Hate the Corrupter, Love the Corrupt

Abramoff Associate Was a 'Corrupter,' Not a Lobbyist, Prosecutors Tell Jury By Del Quentin Wilber Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, September 12, 2009 Federal prosecutors told jurors Friday that Kevin Ring, an associate of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's, lavished meals and tickets on lawmakers and public officials in the hopes of illegally influencing them. "He was a lobbyist in name but a corruptor in reality," said Nathaniel B. Edmonds, a Justice Department prosecutor. "Ring is the sugar daddy, giving out the goodies to public officials over and over again." . . . They said Ring gave lawmakers and officials gifts and tough-to-get tickets to concerts by such popular performers as U2, Paul McCartney and the Dave Matthews Band. . . .

At one point, Ring gave tickets to concerts and the Wizards to a Justice Department official in the hopes of boosting government funding for a client, an Indian tribe, that wanted to build a jail in Mississippi. It worked, prosecutors said. Ring to…