Abscam
Encyclopedia
Abscam was a United States Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) sting operation
run from the FBI's Hauppauge
, Long Island
, office in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The operation initially targeted trafficking in stolen property but was converted to a public corruption investigation.
The investigation ultimately led to the conviction of a United States Senator
, five members of the House of Representatives
, one member of the New Jersey State Senate
, members of the Philadelphia City Council
, and an inspector for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
ern sheikh
, in videotaped talks with government officials, where they offered money in return for political favors to a non-existent sheikh
. A house (4407 W St. NW, Washington, D.C.), along with a yacht in Florida and hotel rooms in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, were used to set up meetings between various public officials and a mysterious Arab sheikh named "Kambir Abdul Rahman" who wanted:
Much of the operation was directed by Melvin Weinberg, a convicted con artist, who was hired by the FBI for that purpose. It was the first major operation by the FBI to trap corrupt public officials; up until 1970 only ten members of Congress had ever been convicted of accepting bribes.
On February 2, 1980, NBC Nightly News
became the first media outlet to break the story that FBI personnel were targeting members of Congress in a sting operation. The FBI had codenamed the operation "Abscam", a contraction of "Abdul scam", after the name of the company.
(D-NJ), and five members of the House of Representatives John Jenrette
(D-SC), Richard Kelly
(R-FL), Raymond Lederer (D-PA), Michael "Ozzie" Myers
(D-PA), and Frank Thompson
(D-NJ), were convicted of bribery and conspiracy in separate trials in 1981. While most of the politicians resigned, Myers had to be expelled
and Williams did not resign until the vote on his expulsion was almost due. Five other government officials were convicted, including New Jersey State Senator
Angelo Errichetti
; members of the Philadelphia City Council
, including Louis C. Johanson; and an inspector for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
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Senator Harrison "Pete" Williams
(D-NJ) was indicted on October 30, 1980 and convicted on May 1, 1981 on nine counts of bribery and conspiracy to use his office to aid in business ventures. Harrison repeatedly met with the FBI agents, and had worked out a deal where he would become involved in a titanium
mining operation by way of having 18% of the company's shares issued to his lawyer, Alexander Feinberg. Williams then promised to steer government contracts to the venture by using his position in the Senate.
At his trial, lawyers for Williams argued that the Senator had not actually been bribed because the stock in the titanium mining company was worthless. Other defenses attempting to have the charges dismissed included that he was a victim of selective prosecution
by the Justice Department because he had supported the presidential bid of Ted Kennedy
over Jimmy Carter
in the Democratic primary. These premises were not accepted by the jury, who convicted Williams after 28 hours of deliberation on May 1, 1981. Later appeals made by Williams included arguments that a main prosecution witness had perjured himself and that the Senator had been a victim of entrapment
. The guilty verdict was upheld, and the Senator was sentenced to three years in prison for his crimes.
Because of the convictions, the Senate Ethics Committee voted to censure
Senator Williams and put a motion to the floor to expel the Senator for charges of bringing dishonor upon their house of Congress and his "ethically repugnant behavior." Supporters of Williams moved that the censure was enough, and that the expulsion
was unnecessary. The Senate voted to censure Williams, but before the vote on his expulsion could occur, Senator Williams resigned his seat in the Senate. In his resignation speech, the Senator proclaimed his innocence and argued that the investigation into his activities was a grievous assault on the rights of the Senate, and that the other senators should be wary of unchecked investigations into their activities by other branches of the government.
Williams served two years of his three-year sentence at a federal penitentiary in Newark, New Jersey. He served the remainder of his term at the Integrity House halfway house, where he became a member of the board of directors until his death by cancer on November 17, 2001. He also attempted to receive a presidential pardon
from President Bill Clinton
, but his request was denied.
Williams was the first Senator to be imprisoned in almost 80 years, and had the expulsion motion been approved, would have been the first Senator to be expelled from the Senate since the Civil War.
