Abramoff keeps going, and going, and going....

J. Steven Griles was mentioned this blog before, in connection with Grover Norquist. Griles was convicted yesterday of "a felony charge of lying to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee". In case you don't remember anything about this story:
(From the WaPo linked to in the first post)

A second group Norquist was involved with, the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, received about $500,000 in Abramoff client funds; the council's president has told Senate investigators that Abramoff often asked her to lobby a senior Interior Department official on his behalf. The committee report said the Justice Department should further investigate the organization's dealings with the department and its former deputy secretary, J. Steven Griles.

And then from the current article in the NYT:

Mr. Griles agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of lying to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on Nov. 2, 2005, when he said that he had no special relationship with Mr. Abramoff.

The issue, according to the Justice Department, was that Mr. Griles was involved romantically at that time with Italia Federici, who ran an advocacy group that received donations from Mr. Abramoff and his tribal clients. Ms. Federici introduced Mr. Griles to Mr. Abramoff, and acted as an intermediary between the two men.

They didn't catch Griles taking any money, but obviously he lied for a reason. Was he just so ashamed of his own shady behavior? Or did he take money but was let off the hook in exchange for something else? We'll see.

The scope of the investigations stemming from Abramoff is massive, and the number of people it's taken down is truly stunning. It's somwhat summed up in this document from the NYT. It's a little out of date too, as it doesn't reflect that Bob Ney was convicted, nor Griles nor Roger Stilwell.

It's amazing. Where will it end? (Hopefully Grover Norquist will be taken out along the way!)