Meet the Lapin Brothers

Daniel Lapin appears to be in overdrive these days. "I gave him your message," says a spokesperson for the Mercer Island rabbi, the Seattle talk-radio host, and the field commander in the religious right's war to reunite church and state. "He's just a busy guy," too busy to come to the phone and chat about Jack Abramoff, the dethroned D.C. superlobbyist and board member of Lapin's Mercer Island Judeo Christian charity.

Abramoff continues to make headlines from D.C. The latest news involves his work for Seattle's Preston Gates Ellis law and lobbying firm, representing the government and sweatshops of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in the late 1990s and 2000. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., wants a congressional probe of possibly illegal payments and election interference involving Abramoff and Preston Gates. The spreading scandal puts more pressure on Abramoff's deal-maker buddy, Texan Tom DeLay, the GOP's embattled House majority leader. Years ago, Lapin introduced Abramoff to DeLay. "It was just, 'Jack? Meet Tom'—very informal at a D.C. dinner," says a Lapin follower. "Just people who see eye to eye." Abramoff and DeLay went on to form a cozy lobbyist/lawmaker relationship that is now a subject of investigations by the Senate, the House, the Justice Department, and a federal grand jury. Abramoff's attorney, Abbe Lowell, says defending his client against the onslaught of media and government accusations "has become like standing in the middle of a tsunami with an umbrella." Abramoff recently broke his silence to talk to The New York Times Magazine and Time—to profess astonishment at all the fuss. But our own Rabbi Lapin, the man who, ultimately, made all this possible by hooking up Abramoff with DeLay, and who might have something insightful to say about the character of these men, continues to be elusive.

Initially under fire for possible campaign finance violations, DeLay is increasingly tilting under the weight of alleged ethics lapses linked to Abramoff. They include questionable overseas trips that might have been funded, in part, improperly by Abramoff and Preston Gates—possibly in return for favorable legislation for their clients. One of the destinations was the Northern Marianas, a U.S. protectorate west of Hawaii. It is home to a sweatshop garment industry, for which Abramoff and Preston Gates helped stave off labor reforms threatened by the U.S. Congress. More than 85 legislators and aides were ferried by Preston Gates to the island state in the late 1990s to be wined and dined, many of whom—DeLay in particular—ultimately backed away from a planned crackdown on the garment workers' 84-hour workweeks, squalid living conditions, and $3-an-hour wages.

Abramoff's Marianas connection, of course, has been in the news for a long while. But recently his involvement there has circled back to Lapin—David Lapin, that is, Daniel's brother, a Los Angeles businessman. David Lapin had a $1.2 million no-bid Northern Marianas government contract that was arranged by Abramoff during his Preston Gates days, to conduct ethics-in-government programs there. But near as anyone in the Marianas can determine today, David Lapin failed to provide any services, The New York Times reported April 28.

If Lapin of Mercer Island is too busy to talk—"he's getting a lot of calls from reporters," says his spokesperson, "and he's got a business, a nonprofit, to run"—Lapin of Los Angeles, who also is a rabbi, would like to say a few words. One, the implications in the article about him not performing work in the Marianas aren't true, and two, he doesn't agree with brother Daniel's politics.

"I met Mr. Abramoff many years ago," David Lapin told Seattle Weekly by phone. "He was on a trip to South Africa and was a guest of mine." (David and his brother were born in South Africa, and both became rabbis and businessmen in the U.S.) David Lapin, now CEO of Strategic Business Ethics, once ran a Jewish academy established by Abramoff in the D.C. area. "Jack and I are good friends and there was nothing improper about this deal," David Lapin said.

The Marianas commonwealth paid Abramoff and Preston Gates' D.C. lobbying offices, where Abramoff worked from 1994 until 2001, $6.7 million, of which, an auditor later determined, $3.1 million was paid without a lawful contract. (See "Following the Money," April 6.) Last month, Miller, the California representative who is seeking the House probe, said: "In 1999, two men who formerly served as key staff to Congressman DeLay—Ed Buckham [ex–chief of staff] and Mike Scanlon [who became a Preston Gates lobbyist under Abramoff]—were involved in an effort to influence the election of the speaker of the [Marianas] legislature. The goal of this manipulation was to assure selection of a pro-garment-industry candidate." Miller, a longtime advocate for garment workers' rights, also wants an investigation into "interferences in contract procurement and the questionable payment of overseas trips for members of Congress and staff" allegedly arranged by Abramoff and Scanlon, who both deny any wrongdoing.

National journalists in recent days have intensified the scrutiny of Abramoff, DeLay, and Preston Gates. Reporters for the major papers are now following the money trail around the Marianas. The Los Angeles Times reported Friday, May 6, that two former DeLay aides, working for Abramoff, dangled U.S. tax dollars to pressure Marianas legislators to switch votes in favor of a new territorial House speaker supported by Abramoff and DeLay. The speaker then pressed for renewal of an expiring Abramoff/Preston Gates consulting contract for the Marianas worth $100,000 a month. Wrote one legislator, Benigno Fitial, in a June 2000 e-mail to a top aide of then-Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio: "Please urge Teno to execute the [lobbying] agreement as we will continue to encounter problems … if the contract is not executed. We need P&G [Preston Gates] to help save our economy …. Please help!!" One legislator told the Los Angeles Times he was offered U.S. benefits for his vote—including funds for a much-needed breakwater in his district. A few months later, Congress approved $150,000 in initial funding; DeLay was on the committee backing the allocation. In 2001, Fitial urged another extension of the Preston Gates contracts, supporting a resolution that invoked the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, saying the attacks "have created an urgent need for the continued services" of the Seattle law firm. Rep. Miller told the Los Angeles Times: "This is starting to smell more like criminal activity—trading congressional appropriations for votes."