Time Magazine scooped this first of the long awaited Jackgate photos. The photo was taken at a smallish gathering of some two dozen people.
"Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, circled in red, is visible to the left as President Bush greets Indian tribal leader Raul Garza, while Bush adviser Karl Rove, right, looks on."
Maybe this will help the absentminded pResident's memory. On January 25th, Bushie said: "You know, I, frankly, don’t even remember having my picture taken with the guy. I don’t know him."
White House had initially said there was no record of disgraced lobbyist [Jack Abramoff] at 2001 meeting . . .
Bush "has one of the best memories of any politician I have ever met," Abramoff mused in the e-mail last month, adding that, He "saw me in almost a dozen settings, and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids." The White House, however, has continued to assert that the President had no recollection of ever meeting Abramoff. When TIME reported in January that it had viewed unpublished photographs of Abramoff with Bush, aides responded that the pictures meant nothing since the President is photographed with thousands of supporters and White House visitors every year.
Now, finally, the first such photo has come to light. It shows a bearded Abramoff in the background as Bush greets an Abramoff client, Raul Garza, who was then the chairman of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas; Bush senior advisor Karl Rove looks on. The photograph was provided to TIME by Mr. Garza. The meeting took place in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House on May 9, 2001. Told about the photograph in January, the White House said it had no record that Abramoff was present at the meeting. Shown the photograph today, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said the White House had still found no record of Abramoff's presence but confirmed that it is Abramoff in the picture. McClellan told TIME: "The president has taken countless, tens of thousands of pictures at home and abroad over the last five years. As we've said previously a photo like this has no relevance to the Justice Department's investigation (of Abramoff)."
If the photographs mean nothing, then the Bushies shouldn't have spent so much time rounding them up and removing them from the internets. And how interesting that the Bushies have denied that Abramoff was even present at this particular meeting.
See also, Abramoff Suggests Bushie Is A Liar
Bush Abramoff Jackgate Bush/Abramoff K Street Bush Abramoff Photo Republican Scandal
