Denver Post political website published right-wing blogger's distorted critique of Post reports connecting Schaffer to Abramoff

Summary: In a "Gang of Four" post on the Denver Post's political news website, right-wing blogger Ross Kaminsky posted what he described as "the first in a series of articles responding to three front-page articles in the Denver Post by reporter Michael Riley which attack former Congressman and current Senate candidate Bob Schaffer for a fact-finding trip Schaffer took to the Northern Marianas Islands ('CNMI') in 1999." However, Kaminsky's critique failed to include pertinent information from one of Riley's articles, and Kaminsky also failed to contact Riley for comment on his allegations that the articles about Schaffer were factually inaccurate.

In a June 12 entry on the Denver Post's "Gang of Four" political blog, the newspaper provided a platform for right-wing blogger and "Gang of Four" contributor Ross Kaminsky to post what he described as "the first in a series of articles responding to three front-page articles in the Denver Post by reporter Michael Riley which attack former Congressman and current Senate candidate Bob Schaffer for a fact-finding trip Schaffer took to the Northern Marianas Islands ('CNMI') in 1999." However, Kaminsky's critique failed to include pertinent information from Riley's April 10 article, which he characterized as "[t]he first of the Post's hit-piece trifecta." Kaminsky also gave no indication that he contacted Riley for comment on his allegations that the articles about Schaffer were factually inaccurate.

As Colorado Media Matters has noted -- and Kaminsky omitted -- controversy over Schaffer's 1999 trip to the Northern Mariana Islands as a congressman arose after an April 7 Post profile in which Schaffer "pointed" to the islands "as a successful model for a guest-worker program that could be adapted nationally." Kaminsky indicated his June 12 entry was the first in a series about the Post's follow-up articles on April 10, April 11, and April 13, which raised questions about Schaffer's trip and its purported connections to convicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. As the Post reported April 10, Abramoff "represented textile factory owners fighting congressional efforts to reform labor and immigration laws on the islands and who was being handsomely paid to keep the islands' cherished exemptions."

In introducing his series, Kaminsky stated:

In a series of articles, I shall not only demonstrate the multiple problems with the Denver Post's stories but I'll also provide information based on interviews with:

• Bob Schaffer
• A former senior staffer for Bob Schaffer
• Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition
• Benigno Fitial, Governor of the CNMI
• A government official from the CNMI who was involved with many Congressional (and other federal government) visits to the islands, including Schaffer's visit
• A former Congressional staffer who investigated corruption in the Clinton Administration's Department of the Interior specifically related to CNMI issue

Kaminsky's list of interviewees did not include Riley -- the author of the articles and the target of his allegations -- or any representative of the Post. Kaminsky also did not identify several of his purported sources, claiming, "Because most of the people I've interviewed for this series of articles work for government or in jobs where they must interact frequently with government, I will not be disclosing their names even though some of them gave me permission to do so if I felt it to be necessary."

Addressing one element of Riley's series, Kaminsky claimed regarding Abramoff's then-law firm that "[t]he only indication of Preston Gates having even a tangential relationship to the trip was that the airline tickets were possibly purchased through their travel agent." According to Kaminsky:

In the article's third paragraph [of the Post's April 10 article], Michael Riley notes that Schaffer "didn't say that the trip was partly arranged by the firm of now-jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff". The implication is that this is something Schaffer should have disclosed. However interviews with former Schaffer staffers and others have made it clear that to their knowledge neither Schaffer nor his staff had any dealings with Preston Gates regarding the trip. The only indication of Preston Gates having even a tangential relationship to the trip was that the airline tickets were possibly purchased through their travel agent. According to a former senior staffer for Schaffer, his former Chief of Staff, Susan Wadhams, noticed the Preston Gates name on the jacket of the tickets and contacted the Traditional Values Coalition and the Ethics Committee to verify that the tickets were paid for by TVC, and only by TVC, and that the trip itself complied with all Ethics requirements. The senior staffer told me that it was extremely unlikely Schaffer would have been involved in that process or those inquiries "because it is the Chief of Staff's job" to take care of such matters.

