Jack Abramoff, the former lobbyist crimes eventually helped lead to the creation of the Office of Congressional Ethics, slammed House Republicans' move to weaken the office. | Getty Jack Abramoff slams GOP over House ethics changes

Jack Abramoff, the disgraced former lobbyist whose felony crimes eventually helped lead to the creation of the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, ripped House Republicans for their move to gut the independent watchdog.

Abramoff, who emerged from prison as a self-styled ethics reformer, told POLITICO that the House GOP package adopted on Monday is “exactly the opposite of what Congress should be doing.”


“While there seems to be little question that some of the procedures of the Office of Congressional Ethics can and probably have created collateral political problems for innocent Members of Congress, moving to diminish oversight is exactly the opposite of what Congress should be doing,” said Abramoff, who served 43 months in prison after an influence-peddling scandal in the mid-2000s.

The new House GOP package would put the oversight office under the jurisdiction of the lawmaker-run House Ethics Committee, where lawmakers have historically been reluctant to aggressively police their colleagues.

President-elect Donald Trump also hit lawmakers for the move on Tuesday, tweeting that: “With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it …may be, their number one act and priority.”

POLITICO reported on Monday that the effort to gut the OCE was led, in part, by lawmakers who have been investigated by the office in recent years. The House GOP changes appear to limit the scope of the OCE’s work by preventing it from considering anonymous tips against lawmakers. It would also prevent the now-independent ethics office from disclosing its findings publicly, as it does currently after it refers cases to the House Ethics Committee.

Abramoff said House Republicans were not heeding the message of the 2016 election, when Trump promised to “drain the swamp.”

That is the same line that then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi used when she created the Office of Congressional Ethics in 2008, after the Abramoff scandal that also saw former Rep. Bob Ney pled guilty of corruption charges and jailed.

“President-elect Trump has called for reform, and made specific proposals to reduce corruption in Washington,” Abramoff said. “Congress should take his lead and offer real reform, not rip off the bandage of the OCE. I guess some people in Washington still don’t get what happened in November.”

The former lobbyist took particular aim at Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the Virginia Republican who proposed the new changes to the ethics structure. Goodlatte and Abramoff have a history, however. In 2000, Goodlatte had pushed a companion bill to an anti-gambling measure that Abramoff sought to defeat and was ultimately part of the influence-peddling scandal.

“Congressman Goodlatte’s assertion that his amendment merely 'improves upon due process for individuals under investigation' is laughable,” Abramoff said. “When did Congress last concern itself with due process for individuals under investigation that aren’t Members of Congress? Take it from me, they don’t!”