Behind Unraveling Of DeLay's Team, A Jilted Fiancée
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WASHINGTON -- The engagement of Emily Miller and Michael Scanlon was supposed to mark the coming out of a new Washington power couple. The two had met on Capitol Hill, where they worked as press secretaries to Rep. Tom DeLay, the...
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WASHINGTON -- The engagement of Emily Miller and Michael Scanlon was supposed to mark the coming out of a new Washington power couple. The two had met on Capitol Hill, where they worked as press secretaries to Rep. Tom DeLay, the feared Texas Republican. They got engaged in September 2001 on the beach in Santa Monica, Calif., and planned an August 2002 wedding. As the date approached, Mr. Scanlon bought a $4.7 million oceanside mansion and guest house, formerly part of the DuPont estate, in Rehoboth Beach, Del. He furnished it down to the monogrammed towels and presented it to his bride-to-be. Then, with the wedding a few months away, he called off the engagement and started dating a 24-year-old waitress. Mr. Scanlon and Ms. Miller, now both 35 years old, were among a tight-knit group of aides who helped Mr. DeLay rise to the pinnacle of Capitol Hill in the 1990s and cement his power as House majority leader. Some of those aides provided a link between their boss and Jack Abramoff, a Republican lobbyist. The end of the engagement was part of that group's unraveling -- which has had significant consequences for official Washington. The aides have since turned on one another, feeding the ethics scandal surrounding Mr. Abramoff that now roils the capital. Mr. Abramoff has admitted he directed Native American clients to pay huge sums to Mr. Scanlon's public-relations firm. Mr. Scanlon secretly gave Mr. Abramoff half of his profits. Prosecutors came to Ms. Miller to help them build a case that drove her ex-fiancé to plead guilty, according to a person familiar with the situation. Mr. Scanlon's testimony in turn helped force Mr. Abramoff into a guilty plea. Another former DeLay aide, Tony Rudy, has been cited by prosecutors in the investigation. Now Washington is wondering whether prosecutors will use testimony from Messrs. Scanlon and Rudy to go after Mr. DeLay, who has resigned as majority leader. While Mr. Abramoff has become well-known as a symbol of the excesses of Washington influence-peddling, the story of the DeLay aides and their role in the scandal is less-known. People who have spoken to Ms. Miller say that after her breakup she began questioning how Mr. Scanlon could afford a lavish lifestyle while working summers as a beach lifeguard and doing seemingly little work at his public-relations firm. She talked about the beach house he had presented to her, the private jet he flew around in and the $17,000-a-month apartment he rented at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington. Prosecutors would later ask the same questions, and discover Mr. Abramoff's deals with the Indian tribes. Ms. Miller, who hasn't been accused of wrongdoing, declined to comment through her attorney, Dan French, who said the "details of Ms. Miller's past personal life are not relevant to the criminal actions of Mr. Scanlon and Mr. Abramoff." Mr. Abramoff was sentenced this week in Florida to five years and 10 months in prison over fraud in a casino deal, but his ultimate prison term won't be known until he is sentenced in the corruption scandal in Washington. The story of the star-crossed Capitol Hill romance -- and its repercussions in national politics -- begins in 1997, when Mr. Scanlon arrived in Rep. DeLay's office as press secretary. There he worked closely with Mr. Rudy. Both press aides were veterans of Republican politics and eager sportsmen. Mr. Scanlon, a native of suburban Washington, could run five miles in under 30 minutes, while Mr. Rudy, of Brooklyn, N.Y., played in an amateur ice-hockey league. The two shared a pit-bull political style and pushed Mr. DeLay to lead the charge in 1998 for the impeachment of President Clinton. "This whole thing about not kicking someone when they are down is B.S.," Mr. Scanlon once wrote to Mr. Rudy in an email published in "The Breach," a book by Peter Baker about the impeachment. "Not only do you