(D-NJ) was a congressman from Trenton, New Jersey who was indicted and convicted of accepting a bribe from an FBI agent posing as an Arab sheik. Well-loved by his constituents, he was the longest-serving member of Congress indicted in Abscam.
Thompson abstained on vote to expel Rep. Myers, the first Congressman to be indicted. Thompson himself was not expelled from the House of Representatives because he lost his re-election campaign in 1980 to Chris Smith, a relatively unknown GOP candidate who in 1978 had run against Thompson as a sacrificial lamb
candidate. The 1980 election was won by Smith by a margin of 20,000 votes. On December 29, 1980, Thompson resigned his seat in the US House of Representatives.
On December 2, 1980, Thompson was indicted on bribery charges. Thompson spent $24,000 of campaign funds fighting the charges and appealing his conviction on grounds of entrapment.
Thompson was convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges and served 3 years in prison as his sentence starting in 1983. He served 2 years before being released, and worked as a consultant in Washington until his death in 1989.
John Murtha
(D-PA) was one of the Congressmen videotaped in an encounter with undercover FBI operatives. Although never indicted or prosecuted, he was named an unindicted co-conspirator
in the scandal.
As such, he testified against Frank Thompson
(D-NJ) and John Murphy (D-NY), the two Congressmen mentioned as participants in the deal at the same meeting. A short clip from the videotape shows Murtha stating "I'm not interested, I'm sorry. At this point..." in direct response to an offer of $50,000 in cash.
In November 1980, the Justice Department announced that Murtha would not face prosecution for his part in the scandal. The U.S. Attorney's Office reasoned that Murtha's intent was to obtain investment in his district. Full length viewing of the tape shows Murtha citing prospective investment opportunities that could return "500 or 1000" miners to work. In July 1981, the House Ethics Committee also chose not to file charges against Congressman Murtha, following a mostly party line vote. The resignation later that day of Republican E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr., the panel's special counsel, has been interpreted as an act of protest.
Murtha remained prominent in Congress, and was re-elected by his constituency 13 times over the course of 26 years before his death on February 8, 2010.
and in 1982 the conviction of Richard Kelly
was overturned. However, an appeals court upheld the conviction and Kelly served 13 months in prison. (He had been videotaped jamming $25,000 into his pockets. He then turned to one of the agents and asked "Does it show?")
Senator Larry Pressler (R-SD) refused to take the bribe, saying at the time, "Wait a minute, what you are suggesting may be illegal." He immediately reported the incident to the FBI. When Senator Pressler was told Walter Cronkite
referred to him on the evening news as a "hero" he stated, "I do not consider myself a hero... what have we come to if turning down a bribe is 'heroic'?"
In the wake of ABSCAM, Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti
issued "The Attorney General Guidelines for FBI Undercover Operations" ("Civiletti Undercover Guidelines") on January 5, 1981. These were the first Attorney General Guidelines for undercover operations, and they formalized procedures necessary to conduct undercover operations.
Following the initial press accounts about the ABSCAM investigation, Congress held a series of hearings to examine FBI undercover operations and the new Civiletti Undercover Guidelines. The House Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights began hearings on FBI undercover operations in March 1980 and concluded with a report in April 1984. Among the concerns expressed during the hearings were the undercover agents' involvement in illegal activity, the possibility of entrapping individuals, the prospect of damaging the reputations of innocent civilians, and the opportunity to undermine legitimate rights to privacy.
In March 1982, after the Senate debated a resolution to expel Senator Harrison A. Williams for his conduct in ABSCAM, the Senate established the Select Committee to Study Undercover Activities. In December 1982, the Committee issued its final report, which was generally supportive of the undercover technique but observed that its use "creates serious risks to citizens' property, privacy, and civil liberties, and may compromise law enforcement itself."
FBI documents later disclosed in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, consisting of newspaper clippings and letters written to the FBI, revealed a mixed response of the American public. Some Americans supported the FBI, but others argued that Abscam was an entrapment scenario ordered by a revenge-minded FBI who earlier had been stung by Congressional inquiries into acts of police brutality
and similar widespread abuses.
