- Genre:political science
- Sub-genre:Political Process / Political Advocacy
- Language:English
- Pages:440
- eBook ISBN:9780977389889
Book details
Overview
The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff is an exhaustively researched exploration of the Abramoff lobbying and corruption scandal, which had been portrayed by the Sen. McCain and the media as an open-and-shut case. The book comes to a controversial conclusion: Abramoff was essentially not guilty of the charges to which he pleaded guilty. The true villains were The Washington Post, Sen. McCain, and the US Department of Justice. This is the story of how a vengeful McCain destroyed a political enemy, a ruthless media created a sensational myth, and all-powerful prosecutors extracted guilty pleas from innocent, but terrified, white-collar defendants
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Gary S. Chafetz, a Boston journalist, set out to chronicle the scandal involving the gun-for-hire and super-lobbyist, Jack Abramoff. Instead, he uncovered a Shakespearean tragedy of deceit, betrayal, and political vendetta, in which the true villains were 2008 Republican nominee for President, Sen. John McCain; The Washington Post newspaper; and the US Department of Justice--all of whom participated in the railroading of an essentially innocent man. (Abramoff's transgressions were minor.) Chafetz benefited from exclusive and unconditional secret access to Abramoff and to many never-before-released documents (Chafetz interviewed Abramoff--without the knowledge of the prosecutors with whom he was cooperating or his own lawyers--for two years, both before and during his imprisonment.)
The blizzard of stories--Abramoff even graced the cover of Time Magazine--painted Abramoff as an implausibly greedy lobbyist who cheated Indian tribes, bribed politicians, and corrupted the political process--a fascinating tale, but, ultimately, untrue. The true story, that Chafetz recounts in The Perfect Villain, is an even more riveting and compelling story.
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