Ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff was paid $1.2 million by the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed to set up a meeting with President Bush, according to the Associated Press. Mahathir was persuaded by the conservative Heritage Foundation to seek the meeting because, “the conservative think tank believed he could help ‘influence (Bush) in some way regarding U.S. policies.’” Sources claim that Abramoff used his connections to White House aide Karl Rove to set up the meeting. The Malaysian government also paid $300,000 to an Abramoff connected company to lobby members of Congress and to set up trips to the country, including a 2001 trip by then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX). Mahathir states that he cannot recall where the money paid to Abramoff came from but that it did not come from the Malaysian government.

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Jack Abramoff contacted White House aide Karl Rove four times to arrange for his client, the President of Malaysia, to meet with President Bush, according to former associates of the disgraced lobbyist. The Los Angeles Times reports that the Malaysian government paid $1.2 million to the American International Center, a shell company set up by Michael Scanlon and Abramoff, to lobby the White House for a meeting between the two Presidents. President Bush eventually met with President Mahathir in May of 2002 after Rove approved the meeting, according to the Times source. The White House denies that Abramoff’s lobbying played any part in Mahathir’s visit, stating that “the meeting was arranged through normal channels.”

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