote to hold
Bush aides in contempt

By Thomas Ferraro, Rueters

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Thursday to hold two men who have been top aides to President George W. Bush in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoenas in its probe of the firing of federal prosecutors.

On a largely party-line vote, the Democratic-led panel sent contempt of Congress citations against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove to the full Senate for consideration.

"This is not a step I have wanted to take," said Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat. He accused the White House of "stonewalling" and refusing to reach an acceptable compromise on providing documents and testimony.

In a battle dating back to shortly after Democrats took control of Congress in January, Bush has claimed executive privilege to protect aides from complying with subpoenas demanding documents and testimony in a congressional probe into the firing last year of nine federal prosecutors.

Setting the stage for a possible lengthy court fight, the committee rejected the privilege claim as unfounded.

At the White House, press secretary Dana Perino said, "The Democrats should know the futility of trying to press ahead with a criminal case."

In July, the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee also approved along party lines contempt citations against Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers.

It was unclear when the full House or Senate would vote on the citations. If approved, they would be sent to the U.S. Justice Department for prosecution.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey said during his confirmation hearing he did not believe the department could prosecute since it had deemed Bush's privilege claim as valid.

If the case does end up in the courts, it could takes years to conclude, long after Bush's term ends in January 2009.

Bush nominated Mukasey as attorney general after Alberto Gonzales, Bush's former White House counsel, resigned under pressure from lawmakers who questioned his competency and honesty.

Critics charged Gonzales had politicized the Justice Department and fired prosecutors because they were not seen as sufficiently loyal to the administration.

The White House has contended the dismissals were improperly handled, but did not involve any wrongdoing.

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NEW DISCOVERY (05-26-08):

The Global Economy's Investment
In Prostitution

Another Perspective

Want to know a few of the results of the move towards the so-called "Global Economy" which has become the nirvana Corporate America seeks? Be very careful, you might not like what you find.

According to U.N. documents, 4 million women a year are sold into sexual slavery around the world. Understand, these documents aren't discussing some Mid- Eastern potentate's harem. What we're talking about is 500,000 women "imported" into Western Europe and 90,000 into Italy, alone. These women are kidnapped and sold into prostitution for the gratification of men like the late Larry Hilblom, the founder of DHL courier service. Hilblom, it should be added, also participated in the kidnapping and sales of many young women, as well.

The majority of these women, who are mostly just young girls, come from the countries once known as client states of the old Soviet Union, such as Albania and the Ukraine. In fact, the selling of girls for the sexual gratification of wealthy men has become a major export for many of the supposedly free nations from the former Soviet bloc.

Amazingly, many of these women are moved through our ally Israel. The reason Israel is a major center for these atrocities is that Israel has absolutely no laws against the sale or ownership of other humans. Now there is wonderful reason to continue our hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign aid to this moral back water of a country.

The main reason that these crimes can so easily occur is the demand by the world's corporations that there be few or no inspections at national borders and that, with corporations buying up governments just like ours at bargain prices, they own the decisions to investigate crimes and, of course, see no reason to investigate the very crimes they, themselves, are committing.

Now, of course, America is immune from these charges, aren't we. I mean, this is the country where politicians spend their entire careers shouting about their fairy tale world of "family values", right? Our government would immediately spring into action should even a hint of this crime appear within our borders, right?

Wrong, of course. Thai women were imported into the United States and forced into sexual slavery in New York, Houston and Toronto, according to stories in the LA Times, New York Times and Dallas Morning News.

How long will it take the corporate prostitutes in Washington, D.C., to even acknowledge these crimes? How many conservatives do you think are going to stand up in protest against these horrors against humanity? How many will demand hundreds of billions of dollars to fight these crimes against humanity? What is less than none?

Unless America wakes up to these violations against humanity and demands action from the blow hards in office, nothing, whatsoever, will ever happen. Why? Because the victims do not fall within the parameters these vile people respect. These are young girls from foreign countries that don't contribute to American political coffers, nor are they related to anyone who owns enough property to matter to American politicians. If they were all Republican, Christian, wealthy wives and daughters of campaign contributors then this would be a problem of cosmic proportion. They aren't, so the problem is ignored.

