Jack Abramoff: 4 Years in Prison
Lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to four years in prison, on Thursday. The judge in the case said Abramoff’s corruption had ’shattered the public’s confidence in government.’
Abramoff fought back tears when he tried to appeal to the judge to give him a lesser sentence than the prosecutors seeked. Instead, though, the judge handed down a higher sentence.
“I come before you as a broken man,” Abramoff said at his sentencing before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle. “I’m not the same man who happily and arrogantly engaged in a lifestyle of political and business corruption.”
He added later that, “My name is the butt of a joke, the source of a laugh and the title of a scandal.”
For some reason the judge did not feel particularly sorry for the corrupt lobbyist.
Abramoff’s defense lawyers and the prosecutors in the case appealed to the judge to let Abramoff off the hook, to a degree at least. The judge could sentence him to 11 years in prison but, both sides argued, he coorperated so well with the FBI that he deserved a less harsh sentence.
Well, less he got, but still quite serious; four years. He was also found guilty in a separated case in Florida; in that case, he was sentenced to two years in prison. All in all, the formerly powerful lobbyist has to serve six years in jail.
While it’s great the public held the Republicans to task for their misdeeds - it’s a damn shame the Democrats got a free pass on their corruption.