In making this statement, Kaminsky ignored passages in the Post article that also referred to the appearance of Preston Gates' clients on Schaffer's trip itinerary:

Schaffer and his wife stayed for free at a palm-studded beach resort and, besides factories, also toured historical sites and met with clients of Preston-Gates, Abramoff's firm, according to a copy of the trip's agenda archived in Schaffer's congressional papers.

[...]

At the time, Schaffer's staff also flagged the role of Abramoff's firm in the Marianas trip. In an August 1999 memo, Schaffer was told that travel arrangements to the Mariana Islands had been made by Preston-Gates. Handwritten notes on the agenda point out that a lunch meeting was with several current or former clients of the firm, including the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association and the Western Pacific Economic Council.

As the Post reported, handwritten notes on the agenda for Schaffer's trip indicate "that a lunch meeting was with several current or former clients of the firm." The progressive Colorado blog SquareState.net posted an image of the trip agenda showing an annotation above an August 28 luncheon item that reads: "Preston Gates, D.C. lobbying firm w/91 clients including CNMI (Inactive as of 2/98); Saipan Garment Manufacturers (Inactive as of 2/98); and Western Pacific Economic Council (Active as of 4/99)." Further, Kaminsky did not note that an image of the first page of the agenda shows, contrary to Kaminsky, that travel arrangements for the trip were made through Preston Gates itself. A handwritten note reads: "I have asked Cindy Gustafson what roll [sic] Preston-Gates has in this trip. I learned from Brandi that the flight arrangements have been made thru them. -- See attached agenda."

In a follow-up comment to his article, Kaminsky acknowledged the image of the trip agenda and another image, posted by a previous commenter, and argued that they "show simply that Schaffer had meetings with members of the Saipan Garment Association ... and [sic] obvious group to meet with if he was there investigating their factories. It means absolutely nothing about the propriety of Schaffer's trip." Kaminsky never acknowledged the appearance of Preston Gates on the trip agenda or the notation that the Schaffers' "flight arrangements" were made through the firm. Commenting on the image of the note regarding Preston Gates' role in making travel arrangements for the trip, Kaminsky stated:

Scan 1 shows a brief memo by Schaffer's former Chief of Staff, Susan Wadhams, to Schaffer saying essentially that she's verifying that Preston Gates was not paying for the CNMI trip. Again, according to another senior staffer, there is no reason Schaffer would have been involved with the process of looking into that question any further than just such a brief notification, and particularly back then, before Preston Gates or Abramoff were known as anything more than just another law and lobbying form. In other words, Scan 1 proves that Schaffer's office were not in cahoots with Abramoff or his firm.

In the body of his post, Kaminsky later stated, referring to the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), that Riley "trie[d]" to "tie TVC to Abramoff":

Near the end of the article, Riley admits that TVC paid for the trip and quotes Dick Wadhams (whose late wife, Susan, was Schaffer's Chief of Staff at the time) who re-emphasizes that "whatever involvement (Abramoff) had with Traditional Values Coalition wasn't known at the time." And while Riley then tries to tie TVC to Abramoff, he notes that it was only "later investigations" which made any connection between the two. (emphasis added)

However, Kaminsky's critique omitted that Riley's article specifically referenced reporting in The Washington Post from 2005 that asserted TVC "acted virtually as a political arm of Abramoff's lobbying operation":

Values Coalition paid for trip

Schaffer's $13,000 trip was paid for by the Orange County, Calif.-based Traditional Values Coalition, which Schaffer described as a religious group "concerned with human rights."

"Whatever involvement (Abramoff) had with Traditional Values Coalition wasn't known at the time," Wadhams said.

Later investigations have shown that in many instances, TVC -- which claims to represent 43,000 churches -- acted virtually as a political arm of Abramoff's lobbying operation.

In one 2000 case investigated by The Washington Post, TVC lobbied heavily against a bill restricting online gambling that would have hurt one of Abramoff's clients, eLottery Inc. In return, the report said, TVC received a check from the client for $25,000. Abramoff and TVC head Louis Sheldon had cooperated successfully so often that the now-jailed lobbyist began referring to him as "Lucky Louie," the newspaper reported. A TVC official didn't return a phone call requesting comment. (emphasis added)

—E.B.