These crimes against women are only the most extreme examples of the damage that is being done to people all over the world in the name of corporate profits. Add in the disease ridden fruit coming into America from countries which have little in the way of health and safety laws and food covered with the pesticides that America banned so Corporate America sold its stock to the same Third World countries now supplying us with our daily fruits and vegetables and grains.

Consider the effects that corrupt rulers the world over have regarding the financial health of your retirement and investments and, if the idiots who hate government safety nets have their way, your Social Security. Consider the damage another episode like the Hunt brothers attempt to corner the silver market would have on America if it were done by a nation or groups of nations. Finally, consider the costs of a simple computer virus invading the systems which control what will be the world's financial institution.

You, as an individual, have absolutely nothing to gain in a global economy. In fact, you will be the loser if you continue to listen to the lies and do not begin fighting the mutation of your world into a world corporation where the wealthy would rule through unlimited economic power. As in all things, it is your choice but your inaction will affect billions of people for centuries to come.

http://www.anotherperspective.org/advoc150.html

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June 26, 2007

Former Interior Department Official
Will Go to Jail for Obstructing
Abramoff Investigation

Jason Ryan Reports:

Steven Griles, the former deputy secretary at the Interior Department, has been sentenced to 10 months in prison and must pay a $30,000 fine after pleading guilty to obstructing a congressional inquiry into disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

"In pleading guilty, Griles admitted that he knowingly and willfully lied and concealed material information from senators and Senate investigators about the unique relationship that he had with Abramoff immediately prior to and during his tenure as DOI Deputy Secretary," according to a Department of Justice statement.

Abramoff and lobbyist Michael Scanlon have pleaded guilty to bilking two Indian tribes out of millions of dollars for their lobbying work.

The links between Griles and Abramoff focus on Italia Federici, the president of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA). Abramoff had directed his tribal clients to donate as much as $250,000 to CREA to help the Interior Department with several projects and studies. It is unclear if those projects ever existed.

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee issued a report on their investigation and noted, "Abramoff apparently had his clients contribute to CREA, described by CREA president Italia Federici as a 'mom and pop' operation, because he believed that Federici would help him possibly influence tribal issues pending at the Department of the Interior."

While not mentioned by name in the criminal charge against Griles, Federici has been identified as "person A," according to law enforcement officials.

According to the information,"As a result of defendant James Steven Griles' personal and romantic relationship with Person A, Person A's introduction of Abramoff to defendant Griles gave Abramoff more credibility as a lobbyist than Abramoff ordinarily would have had with the defendant and facilitated the building of a professional relationship between Abramoff and the defendant that ordinarily would have taken years to develop."

Federici also pleaded guilty this month to obstructing the investigation and tax evasion and faces a maximum of five years in jail. She is scheduled to be sentenced in November.

"The Senate Committee focused on the following areas of inquiry, among others, concerning defendant James Steven Griles' tenure as DOI Deputy Secretary: the level of access Abramoff had to defendant Griles; the nature and extent of the defendant's relationship and dealings with Abramoff," the criminal information against Griles noted.

According to a court document, during his Nov. 2, 2005 testimony at a public hearing held before members of the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Griles "knowingly and intentionally made a series of materially false and fictitious declarations to, and withheld material information from, Senators and Senate investigators in response to questions about the true nature and extent of defendant Griles' relationship with Person A."

ABC News Blogs

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August 8, 2005

Bush removal ended
Guam investigation

US attorney's demotion halted probe of lobbyist

By Walter F. Roche Jr., Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON -- A US grand jury in Guam opened an investigation of controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff more than two years ago, but President Bush removed the supervising federal prosecutor, and the probe ended soon after.

The previously undisclosed Guam inquiry is separate from a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia that is investigating allegations that Abramoff bilked Indian tribes out of millions of dollars.

