Selling Out, Abramoff Style

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The web of scandal surrounding Jack Abramoff has made for great political drama. But in some ways, it’s the story of a young man who, misguided as he may have been, got involved in politics to change the world. As he grew older, he climbed the ladder of Washington influence peddlers. The black art of lobbying brought him money and power—whatever was left of his Reagan-era idealism was left behind. (This arc was described by a recent Mother Jones piece, “The Fall of a True Believer.“)

Today’s New York Times details Abramoff’s $9 million dollar deal to arrange a single meeting between Bush and the President of Gabon. Compare that to Abramoff’s work in Africa in the 1980s, where he was deeply involved in an odd chapter of Cold War history: as a prominent or member of various groups working to organizing grassroots and congressional conservative support for anti-communist regimes and militias throughout Africa, it stands to reason that Abramoff did his fair share of roughing it as he helped to fight against the Red Empire.

Not nowadays. When negotiating the Gabon contract, through newly disclosed e-mails, Abramoff offered to travel to Africa, but only “on the basis by which I travel anywhere, being in a private aircraft, which bears a substantial cost unfortunately.” Yes, how unfortunate.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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