QUOTE
Jack Abramoff, the now-disgraced lobbyist behind a corruption scandal that ensnared several prominent lawmakers and Washington power brokers a few years ago, pleaded with a federal judge to reduce his sentence in a letter sent yesterday, apologizing for his "blundering" but saying he is not a "bad man."
"I am not a bad man (although to read all the news articles one would think I was Osama Bin Laden), but I did many bad things," he wrote. "I lied to clients, even while working to get them the results they expected. I cheated my law firm and took advantage of public officials. And, while I gave millions of dollars to charities, I thought I could then skirt the rules in paying the right amount of money to the government in taxes."
Abramoff, 49, is in year two of a nearly six-year sentence in Cumberland, Md., for fraud in his purchase of a Florida casino cruise line. Today, he is scheduled to make his first public appearance in years at his sentencing in a separate case for tax evasion, fraud and conspiracy to ply public officials with gifts in exchange for official actions.
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The letter is meant to persuade a federal judge to release Abramoff as early as 2010. If the judge accepts a Justice Department recommendation regarding his sentence, Abramoff could be out of prison after another three years and three months.
He is facing a maximum of 11 years and three months in prison.
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"I am not a bad man (although to read all the news articles one would think I was Osama Bin Laden), but I did many bad things," he wrote. "I lied to clients, even while working to get them the results they expected. I cheated my law firm and took advantage of public officials. And, while I gave millions of dollars to charities, I thought I could then skirt the rules in paying the right amount of money to the government in taxes."
Abramoff, 49, is in year two of a nearly six-year sentence in Cumberland, Md., for fraud in his purchase of a Florida casino cruise line. Today, he is scheduled to make his first public appearance in years at his sentencing in a separate case for tax evasion, fraud and conspiracy to ply public officials with gifts in exchange for official actions.
...
The letter is meant to persuade a federal judge to release Abramoff as early as 2010. If the judge accepts a Justice Department recommendation regarding his sentence, Abramoff could be out of prison after another three years and three months.
He is facing a maximum of 11 years and three months in prison.
...
Rather fitting that Abramoff is being sentenced on the day that McCain accepts the republican nomination for president.