In Guam, a US territory in the Pacific, investigators were looking into Abramoff's secret arrangement with Superior Court officials to lobby against a court reform bill then pending in Congress. The legislation, since approved, gave the Guam Supreme Court authority over the Superior Court.

In 2002, Abramoff was retained by the Superior Court in what was an unusual arrangement for a public agency. The Los Angeles Times reported in May that Abramoff was paid with a series of $9,000 checks funneled through a Laguna Beach, Calif., lawyer to disguise the lobbyist's role working for the Guam court. No separate contract was authorized for Abramoff's work.

Guam court officials have never explained the contractual arrangement. At the time, Abramoff was a well-known lobbying figure in the Pacific islands because of his work for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Saipan garment manufacturers, accused of employing workers in what critics called sweatshop conditions.

Abramoff spokesman Andrew Blum said the lobbyist ''has no recollection of his being investigated in Guam in 2002. If he had been aware of an investigation, he would have cooperated fully." Blum declined to respond to detailed questions.

The transactions were the target of a grand jury subpoena issued Nov. 18, 2002, according to the subpoena. It demanded that Anthony Sanchez, administrative director of the Guam Superior Court, turn over all records involving the lobbying contract, including bills and payments.

A day later, the chief prosecutor, US Attorney Frederick A. Black, who had launched the investigation, was demoted. A White House news release announced that Bush was replacing Black.

The timing caught some by surprise. Despite his officially temporary status as the acting US attorney, Black had held the assignment for more than a decade.

The acting US attorney was a controversial official in Guam. At the time he was replaced, Black was directing a long-term investigation into allegations of public corruption in the administration of then-Governor Carl Gutierrez. The probe produced numerous indictments, including some of the governor's political associates and top aides.

Black, 56, had served as acting US attorney for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands since 1991, when he was named to the post by the president's father, President George H. W. Bush.

The career prosecutor, who held a senior position as first assistant before accepting the acting US attorney job, was demoted to a staff post. Black's demotion came after an intensive lobbying effort by supporters of Gutierrez, who had been publicly critical of Black and his investigative efforts.

Black declined to comment for this article.

His replacement, Leonardo Rapadas, was confirmed in May 2003 without any debate. Rapadas had been recommended for the job by the Guam Republican Party. Fred Radewagen, a lobbyist who had been under contract to the Gutierrez administration, said he carried that recommendation to top Bush aide Karl Rove in early 2003.

After taking office, Rapadas recused himself from the public corruption case involving Gutierrez. The new US attorney was a cousin of ''one of the main targets," according to a confidential memo to Justice Department officials.

Rapadas declined to comment and referred questions about his recusal to Justice Department officials who did not respond to requests for comment.

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March 17, 2007

OUR OPINION

Renew inquiry into removal
of U.S. attorney in Guam

THE ISSUE

Two congressmen are calling for a new inquiry into the demotion in 2002 of an interim U.S. attorney in Guam.

COMPLAINTS by the former interim U.S. attorney for Guam and the Northern Marianas that he was removed because of his investigation of yet-to-be-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff were determined by the Department of Justice inspector general last year to have been unfounded. The controversy over the purge of other U.S. attorneys should prompt a new inquiry into the Guam controversy, as called for by two House committee chairmen.

Frederick A. Black had been acting U.S. attorney in Guam since his appointment to the post by the first President Bush in 1991. He was demoted Nov. 18, 2002, a day after a federal grand jury issued a subpoena seeking records involving lobbying fees paid to Abramoff by the Superior Court of Guam.

Abramoff, now serving six years in prison for public corruption, had unsuccessfully lobbied Congress against giving the Guam Supreme Court authority over the Superior Court. Abramoff received a series of $9,000 checks through a California attorney to disguise his role, according to the Los Angeles Times. Abramoff was known in the Pacific for his work for garment manufacturers accused of employing people in sweatshops.

In a report last June, the Justice Department's inspector general concluded that Black's investigation of Abramoff could not have played a role in his demotion because Black's successor, Leonardo Rapadas, already had been chosen for the post without Abramoff's knowledge. The White House had approved Rapadas for the job in March 2002, pending background checks, according to the report.

