Conservative think tank linked to Abramoff scandal

May 5, 2007
Conservative think tank linked to Abramoff scandal

WASHINGTON - When Rep. Tom Feeney first told Congress about a 2003 golf junket he took with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the Oviedo, Fla., Republican named a conservative think tank called the National Center for Public Policy Research as the trip's sponsor.

In the years since - and as recently as January - the think tank's directors said it played no role in the Scotland visit.

But congressional records show a direct link between the Washington-based policy group and a foundation identified by Senate investigators as Abramoff's personal "slush fund" that he used to evade taxes and lavish luxuries on his friends on Capitol Hill.