Congressional concern about sting operations persisted, creating numerous additional guidelines in the ensuing years:
During the course of Abscam, the FBI handed out more than $400,000 in bribes to Congressmen and middlemen.
adapted the Abscam story into a film script entitled Moon Over Miami, with Dan Aykroyd
and John Belushi
set to star, with Belushi playing a fictionalized version of Weinberg; Belushi's death in March 1982 scuttled plans for the film. Saturday Night Live
parodied the scandal in a skit entitled "The Bel-Airabs" (a spoof of The Beverly Hillbillies), February 9, 1980. The incident was also referenced in the Seinfeld
episode "The Sniffing Accountant
". In music, artist Prince
refers to the Abscam story in the track "Annie Christian" from his 1981 album Controversy. Abscam was also mentioned in the film Donnie Brasco
, when an agent suggests that a boat used in the operation be used undercover to impress Mafia kingpin Santo Trafficante, Jr.
. A 1981 Bloom County
comic strip
in which Milo Bloom
envisions himself as a senator on trial has him accused of "taking money from FBI agents posing as Arab camel
scalpers
". Abscam was also mentioned as an insult to an FBI agent on an episode of Simon & Simon
. A movie that made the Entertainment Weekly
2010 Black List entitled American Bull by Eric Warren Singer is a docudrama
of the Abscam events.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) sting operation
Sting operation
In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime. A typical sting will have a law-enforcement officer or cooperative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather...
run from the FBI's Hauppauge
Hauppauge, New York
Hauppauge is a hamlet and CDP in the Town of Islip and the Town of Smithtown in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population of the CDP was 20,100 at the time of the 2000 census....
, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, office in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The operation initially targeted trafficking in stolen property but was converted to a public corruption investigation.
The investigation ultimately led to the conviction of a United States Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
, five members of the House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, one member of the New Jersey State Senate
New Jersey Senate
The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. From 1844 until 1965 New Jersey's counties elected one Senator, each. Under the 1844 Constitution the term of office was three years. The 1947...
, members of the Philadelphia City Council
Philadelphia City Council
The Philadelphia City Council, the legislative body of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, consists of ten members elected by district and seven members elected at-large. The council president is elected by the members from among their number...
, and an inspector for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Operation
The FBI set up "Abdul Enterprises, Ltd." in 1978. FBI employees posed as Kraim Abdul Rahman, a fictional Middle EastMiddle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
ern sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
, in videotaped talks with government officials, where they offered money in return for political favors to a non-existent sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
. A house (4407 W St. NW, Washington, D.C.), along with a yacht in Florida and hotel rooms in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, were used to set up meetings between various public officials and a mysterious Arab sheikh named "Kambir Abdul Rahman" who wanted:
- To purchase asylum in the U.S.
- To involve them in an investment scheme
- To get help in getting his money out of his country
Much of the operation was directed by Melvin Weinberg, a convicted con artist, who was hired by the FBI for that purpose. It was the first major operation by the FBI to trap corrupt public officials; up until 1970 only ten members of Congress had ever been convicted of accepting bribes.
On February 2, 1980, NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News and broadcasts. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is located in the center...
became the first media outlet to break the story that FBI personnel were targeting members of Congress in a sting operation. The FBI had codenamed the operation "Abscam", a contraction of "Abdul scam", after the name of the company.
Convictions
Of the thirty-one targeted officials, one senator, Harrison A. WilliamsHarrison A. Williams
Harrison Arlington "Pete" Williams, Jr. was a Democrat who represented New Jersey in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate . Williams was convicted on May 1, 1981 for taking bribes in the Abscam sting operation, and resigned from the U.S. Senate in 1982...
(D-NJ), and five members of the House of Representatives John Jenrette
John Jenrette
John Wilson Jenrette, Jr. is a former American politician from South Carolina. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from January 1975 until December 1980. He was convicted of accepting a bribe in the FBI's Abscam operation.-Biography:Jenrette was born in Horry County,...
