TPM:
As part of the guilty plea of Robert Coughlin, the former Justice Department official, prosecutors filed a document that lays out the mutually profitable relationship between Kevin Ring, Abramoff's associate, and Coughlin. You can read that here.
Coughlin got $6,180 worth of meals, drinks and sports tickets, prosecutors say, and Ring got a constant inside stream of information from DoJ. The filing lays out a laundry list of Coughlin's favors. If Abramoff's team needed information about his tribal clients, a corporate transaction, or something to do with speeding along permits for Abramoff's Jewish prep school, Coughlin was there.
Coughlin was particularly helpful with getting the Mississippi Choctaw the full $16 million for a jail-construction grant that that had been promised via an earmark. The jail was one of the main priorities for Abramoff's team between 2001-2002, as they fought the Justice Department's determination that the Choctaw, a very wealthy tribe, didn't need the funds.
Coughlin was there to warn Ring that a DoJ official handling the matter had "Democratic political leanings" and so couldn't be trusted to be helpful, according to the filing, and to otherwise advise Ring who the "friendlies" were at DoJ. He also showed up at a DoJ meeting along with Ring, because, as Ring wrote in an email, "it would be good if you were there so some of the clowns there know that I have friends, if you get my drift."
Finally, possibly with the intervention of a "high-ranking DoJ official" (it's not clear), the full $16 million was released. Ring was elated, writing "CHA-CHING!!!" in an email.
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