Lobbyists on "Team Abramoff" sometimes had to get creative when justifying tickets and trips to congressional staffers who worried about ethics compliance, a former lobbying associate of Kevin Ring and Jack Abramoff said Thursday during testimony in Ring's trial.
The lobbyists were worried about the appearance of compliance with congressional ethics rules, not actual compliance, testified Todd Boulanger, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services fraud in January.
Boulanger detailed a Super Bowl trip that Team Abramoff planned for lawmakers and staffers in January 2001. In the end, no members of Congress and only two Senate staffers attended. Ring did not go on the trip "because he didn't have anyone he invited going," Boulanger said.
But after the two Senate staffers, Ryan Thomas and Will Brooke, who worked for then-Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., "asked for documentation on how they could attend" the Super Bowl trip, justifying the expensive excursion became a priority for the lobbying team, Boulanger said. First, the lobbyists considered classifying the trip as a fundraiser, then Ring suggested labeling the trip a "tribute" to members of Congress, Boulanger recalled.
"If we wanted the two Senate staffers to attend, [giving them a justification] was important," he said. "I wanted to make them comfortable."
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