(D-SC), Richard Kelly
Richard Kelly (politician)
Richard Kelly was an American politician from Florida. He was the only Republican convicted of taking bribes in the 1980 Abscam scandal.-Early life and career:...
(R-FL), Raymond Lederer (D-PA), Michael "Ozzie" Myers
Michael Myers (politician)
Michael Joseph "Ozzie" Myers is a politician from the American state of Pennsylvania.He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Myers, a Democrat, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976. Myers had previously been a longshoreman. He was regarded as a "maverick"...
(D-PA), and Frank Thompson
Frank Thompson
Frank Thompson, Jr. was a Democratic Party politician from New Jersey. Thompson represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1955 to 1980....
(D-NJ), were convicted of bribery and conspiracy in separate trials in 1981. While most of the politicians resigned, Myers had to be expelled
Expulsion from the United States Congress
Expulsion is the most serious form of disciplinary action that can be taken against a Member of Congress. Article I, Section 5 of the United States Constitution provides that "Each House [of Congress] may determine the Rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with...
and Williams did not resign until the vote on his expulsion was almost due. Five other government officials were convicted, including New Jersey State Senator
New Jersey Senate
The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. From 1844 until 1965 New Jersey's counties elected one Senator, each. Under the 1844 Constitution the term of office was three years. The 1947...
Angelo Errichetti
Angelo Errichetti
Angelo Joseph Errichetti is an American Democratic Party politician who served as Mayor of Camden, New Jersey, and in the New Jersey State Senate before being indicted during Abscam.-Biography:...
; members of the Philadelphia City Council
Philadelphia City Council
The Philadelphia City Council, the legislative body of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, consists of ten members elected by district and seven members elected at-large. The council president is elected by the members from among their number...
, including Louis C. Johanson; and an inspector for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Pete Williams
Harrison A. Williams
Harrison Arlington "Pete" Williams, Jr. was a Democrat who represented New Jersey in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate . Williams was convicted on May 1, 1981 for taking bribes in the Abscam sting operation, and resigned from the U.S. Senate in 1982...
(D-NJ) was indicted on October 30, 1980 and convicted on May 1, 1981 on nine counts of bribery and conspiracy to use his office to aid in business ventures. Harrison repeatedly met with the FBI agents, and had worked out a deal where he would become involved in a titanium
Titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color....
mining operation by way of having 18% of the company's shares issued to his lawyer, Alexander Feinberg. Williams then promised to steer government contracts to the venture by using his position in the Senate.
At his trial, lawyers for Williams argued that the Senator had not actually been bribed because the stock in the titanium mining company was worthless. Other defenses attempting to have the charges dismissed included that he was a victim of selective prosecution
Selective prosecution
In jurisprudence, selective prosecution is a procedural defense in which a defendant argues that they should not be held criminally liable for breaking the law, as the criminal justice system discriminated against them by choosing to prosecute...
by the Justice Department because he had supported the presidential bid of Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
over Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
in the Democratic primary. These premises were not accepted by the jury, who convicted Williams after 28 hours of deliberation on May 1, 1981. Later appeals made by Williams included arguments that a main prosecution witness had perjured himself and that the Senator had been a victim of entrapment
Entrapment
In criminal law, entrapment is conduct by a law enforcement agent inducing a person to commit an offense that the person would otherwise have been unlikely to commit. In many jurisdictions, entrapment is a possible defense against criminal liability...
. The guilty verdict was upheld, and the Senator was sentenced to three years in prison for his crimes.
Because of the convictions, the Senate Ethics Committee voted to censure
Censure
A censure is an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism. Among the forms that it can take are a stern rebuke by a legislature, a spiritual penalty imposed by a church, and a negative judgment pronounced on a theological proposition.-Politics:...
