More on the newly leaked Abramoff emails
I've now had some time to think about the relevence of the Abramoff emails which AP reported yesterday they had recently "obtained."
I think it's important to note that these emails are not "new": They were most likely handed over to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, headed by Senator John McCain by Greenberg Traurig back in April, 2004. The Department of Justice and the IRS have also had copies since at least the summer of 2004.
During the five Senate Indian Affairs hearings (9/27/04, 11/17/04, 6/22/05, 11/2/05 and 11/17/05) chaired by McCain in the Abramoff-Tribal clients investigation, 945 pages of paper exhibits, including emails, invoices, memos, cancelled checks, etc., were offered into the record as exhibits. Many of these were extensively redacted, including the names of Senators, Congressmen and other public officials.
Why did McCain not include these memos with the other exhibits? They are clearly related to what he determined to be the mandate of the Senate hearings, "following the tribal money trail." How much other damning evidence did he withhold.
The question of who is leaking the documents is equally important. It seems likely to either be someone in the DoJ's Public Integrity division (which is handling the Abramoff case) or a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. If it's the former, are they trying to put pressure on McCain to restart the hearings? If it's the latter, motive gets more complicated. A Democrat could be attempting to redirect attention to Interior's culpability after all the Delay follies. A Republican could be looking to embarrass a rival named in the emails. Or McCain could just be reminding his enemies that he still holds all the cards.
The politics swirling around the Abramoff fallout are getting as interesting as the fallout itself.