Abramoff appears in photo of Bush greeting tribe leader

WASHINGTON -- President Bush and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff appear together in a photograph on the websites of Time Magazine and the New York Times that represents the first published image of the two in the same room.

The photo was posted yesterday. It shows Bush greeting the leader of an Indian tribe with adviser Karl Rove looking on and Abramoff in the background. The May 9, 2001, meeting took place at the executive office building next to the White House, Time Magazine said.

Investigators are looking into the activities of lawmakers and their staffs in connection with Abramoff, who pleaded guilty last month to defrauding Indian tribal clients and conspiring to corrupt public officials.

Abramoff and a former partner, Michael Scanlon, are cooperating with the Justice Department inquiry.

When asked about Abramoff last month, Bush said the lobbyist was just another face in the crowd and was probably among thousands of people who get photographs taken with the president.

''I, frankly, don't even remember having my picture taken with the guy," Bush said at a Jan. 26 news conference in response to a question. ''I don't know him."

White House spokeswoman Maria Tamburri said Bush has taken tens of thousands of pictures, and the photo doesn't mean he had a personal relationship with Abramoff. ''The president dropped by a meeting of some two dozen legislators in 2001 to thank them for passing resolutions supporting tax relief," she said. ''We now know that Mr. Abramoff attended the meeting."

Abramoff wrote an e-mail last month to a friend in which he said he had met Bush almost a dozen times in five years, Time said. The magazine reported in January that the president had posed at least five times for photographs with Abramoff.

The lobbyist, a top fund-raiser for Bush's campaigns, had extensive connections among Republicans in Washington, including former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas.

He has also been linked to Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio, who temporarily gave up his chairmanship of the House Administration Committee last month, citing the ''distraction" of allegations that he received gifts and other benefits from Abramoff. Ney denies wrongdoing.

The first person to be indicted in the investigation was David Safavian, a former General Services Administration official and one-time colleague of Abramoff's.

He is accused of concealing the fact that Abramoff had business before his agency when seeking permission to accept an August 2002 trip to Scotland from the Republican lobbyist. Safavian pleaded not guilty.

As part of their prosecution of Safavian, Justice Department lawyers last week released papers and a series of e-mails about GSA-controlled properties. In them, Abramoff and Safavian discuss the Old Post Office Building in downtown Washington and a property called White Oak in suburban Maryland.

Abramoff and his team sought help from at least three lawmakers for their bids to acquire the properties, prosecutors said in their filings. Two, Republican Representatives Don Young of Alaska and Steven LaTourette of Ohio, wrote a letter to GSA that might have benefited Abramoff's bid to develop a luxury hotel in the Old Post Office Building, documents obtained last month showed.

The two representatives wrote the letter after an Abramoff colleague and former Ney chief of staff, Neil Volz, made a request to their committee. Representatives for both lawmakers said there was nothing improper about the letter.

Volz also contacted the office of Representative Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican, in connection with White Oak. Abramoff was interested in acquiring it for a private school, prosecutors said. Capito's former chief of staff, Mark Johnson, said he called the GSA on behalf of Volz, a friend.

''He called me up one day and said, 'Hey can you check with GSA? We've got some kind of land issue,' " Johnson said in an interview. He didn't inform Capito of the call because it didn't rise to that level, Johnson said. ''These are routine calls."

Capito has never met Abramoff, according to her spokesman, Joel Brubaker. ''The action taken by her former chief of staff was done without any knowledge, approval, or consent of the congresswoman," Brubaker said. ''She was not aware of any contact with GSA of any type on this matter."

Safavian's lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder, said the newly released e-mails don't show that her client did anything wrong.

''No one denies that Jack Abramoff is connected to many people," Van Gelder said. ''That doesn't mean his requests for information are criminal."