kick him -- you kick him until he passes out -- then beat him over the head with a baseball bat -- then roll him up in an old rug -- and throw him off a cliff into the pound surf below!!!!!" The two staffers often lent a hand to Mr. Abramoff, according to court documents and former colleagues. The lobbyist helped Mr. DeLay raise millions of dollars. Mr. Abramoff frequently treated Mr. DeLay to dinner at his sushi restaurant on Capitol Hill and took the congressman on trips overseas. Mr. Abramoff spoiled Mr. DeLay's aides, too, taking them on trips to casinos and golf courses owned by his clients, according to travel disclosure forms. The aides returned the favor. In the fall of 1998, Mr. Abramoff wanted to help a Republican, Joe Ada, get elected as governor in Guam, even though he was trailing incumbent Gov. Carl Gutierrez badly in the polls. Just after lunch on Oct. 26, 1998, Mr. Abramoff emailed Mr. Rudy: "We want to know if there is anyway to get Tom to call for an investigation of the misuse of federal funds on Guam by this governor," he wrote in a message reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Abramoff said he would draft a statement for Mr. DeLay and suggested that if Mr. Rudy could "issue a press release and letter requesting an Inspector General (I guess from Interior?) to investigate these matters, it should have a major impact on the election next week." Within a few hours, Messrs. Rudy and Scanlon released a statement from Mr. DeLay and a letter to the Department of the Interior's inspector general calling for a federal investigation into the Democratic governor. "The allegations and materials I reviewed point to serious corruption" by the governor, Mr. DeLay said in the letter. Despite their efforts, Mr. Ada lost the race, and the department didn't conduct an investigation. After leaving office, Mr. Gutierrez was tried on corruption charges but acquitted on all counts. Mr. DeLay's spokeswoman said he declined to comment. Mr. Rudy's lawyer didn't return phone calls. In late 1998, Mr. Rudy was promoted to deputy chief of staff and Mr. Scanlon was elevated to communications director, reporting to Mr. Rudy. To fill the void in the press office, Mr. Scanlon soon hired Ms. Miller, a Georgetown University graduate who had worked as an ABC News associate producer and as a press secretary for Rep. Rick Lazio, a New York Republican. Ms. Miller shared the pugnacious style of her new colleagues. She was once quoted in a Washington Post profile of Mr. DeLay yelling at a reporter: "You lied!... You betrayed him! You twisted his words!... We don't know you. You don't exist... You are dead to us." Ms. Miller and Mr. Scanlon soon became close friends. Mr. Scanlon, married at the time, would sometimes bring his newborn son into the office, and Ms. Miller enjoyed watching over him, according to DeLay staffers. By the end of 1999, Mr. Scanlon's marriage was falling apart, and he moved out of the one-story bungalow he shared with his wife. He left the DeLay office for a private-sector job in public relations. In March 2000, Mr. Abramoff hired Mr. Scanlon to work with him in the Washington, D.C., lobbying office of Seattle-based law firm Preston Gates Ellis LLP. Mr. Abramoff frequently sought Mr. Rudy's help to influence legislation on behalf of his clients. In exchange, Mr. Abramoff offered the DeLay aide meals, expensive trips and cash, according to Mr. Abramoff and prosecutors. In June 2000, Mr. Abramoff took Mr. Rudy to watch Tiger Woods win the U.S. Open golf championship at Pebble Beach. Shortly afterward, Mr. Rudy helped arrange for Mr. DeLay to send a U.S. flag that had flown above the Capitol to the owner of the SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet, which Mr. Abramoff wanted to buy. When the SunCruz owners agreed to sell to Mr. Abramoff for $147.5 million, the lobbyist listed Mr. Rudy as a reference on his $60 million loan application. Mr. Abramoff later pleaded guilty to faking a wire transfer to get financing for the deal, which led to his sentencing in Florida this week. In March 2001, Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon joined Greenberg Traurig, a Miami-based law firm looking to build a lobbying practice in Washington. One of Mr. Abramoff's first hires there was