Senator Williams and put a motion to the floor to expel the Senator for charges of bringing dishonor upon their house of Congress and his "ethically repugnant behavior." Supporters of Williams moved that the censure was enough, and that the expulsion
Expulsion
Expulsion may refer to:*Expulsion , removing a student from a school or university*Expulsion from the United States Congress*Deportation, the expulsion of someone from a country*Population transfer, the forced migration of people by the state...
was unnecessary. The Senate voted to censure Williams, but before the vote on his expulsion could occur, Senator Williams resigned his seat in the Senate. In his resignation speech, the Senator proclaimed his innocence and argued that the investigation into his activities was a grievous assault on the rights of the Senate, and that the other senators should be wary of unchecked investigations into their activities by other branches of the government.
Williams served two years of his three-year sentence at a federal penitentiary in Newark, New Jersey. He served the remainder of his term at the Integrity House halfway house, where he became a member of the board of directors until his death by cancer on November 17, 2001. He also attempted to receive a presidential pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...
from President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, but his request was denied.
Williams was the first Senator to be imprisoned in almost 80 years, and had the expulsion motion been approved, would have been the first Senator to be expelled from the Senate since the Civil War.
Frank Thompson
Frank ThompsonFrank Thompson
Frank Thompson, Jr. was a Democratic Party politician from New Jersey. Thompson represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1955 to 1980....
(D-NJ) was a congressman from Trenton, New Jersey who was indicted and convicted of accepting a bribe from an FBI agent posing as an Arab sheik. Well-loved by his constituents, he was the longest-serving member of Congress indicted in Abscam.
Thompson abstained on vote to expel Rep. Myers, the first Congressman to be indicted. Thompson himself was not expelled from the House of Representatives because he lost his re-election campaign in 1980 to Chris Smith, a relatively unknown GOP candidate who in 1978 had run against Thompson as a sacrificial lamb
Sacrificial lamb
A sacrificial lamb is a metaphorical reference to a person or animal sacrificed for the common good. The term is derived from the traditions of Abrahamic religion where a lamb is a highly valued possession, but is offered to God as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of Sin.-In politics:In politics, a...
candidate. The 1980 election was won by Smith by a margin of 20,000 votes. On December 29, 1980, Thompson resigned his seat in the US House of Representatives.
On December 2, 1980, Thompson was indicted on bribery charges. Thompson spent $24,000 of campaign funds fighting the charges and appealing his conviction on grounds of entrapment.
Thompson was convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges and served 3 years in prison as his sentence starting in 1983. He served 2 years before being released, and worked as a consultant in Washington until his death in 1989.
John Murtha
John Murtha
John Patrick "Jack" Murtha, Jr. was an American politician from the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Murtha, a Democrat, represented Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1974 until his death in 2010....
(D-PA) was one of the Congressmen videotaped in an encounter with undercover FBI operatives. Although never indicted or prosecuted, he was named an unindicted co-conspirator
Unindicted co-conspirator
An unindicted co-conspirator, or unindicted conspirator, is a person or entity that is alleged in an indictment to have engaged in conspiracy, but who is not charged in the same indictment...
in the scandal.
As such, he testified against Frank Thompson
Frank Thompson
Frank Thompson, Jr. was a Democratic Party politician from New Jersey. Thompson represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1955 to 1980....
(D-NJ) and John Murphy (D-NY), the two Congressmen mentioned as participants in the deal at the same meeting. A short clip from the videotape shows Murtha stating "I'm not interested, I'm sorry. At this point..." in direct response to an offer of $50,000 in cash.
In November 1980, the Justice Department announced that Murtha would not face prosecution for his part in the scandal. The U.S. Attorney's Office reasoned that Murtha's intent was to obtain investment in his district. Full length viewing of the tape shows Murtha citing prospective investment opportunities that could return "500 or 1000" miners to work. In July 1981, the House Ethics Committee also chose not to file charges against Congressman Murtha, following a mostly party line vote. The resignation later that day of Republican E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr., the panel's special counsel, has been interpreted as an act of protest.
Murtha remained prominent in Congress, and was re-elected by his constituency 13 times over the course of 26 years before his death on February 8, 2010.
