Italia Federici - Abramoff Involvement

Abramoff Involvement

Federici introduced Jack Abramoff to Deputy Secretary of the Interior J. Steven Griles in March 2001, just before Griles started at the Department of the Interior. Abramoff donated more than $400,000 to CREA, after which time she allegedly began using her connections with Griles to influence him to make decisions beneficial to Abramoff's tribal benefactors.

In emails, Abramoff claimed that "she is critical" to his work with the Department of Interior, especially with regards to preventing the Jena Band of Choctaws Indian Tribe from creating a casino, that would take money away from one of Abramoff's "core tribes". A February 18, 2003, email from Abramoff to Federici said "...This will be a PR disaster as you can imagine, especially if for some reason Interior agrees to approve this deal. McCrery and Vitter (the other R's in the delegation) are furious beyond belief. This is going to get really ugly. Please let Steve know about this. Thanks so much Italia!". The email referred to Griles, who is reported to have been romantically connected to Federici.

Federici also pleaded guilty to failure to file tax returns from 2001 - 2003; Furthermore, she did not pay income tax from 2001 through 2003.

In December 2007, Federici was sentenced to four years probation, and $77,243 in restitution of back taxes.

Despite being a convicted felon and admitted tax evader, Federici continues her energy policy career. Her most recent article excoriating "The Left" on their drilling policies appeared in the Climate Depot project of CFACT, an organization supported by pro-development donors.