January 27, 2006	Friday	Zilhaj 26, 1426

WASHINGTON, Jan 26: President George Bush sought to distance himself from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff on Thursday, saying “I don’t know him,” and refused to release photographs in which he appeared with Abramoff.

At a news conference, Mr Bush said release of photographs that show him and Mr Abramoff together would be used for “pure political purposes” by Democrats seeking to tie the lobbyist to the White House.

“I, frankly, don’t even remember having my picture taken with the guy. I don’t know him,” Bush said at his first solo news conference in two months.

Early this month Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud charges and agreed to help US prosecutors in a corruption probe that has generated calls for reform of the Washington practice of lobbying lawmakers with donations and favors to try to influence legislation.

“This investigation needs to look into all aspects of his influence on Capitol Hill. And if there are some in the White House, I’m sure they’re going to come knock on the doors,” Bush said.

Mr Abramoff was a major fund-raiser for Bush’s re-election campaign in 2004 and the White House has acknowledged that Abramoff participated in a few staff-level meetings at the White House and two Hanukkah receptions.

But whether Abramoff attempted to influence any White House policy has not been made clear.

At the Hanukkah and other receptions, Bush and his wife Laura stand in a receiving line and shake hands and have photographs taken with thousands of guests.

Bush noted reporters have been to holiday receptions as well.

“I can’t say I didn’t ever meet him, but I meet a lot of people. And, you know, evidently he was, just like you were the other day, at the holiday party: came in, put the grip-and-grin, they clicked the picture and off he goes,” he said.

Abramoff and his clients contributed to both Republicans and Democrats but appeared to send more money to Bush’s party.

The Bush-Cheney re-election campaign said in the wake of the scandal that it would give to charity $6,000 in contributions made by Abramoff or his clients, but not the tens of thousands of dollars Abramoff helped raise.

Democrats seeking to regain control of the US Congress in November mid-term elections are hoping the Abramoff scandal will taint Republicans with a “culture of corruption.”

Bush said “I’ve never sat down with him and had a discussion with the guy” and that as a general practice he does not meet with lobbyists.

It was possible, he said, that some might be in a “room full of people” during an event staged to celebrate success of a policy or passage of legislation such as a foreign-trade agreement.

A former White House procurement official, David Safavian, was indicted last October on charges of lying to investigators looking into a golf trip he took with Abramoff while serving in an earlier job as chief of staff for the General Services Administration. —Reuters