Officials: Hastert In the Mix of Congressional Bribery Investigation

May 25, 2006

Officials: Hastert " In the Mix " of Congressional Bribery Investigation

http://tinyurl.com/hmdyy May 24, 2006 " The Speaker of the House of

Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI, which is

seeking to determine his role in an ongoing public corruption probe into

members of Congress, " ABC News' Ross reports Wednesday evening.

" Federal officials say the information implicating Hastert was developed

from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government. "

http://tinyurl.com/fdnf4 According to the Center for Public Responsive,

House Speaker Dennis Hastert is the No.1 individual recipient of money from

Abramoff and his clients, with a total of $68,300 contributed to his

campaign committee and leadership PAC from 1998 to 2004.

http://tinyurl.com/od72c 05/08/06 Vaccine industry officials helped shape

legislation behind the scenes that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist

secretly amended into a bill to shield them from lawsuits, according to

e-mails obtained by a public advocacy group.

E-mails and documents written by a trade group for the vaccine-makers show

the organization met privately with Frist's staff and the White House about

measures that would give the industry protection from lawsuits filed by

people hurt by the vaccines.

The communications were made public in a report released this week by the

group Public Citizen. Its study follows a February story in The Tennessean

that Frist, along with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., ordered the

vaccine liability language inserted in a defense spending bill in December

without debate and in violation of usual Senate practice.

The group, called the Biotechnology Industry Organization, wanted such

language in the bill, the e-mails reflect.

" At Senator Frist's staff's request, this morning, BIO (Tom and I)

participated in a meeting with three other industry representatives (Sanofi

and an outside counsel who works for both Pfizer and Roche, I believe),

administration staff (HHS, DoJ and WH Leg Affairs), and Liz Hall to further

discuss liability, " BIO official Dave Boyer wrote in a November e-mail

obtained by Public Citizen.

In a written statement, Frist spokeswoman Amy Call stated that the senator

had promised publicly to include the vaccine liability protection in the

defense spending bill. She did not address the issue of the influence of

industry lobbyists.

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