Reply #23: Susan Ralston's Wikipedia Entry

[Ian David]

Susan Ralston
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Investigations and questioning

Email records from 2000 suggest that Susan Ralston helped Jack Abramoff pass checks from eLottery to Lou Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) and also to Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), en route to Ralph Reed's company, Century Strategies:

"I have 3 checks from elot: (1) 2 checks for $80 K payable to ATR and (2) 1 check to TVC for $25 K," wrote Ralston in 2000, "Let me know exactly what to do next. Send to Grover? Send to Rev. Lou?"

On January 3, 2006, Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy, and related charges, and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in a corruption probe in Washington. <6>

On July 29, 2005, Susan Ralston testified before federal grand jury prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, investigating whether government officials illegally disclosed the identity of CIA officer Valerie Wilson. Matthew Cooper made a call sometime in July of 2003 to Karl Rove but there were no records of the call. Susan Ralston claimed there were no records because they had transferred his call. <7>

Abramoff and his team were in frequent contact with Ralston, who was once Abramoff's executive assistant and who in February 2001 went to work in the same capacity for Rove.

In September 2006, the House Government Reform Committee released a report on Abramoff's dealings with the White House. According to the report, Abramoff gave sports tickets to Ralston for nine events, and she gave information about possible political appointees and helped Team Abramoff "secure access to the White House and obtain photo opportunities for clients."<1>

Ralston resigned on October 6, 2006. "She did not want to be a distraction to the White House at such an important time and so we have accepted her resignation. We support her decision and consider the matter closed," White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.<8>

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Ralston#Investigations_and_questioning