A law firm and its lobbyist

One spring day in 1998, I picked up my office phone to hear the excited, bombastic voice of Jack Abramoff.

I was a reporter for this paper's Washington, D.C., bureau. Abramoff — who this week pleaded guilty in a widening political-corruption scandal — was then a lobbyist for one of Seattle's most prominent law firms, Preston, Gates & Ellis. He was calling from the Pacific island of Saipan, a U.S. territory. I was writing a story about how Preston Gates, usually known for its good government works, was being paid piles of money to stop wage and labor laws from being extended to Saipan garment factories that the Clinton administration said were dingy sweatshops.

It was dawn in Saipan, but Abramoff was in full roar. He derided the sweatshop charge as a myth of "human-rights radicals."

Then he got all whimsical on me.

He described how the sun was just rising over the palm-dotted island. He saw it as a metaphor for how the destitute, indigenous people of Saipan were rising up from decades of welfare dependency and taking control of their economic destinies.

Liberals hate it when that happens, he noted.

"That's why I'm here, ultimately — to help these people live free," he said. "I'm not halfway around the world for the money. I'm here because it's the right thing to do."

This is really the way Abramoff talked, like he was some sort of ideological superhero. From our half-dozen conversations, it was obvious to me he was trouble. It was also well-documented in the press then that his methods of doling out favors and free trips at the very least pushed ethical limits.

Yet there he was, working for Preston Gates — the squeaky clean firm that brought us the likes of civic leader William Gates and the modern "father of Seattle," Jim Ellis. Even back then I wondered: What is Preston Gates thinking?

It's a good question today, too, now that he's admitted defrauding his clients out of tens of millions of dollars going back to 1997. Some Preston Gates lobbyists are being quoted now saying they always knew Abramoff was suspect.

So why was he at the firm for six years, embroiled in almost constant controversy, with nobody trying to rein him in?

A Preston Gates spokesman points out that every crime Abramoff has been charged with occurred after he left the firm.

That's true, although the federal investigation into the scandal is spreading.

Thursday, the governor of Saipan, Juan Babauta, said he has been asked to give the feds contracts, e-mails and records related to Abramoff and the $7 million Saipan paid Preston Gates.

"The Jack Abramoff investigation is obviously turning in the direction of [Saipan]," Babauta told The Saipan Tribune.

The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians has said that "financial misconduct" occurred in their Preston Gates account, and e-mails suggest Abramoff may have improperly billed personal trips and dinners to the tribe.

In some ways, Preston Gates may be the victim of a rogue lobbyist. But I also wonder how much the firm did to enable him, at least by looking the other way as he brought in millions of dollars of new business.

The story I wrote in 1998 featured an internal e-mail of Abramoff's that detailed how Preston Gates intended to lobby for Saipan.

Today, that e-mail reads like a template for Abramoff's larger abuses. Abramoff boasts how he will ply members of Congress and their staffs with free trips. How he will work the political system to try to undermine a federal agency. How he knows he can win if he's just given more money.

The e-mail was addressed to a Saipan garment-industry kingpin, even though Abramoff was supposed to be representing the island government. Preston Gates was upbraided for this blurring of private and public interests at a U.S. Senate hearing.

In response, Preston Gates partners wrote an op-ed piece in The Seattle Times, defending themselves for providing "zealous and ethical representation, as we do for all of our clients."

Zealous, yes. Ethical? We'll see when the investigation is complete. Right now it's not looking so good. Eight years after I last talked to Abramoff, I still wonder: What was Preston Gates thinking?

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.