Lobbyist With Ties to Bush Investigated

By The Associated Press

Filed at 11:37 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A lobbyist under investigation for billing Indian tribes tens of millions of dollars was at the center of an earlier inquiry that said his firm hadn't justified roughly $1.2 million it charged the Northern Mariana Islands.

Jack Abramoff, who has ties to President Bush and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, is the lobbyist being investigated. He was the lead lobbyist for Seattle-based Preston Gates & Ellis when it worked on behalf of the U.S. territorial islands to keep them free from certain federal labor and immigration laws during the last half of the 1990s, according to reviews conducted by the Pacific islands' public auditors.