I searched to see if anyone has diaried about this detail of the scandal already, but I didn't see anything - if this is old news, let me know and I can delete if necessary.
From DM (Direct Marketing) News -
"The political scandal surrounding lobbyist Jack Abramoff dipped into the mailing industry last week when an item in his plea agreement mentioned giving money to a politician's senior staff member's wife five years ago to influence legislation regarding Internet gambling and opposing postal rate increases."
The senior staff member "has been identified in wire reports as Tony Rudy, who was DeLay's deputy chief of staff at the time and worked with Abramoff after leaving DeLay's team."
More from the article in the extended.
"The comment sent the postal community buzzing with the rest of Washington wondering what other information will arise from Abramoff's deal with federal officials. Abramoff pleaded guilty last week to three felonies and pledged to cooperate in a criminal probe that's edging closer to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
Court papers released in connection with Abramoff's plea offered these glimpses into his activities: On behalf of clients eager to stop Internet gambling or oppose postal rate increases, he provided things of value including, but not limited to, 10 equal monthly payments totaling $50,000 beginning in June 2000 through a nonprofit entity to the wife of a congressional aide identified as "Staffer A."
"The total amount paid to the wife of Staffer A was obtained from clients that would and did benefit from Staffer A's official actions regarding the legislation on internet gambling or opposing postal rate increases," Abramoff's plea agreement said....
Abramoff was a lobbyist in 2000 for Preston Gates Ellis Rouvelas & Meeds LLP, which had several clients involved in the direct marketing industry. According to public records compiled by The Center for Public Integrity, Pitney Bowes, Stamford, CT, was Preston Gates' second-largest client from 1998 to 2004, while the Magazine Publishers of America was its sixth-largest client. In that period, Pitney Bowes paid Preston Gates $6.06 million while the MPA paid $1.88 million to do lobbying....
DeLay took an interest in postal affairs in 2000, according to a review of DM News articles written in 2000 and 2001. In October 2000, the Direct Marketing Association said DeLay pushed to have an amendment to an appropriations bill that threatened the postal service's international mail service. The DMA said United Parcel Service was lobbying its congressional allies to have the amendment added. Then-Postmaster General William J. Henderson wrote lawmakers expressing what he said would be disastrous consequences to international postal service if the proposal were passed."
Perhaps someone with more time to investigate this aspect of the story can uncover more details - I sure hope these bastards will all go down for their crimes!
PS - I tried putting this in blockquotes, but for some reason the html tags aren't working for me today