The Rapadas nomination was presented to President Bush by D. Kyle Sampson, then associate director for presidential personnel, after he had gained the approval of then-White Counsel Alberto Gonzales, according to the report. After Gonzales became attorney general, Sampson served as his chief of staff until resigning this week amid the current controversy.

Abramoff had been involved in a plan to oust Black as early as February 2002, e-mailing members of his lobbying team that Black was "a total commie" who should be "sniped out of there." Learning in early March that the White House had decided to nominate Rapadas, Abramoff told a member of his team by e-mail that they should "play it" as though their lobbying team was responsible.

In a letter to four committees planning hearings on the U.S. attorney purge, House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., and Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., include Black's demotion in their investigation of the more recent U.S. attorney firings.

The Abramoff case in Guam, Miller and Rahall asserted, "may represent the beginning of a pattern of behavior by some members of Congress and officials in the Bush administration to politicize the work of U.S. attorneys to quash their independence."

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the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, MidWeek
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http://starbulletin.com/2007/03/17/editorial/editorial01.html

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January 9, 2007

Abramoff's Interior link
gets 2 years probation

Prosecutors say lobbyist-government
investigation is still ongoing

By Joel Seidman, Producer

NBC News

WASHINGTON - A former Interior Department official linked to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to two years probation and a fine of $1000. The official, Roger Stillwell, pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of filing a false financial statement with the department.

Magistrate Judge Alan Kay disregarded a recommendation by both the Department of Justice and Stillwell's attorney for a lesser sentence of six months probation.

Judge Kay said that Stillwell's actions amounted to a "serious violation considering his position" and his years of government service. Kay admonished Stillwell saying there is "no such thing as a free lunch, particularly as provided by lobbyists."

The charges against Stillwell are the first connected to the Abramoff scandal to touch the Interior Department. The charges also mark an expansion of the government's investigation into the influence peddling scandal involving the convicted lobbyist. Prosecutors acknowledged in court that there is still an ongoing investigation involving Abramoff and his contacts with the Department of Interior.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16541877/

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This witness is expected to testify regarding his business, professional and personal relationships with Mark Foley; Leonard Millman; Ken Mehlman; Dan Inouye; Bill Frist; Tom DeLay; Dee Jay Mailer; Dirk Kempthorne; Norm Brownstein; Henry Paulson; Gale Norton; The Bureau of Indian Affairs; Daniel Akaka; The Nature Conservancy; Faye Kurren; Peter Savio; Neil Abercrombie; Dan Case; Jeffrey Case; Stephanie Case; Steve Case; Ed Case; Nainoa Thompson; Mark Souder; Rowena Akana; John Waihee III; John Waihee IV; Office of Hawaiian Affairs; Tom Cole; The Council For National Policy; The Carlyle Group; American Insurance Group (AIG); James Baker; Goldman Sachs; Richard Rainwater; Linda Lingle; Condoleezza Rice; Dick Cheney; Donald Rumsfeld; Henry Kissinger; Robert Dole; Elizabeth Hanford Dole; James Ahloy; Aloha Petroleum; Enron; Chevron-Texaco; Robert F. Miller; Tesoro Petroleum; Faye Kurren; Judge Barry Kurren; Judge Rey Graulty; Mark McConaghy; PricewaterhouseCoopers; Noble Drilling Co.; McKenzie Methane; Earl Anzai; Lyn Anzai; Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate; Robert K.U. Kihune; Henry Peters; Gilbert Tam; Paul Alston; Donna Tanoue; Colbert Matsumoto; Catherine Austin Fitts; Tyco International; Kazu Hayashida, Jack Borja, Ted Stevens, V.K. Durham, Bob Ney, Henry Kravis, Kohlbert Kravis Roberts & Co., Carl Icahn, Roger Stillwell, Sibel Edmonds, Judge Alan Kay, Sam Pryor, Judith Neustadter Fuqua, John McCain, Frederick Black, Steven Griles, David Carey, David Farmer, Corbett Kalama, Erik Prince, William Cohen, and others to be named upon discovery.