Other public figures
The FBI was accused of entrapmentEntrapment
In criminal law, entrapment is conduct by a law enforcement agent inducing a person to commit an offense that the person would otherwise have been unlikely to commit. In many jurisdictions, entrapment is a possible defense against criminal liability...
and in 1982 the conviction of Richard Kelly
Richard Kelly (politician)
Richard Kelly was an American politician from Florida. He was the only Republican convicted of taking bribes in the 1980 Abscam scandal.-Early life and career:...
was overturned. However, an appeals court upheld the conviction and Kelly served 13 months in prison. (He had been videotaped jamming $25,000 into his pockets. He then turned to one of the agents and asked "Does it show?")
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
referred to him on the evening news as a "hero" he stated, "I do not consider myself a hero... what have we come to if turning down a bribe is 'heroic'?"
Conclusion
When the investigation became public in early 1980, controversy centered on the use of the "sting" technique and Weinberg's involvement in selecting targets. Although Weinberg was found to have previously engaged in numerous felonious activities, he avoided a three-year prison sentence and was paid $150,000 in connection with the operation. Ultimately, all of the ABSCAM convictions were upheld on appeal, although some judges criticized the tactics used by the FBI and lapses in FBI and DOJ supervision.In the wake of ABSCAM, Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti
Benjamin Civiletti
Benjamin Richard Civiletti served as the United States Attorney General during the last year and a half of the Carter administration, from 1979 to 1981. He is now a senior partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Venable LLP, specializing in commercial litigation and internal investigations,...
issued "The Attorney General Guidelines for FBI Undercover Operations" ("Civiletti Undercover Guidelines") on January 5, 1981. These were the first Attorney General Guidelines for undercover operations, and they formalized procedures necessary to conduct undercover operations.
Following the initial press accounts about the ABSCAM investigation, Congress held a series of hearings to examine FBI undercover operations and the new Civiletti Undercover Guidelines. The House Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights began hearings on FBI undercover operations in March 1980 and concluded with a report in April 1984. Among the concerns expressed during the hearings were the undercover agents' involvement in illegal activity, the possibility of entrapping individuals, the prospect of damaging the reputations of innocent civilians, and the opportunity to undermine legitimate rights to privacy.
In March 1982, after the Senate debated a resolution to expel Senator Harrison A. Williams for his conduct in ABSCAM, the Senate established the Select Committee to Study Undercover Activities. In December 1982, the Committee issued its final report, which was generally supportive of the undercover technique but observed that its use "creates serious risks to citizens' property, privacy, and civil liberties, and may compromise law enforcement itself."
FBI documents later disclosed in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, consisting of newspaper clippings and letters written to the FBI, revealed a mixed response of the American public. Some Americans supported the FBI, but others argued that Abscam was an entrapment scenario ordered by a revenge-minded FBI who earlier had been stung by Congressional inquiries into acts of police brutality
Police brutality
Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....
and similar widespread abuses.
Congressional concern about sting operations persisted, creating numerous additional guidelines in the ensuing years:
- The CivilettiBenjamin CivilettiBenjamin Richard Civiletti served as the United States Attorney General during the last year and a half of the Carter administration, from 1979 to 1981. He is now a senior partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Venable LLP, specializing in commercial litigation and internal investigations,...
Guidelines - 1980-1981 - The SmithWilliam French SmithWilliam French Smith was an American lawyer and the 74th Attorney General of the United States.-Biography:...
Guidelines - 1983 - The ThornburghDick ThornburghRichard Lewis "Dick" Thornburgh is an American lawyer and Republican politician who served as the 41st Governor of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987, and then as the U.S...
Guidelines - 1989 - The RenoJanet RenoJanet Wood Reno is a former Attorney General of the United States . She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1993, and confirmed on March 11...
Guidelines - 2001
During the course of Abscam, the FBI handed out more than $400,000 in bribes to Congressmen and middlemen.
