The Linchpin In The DeLay Abramoff Investigation Is Ed Buckham And The Alexander Strategy Group

The linchpin in the case against Rep. Tom DeLay is Ed Buckham and his firm, the Alexander Strategy Group.

With the guilty plea of Jack Abramoff last week, the federal investigation into  corruption within the GOP Congress is entering a new and critical phase.

The feds have already squeezed one former DeLay staffer, Michael Scanlon, and Abramoff's criminal information and plea agreement makes it clear that they have the goods on Tony Rudy, a principal in the Alexander Strategy Group, and also a former staffer of DeLay's.

In fact, the National Journal reported back in December that Rudy was nearing a plea.

So the next linchpin in the case against DeLay, and other members of Congress is Ed Buckham and the Alexander Strategy Group.

There have been several must-read stories on ASG and Buckham in the last few days.  Bloomberg did one, as did the Houston Chronicle, and the NY Times got in on the action as well.

Perhaps the most important sentence in any of the stories, is this one from the Houston Chronicle:

For prosecutors in the bewilderingly complex investigation, one of the legal hurdles is proving a crime occurred in the time frame when it can be prosecuted. A statute of limitations of five years for most white-collar fraud offenses limits liability to actions after early 2001. The only exception would be if prosecutors can show an ongoing conspiracy.

The Alexander Strategy Group may very well be the entity that ties this all together in a way that demonstrates an ongoing conspiracy that pre-dates the 5 year statute of limitations.  In other words, bribery meets RICO.

Here are some of the curiosities surrounding Ed Buckham and the Alexander Strategy Group.

• Their ties to other entities controlled by Rep. Tom DeLay and Rep. Roy Blunt
• Both DeLay and Blunt's leadership PACs made payments totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars to ASG.  It is very unusual for a member of Congress to be paying a lobbying firm.
• ASG and DeLay and Blunt's political committees even shared office space over a period of years.
  
• Buckham also had ties to other DeLay and Blunt related groups, for example, the U.S. Family Network.
• Buckham employed some interesting people over time:
• Jim Ellis, who in addition to being a lobbyist for ASG, also ran both DeLay's ARMPAC and Blunt's ROYB fund.
• Christine DeLay
• Julie Doolittle
• Hallie Hartley, the daughter of Blunt's one-time Chief of Staff Gregg Hartley.
• Buckham's clients included defense contractors with ties to the Duke Cunningham bribery scandal.
• Buckham's role in the various overseas trips.
• The client trading and other interesting financial arrangements between Abramoff and Buckham.

The day a plea deal is announced between the feds and Buckham is the day DeLay's lawyers start negotiating over sentence.