On February 3, 1980, the Philadelphia Inquirer and other
newspapers revealed details about a secret two-year FBI sting operation
code-named "Abscam." By 1984, four members of the U.S. House of Representatives
and one U.S. Senator had been convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges. It
was the biggest scandal to hit Washington since Watergate though it is largely
forgotten today. Why is that? Because neither party has an incentive to bring it
up.
What Was Abscam?
The name "Abscam" is derived from the fictitious company the FBI set up - Abdul
Enterprises - to lure various public officials into accepting bribes.
On September 19, 1978, the FBI - via another fictitious company named "Olympic
Construction Corp." - rented a house in Washington D.C. from, ironically enough,
a Washington Post reporter named Lee Lescaze. According to an article Lescaze
wrote in 1997 for the Post, "the FBI knew that I was a newspaper reporter and
apparently didn't care." He also said that "The FBI is a good tenant. It pays
the rent on time."
The house - along with a yacht in Florida and hotel rooms in Pennsylvania and
New Jersey - was used to set up meetings between various public officials and a
mysterious Arab sheik named Abdul who wanted:
To purchase asylum in the U.S.
To involve them in an investment scheme
To get help in getting his money out of his country
FBI agents posing as associates of Abdul approached various
public officials with Abdul's goals and how they could help to achieve them. The
FBI secretly videotaped each meeting and had no trouble finding politicians
willing to abuse their office in exchange for bribes. Despite the convictions,
the FBI itself became a target as politicians who were not caught soon realized
how easily they could have been.
Rep. Richard Kelly of Florida is notorious for a January 8, 1980 videotape
showing him stuffing $25,000 worth of bribes in his pockets and then turning to
one of the agents and saying "Does it show?" Kelly was lucky enough to encounter
a judge sympathetic to the entrapment excuse and his conviction was overturned.
Angelo Errichetti was not as lucky. In 1981, New Jersey State Senator Errichetti
was sentenced to six years in prison and fined $40,000 for his involvement in
Abscam.
Representative Frank Thompson (D-N.J.), used $24,000 of campaign funds for his
legal fees related to his Abscam trial. This was actually legal at the time but
showed in the minds of many just how unethical some of these "entrapped"
defendants were.
On May 1, 1981, Senator Williams was convicted and on March 11, 1982, Senator
Williams of New Jersey resigned rather than have his colleagues vote him out.
One of the Abscam figures was quoted on one of the videotapes as claiming that
then Hempstead Town Supervisor Al D'Amato was "definitely taking contributions
-- he's on the take." D'Amato - who would be no stranger to scandal over the
coming decades - later became a three-term Senator for the state of New York.
Ironically, he held investigations into the Whitewater affair in the mid-90s.
Abscam Aftermath
Although a repeat of Abscam would doubtless net dozens if not hundreds of
convictions today, don't expect the Justice Department or the FBI to conduct
such a sting operation ever again. The political appointees to Justice are well
aware their party faithful were not amused by Abscam. For a brief moment in our
nations history starting with Watergate and ending with Abscam, the American
people learned what scoundrels their elected officials were. One can only hope
that future generations will recognize this.
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