In popular culture
French director Louis MalleLouis Malle
Louis Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. His films include Ascenseur pour l'échafaud , Atlantic City , and Au revoir, les enfants .- Early years in France :Malle was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Thumeries,...
adapted the Abscam story into a film script entitled Moon Over Miami, with Dan Aykroyd
Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...
and John Belushi
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, The Star of the Films National Lampoon's Animal House and the The Blues Brothers and for fronting the American blues and soul...
set to star, with Belushi playing a fictionalized version of Weinberg; Belushi's death in March 1982 scuttled plans for the film. Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
parodied the scandal in a skit entitled "The Bel-Airabs" (a spoof of The Beverly Hillbillies), February 9, 1980. The incident was also referenced in the Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
episode "The Sniffing Accountant
The Sniffing Accountant
"The Sniffing Accountant" is the sixty-eighth episode of the sitcom Seinfeld, being the fourth episode of the series' fifth season. It aired on NBC on Thursday, October 7, 1993....
". In music, artist Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
refers to the Abscam story in the track "Annie Christian" from his 1981 album Controversy. Abscam was also mentioned in the film Donnie Brasco
Donnie Brasco (film)
Donnie Brasco is a 1997 crime drama film directed by Mike Newell, starring Al Pacino, Johnny Depp and Michael Madsen. It is loosely based on the real-life events of Joseph D. Pistone, an FBI agent who infiltrated the Bonanno crime family, one of the Mafia's Five Families based in New York City...
, when an agent suggests that a boat used in the operation be used undercover to impress Mafia kingpin Santo Trafficante, Jr.
Santo Trafficante, Jr.
Santo Trafficante, Jr. was one of the last of the old-time Mafia bosses in the United States. He allegedly controlled organized criminal operations in Florida and Cuba, which had previously been consolidated from several rival gangs by his father, Santo Trafficante, Sr...
. A 1981 Bloom County
Bloom County
Bloom County is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, where children often have adult personalities and vocabularies and where...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
in which Milo Bloom
Milo Bloom
Milo Bloom is a fictional character in the American comic strip Bloom County. He was originally the main character, but was soon overshadowed by his best friend Michael Binkley and later on by Opus the penguin.-In Bloom County:...
envisions himself as a senator on trial has him accused of "taking money from FBI agents posing as Arab camel
Camel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...
scalpers
Scalping
Scalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body or from a living person. The initial purpose of scalping was to provide a trophy of battle or portable proof of a combatant's prowess in war...
". Abscam was also mentioned as an insult to an FBI agent on an episode of Simon & Simon
Simon & Simon
Simon & Simon is an American detective television series starring Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker.-History:The original 1978 pilot called Pirate's Key was set in Florida...
. A movie that made the Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
2010 Black List entitled American Bull by Eric Warren Singer is a docudrama
Docudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
of the Abscam events.
See also
- Operation GreylordOperation GreylordOperation Greylord was an investigation conducted jointly by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division into corruption in the judiciary of Cook County, Illinois...
- Operation Tennessee WaltzOperation Tennessee WaltzOperation Tennessee Waltz was a sting operation set up by federal and state law enforcement agents, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The operation led to the arrest of seven Tennessee state lawmakers and two men identified as "bagmen" in the...
- Jack ShaheenJack ShaheenJack G. Shaheen is Professor Emeritus of Mass Communication at Southern Illinois University. He was also a consultant on Middle East affairs for CBS News....
, Abscam: Arabiaphobia in America (1980, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination CommitteeAmerican-Arab Anti-Discrimination CommitteeThe American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee states that it is the largest Arab American grassroots civil rights organization in the United States. According to its web page it is open to people of all backgrounds, faiths and ethnicities and has over 40 chapters in 24 states and members in all...
)
External links
- PBS - History of Washington Scandals
- The Capital Century - Focuses on Frank Thompson, D-NJ, Abscam details
- Abscam FBI 'Freedom of Information Act' Releases
- Attorney General's Investigative Guidelines, September 2005
- American Spectator article "Murtha and the FBI: Full Director's cut" - September 29, 2006. Has link to watch online the full, unedited 54-minute FBI Abscam/John Murtha video from Jan. 7, 1980
- Abscam Operation
- Political Corruption in America, by Mark Grossman