White House vows to review 485 contacts with Abramoff Administration says the lobbyist did not have undue influence with staff members

WASHINGTON — The White House denied Friday that convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff had undue influence in the Bush administration but said it would review a House committee report detailing at least 485 contacts between Abramoff and administration officials.

"I'll tell you what it accurately portrays is the fact that Jack Abramoff was an exuberant practitioner of sleaze," said administration spokesman Tony Snow, "to the point where it's very difficult within the report itself to figure out how many actual contacts there are."

The House Government Reform Committee report, based on records from Abramoff's former firm, said it could not tell if the former lobbyist overstated his influence.

"The fact is, if he was telling people that he was getting results, they were getting ripped off," Snow said.

The report documents Abramoff's claims of far more White House contacts than the administration has acknowledged.

The records detail Abramoff and his associates' contacts with key Bush adviser Karl Rove, former White House aide Ken Mehlman (now national GOP chairman), former Rove assistant Susan Ralston (a former Abramoff employee), Rove associate Ralph Reed and several other officials.

In January, Abramoff pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion in conjunction with his lobbying activities.

Rove, asked by ABC News on Friday whether he had accepted gifts from Abramoff, said, "Afraid not."

Mehlman told Fox News on Friday that as White House political director his job included meetings with "interested parties" and "in some cases, political supporters."

"And it was all stuff that was above board," he said, adding that the report indicates Abramoff "may have been exaggerating."

"I look at it as guys talking big about what they were doing with the White House," he said.

Reed said he had not seen the report, which said Abramoff's White House lobbying efforts produced mixed results.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said the report raises new questions about the links between Abramoff and "his co-conspirators in the Republican culture of corruption and the Bush White House."

Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., and chairman of the committee that produced the report, steered clear of political rhetoric.

"We will let others construct a circumstantial house of cards and quibble about how many e-mails it takes to consummate a close friendship in Washington," Davis said.