The Abramoff Files

With shady Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff now poised to cooperate in a far-reaching government investigation into to congressional corruption, several lawmakers are thought to be quaking in their loafers. Among those is California Congressman Richard Pombo, the reigning bete noir of environmentalists. Mr. Pombo is known to have received more than $35,000 in contributions from Abramoff and his Indian tribe clients. Most of that sum came from the Mashpee Wampanoag of Massachusetts. It so happens the tribe was awarded federal recognition after Pombo pushed a bill through the House Resources Committee, which he chairs.

Pombo's colleague and fellow committee member, California Democrat George Miller, has repeatedly petitioned Pombo to investigate Abramoff's activities on behalf of the Northern Mariana Islands, over which the House Resources Committee has sole jurisdiction. In a letter to colleagues, Miller wrote that lawmakers bore "a responsibility to investigate the evidence and allegations I have presented that go to the heart of the committee's integrity." So far, his petitions have gone largely ignored. But with Abramoff now presumably cooperating as a witness in the Justice Department case, things could quickly change.