White House Admits President Met with Abramoff

WASHINGTON, DC – Amid new revelations about the extensive contacts between Jack Abramoff and the Bush administration, including at least one meeting with President Bush, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean reiterated his call for President Bush to return all the money that the scandal-plagued lobbyist raised for the President's campaign fund.

Yesterday, a White House spokesperson acknowledged to the Associated Press that the President "had met on occasion" with Abramoff. In addition, Abramoff's records indicates that he made at least 200 "contacts" with members of the Bush administration, including then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and senior members of Vice President Cheney's staff.

Abramoff also bragged to his clients about his success in placing his own employees into Bush administration jobs including David Safavian, now in charge of all government procurement at the General Services Administration and Patrick Pizzella, formerly a Marianas lobbyist and currently a Deputy Secretary of Labor. Even Abramoff's personal assistant, Susan Ralston, later became Karl Rove's personal assistant.

Today, Governor Dean repeated his call for Bush to return Abramoff's contributions and sever this ethically questionable relationship:

"The web of connections between Abramoff and President Bush is now growing daily," said Dean. "In order to preserve the appearance of an impartial investigation by his Justice Department, President Bush should return the contributions that Jack Abramoff raised for his presidential campaigns."

The Bush campaign has reported that Abramoff contributed to Bush's first White House run in 2000 and raised more than $100,000 for the President's re-election bid last year. In total, Abramoff has contributed more than $200,000 to the RNC and the Bush campaign. [www.opensecrets.org].