Mr. Rudy. The two former DeLay press secretaries, once allies, became fierce rivals. Mr. Rudy bad-mouthed Mr. Scanlon among colleagues, according to other Greenberg Traurig lobbyists. Mr. Scanlon fought back by leaking unfavorable tidbits about Mr. Rudy to the press. Mr. Scanlon was now dating Ms. Miller, who had been promoted to Mr. DeLay's communications director. Using Ms. Miller as his eyes and ears in the DeLay office, Mr. Scanlon, according to DeLay staffers and journalists, told reporters that Mr. Rudy often visited Mr. DeLay's office in 2001, a possible violation of lobbying rules. Former congressional aides must wait a year before lobbying their former colleagues. Mr. Scanlon also told reporters that when Mr. Rudy worked as a House aide, Mr. Rudy urged House Republicans to steer political work to his wife's firm. When Mr. DeLay heard about the squabbling among his former aides, he was "livid" and threatened to get Mr. Scanlon booted from his lobbying job, according to a March 29, 2001, email from Mr. Rudy to Mr. Abramoff. Mr. Abramoff got Mr. Scanlon to stop the leaks, and no stories came out at the time about Mr. Scanlon's allegations. Around this time, Mr. Abramoff's bet that SunCruz revenue would allow him to pay back the $60 million loan wasn't panning out. In June 2001, SunCruz filed for bankruptcy, and Mr. Abramoff's lender demanded payment. To resolve the matter, Mr. Abramoff needed to come up with millions of dollars. He hatched a plan to bilk his clients. Most of Mr. Abramoff's Native American clients operated gambling casinos and wanted to block rival tribes from invading their turf. The tribes also worried that the federal government would tax their casino revenues. Mr. Abramoff told his tribal clients to hire Mr. Scanlon, who had set up his own public-relations firm and would soon leave the lobbying practice. Mr. Scanlon then secretly routed half of his net profits back to Mr. Abramoff. While Mr. Scanlon's actions didn't violate any laws, Mr. Abramoff admitted that he defrauded his clients by receiving kickbacks and not telling them. As the friendship between Messrs. Abramoff and Scanlon deepened, they teased each other about their regular racquetball matches. "You better start pulling some real opponents or I am going to beat your ass to a pulp next time we get out there!" Mr. Scanlon told Mr. Abramoff in one trash-talking email. Mr. Scanlon was "afraid of a real man!" Mr. Abramoff answered in an email sprinkled with obscenities. Mr. Scanlon reveled in his newfound wealth. In September 2001, he bought two houses in Washington for a total of $1.2 million, according to court papers. In November 2001, he bought a $1.6 million beach house in Rehoboth Beach and completely renovated it. A few months later, in March, he paid $4.7 million in cash for a place for him and Ms. Miller to live. The beachfront mansion had a weight room, sauna and a three-bedroom guest house. Mr. Scanlon mounted lights on the deck so he could hold parties on the beach at night, according to his surfing friends. He also bought vacation homes on the Caribbean island of St. Barts, including one villa he rented out for $50,000 a week. In September 2001, Mr. Scanlon, now divorced from his wife, proposed to Ms. Miller before dinner at The Ivy, a Los Angeles restaurant popular with celebrities. The couple planned a wedding at the beach for the following summer. In January 2002 Ms. Miller quit her job as Mr. DeLay's spokeswoman to prepare for the Aug. 10 wedding. The couple sent a save-the-date card to guests that read: "The Celebration Begins." The celebration never came. Mr. Scanlon broke off the engagement that spring and began dating a 24-year-old waitress at a Rehoboth Beach seafood restaurant. Mr. Scanlon returned to his summer lifeguard job at Rehoboth Beach, occasionally visiting Washington and staying at his Ritz-Carlton apartment. In November 2002, Mr. Scanlon quietly married his new girlfriend. Ms. Miller was devastated, according to friends. She spent hours at the gym. Two weeks after her planned wedding date, she started a blog with beauty and diet tips for women.
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Scanlon received more than $80 million from the tribes.
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