Ehrlich waited to return $16,000

Governor says he presumed Abramoff innocent until campaign donor was convicted

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said yesterday that he waited to return $16,000 in campaign contributions from convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff because "everybody should be viewed as innocent until, you know, proven or pled guilty."

Ehrlich made his remarks in response to an e-mail question sent to Stateline with Governor Ehrlich, a weekly show on WBAL radio. After Abramoff pleaded guilty last week to fraud and other federal charges, the governor returned $16,000 from Abramoff and his wife received over two election cycles.

"I had kind of this romantic notion, it's a little bit unique, that everybody should be viewed as innocent until, you know, proven or pled guilty. It's sort of a traditional notion that most of us have," Ehrlich said. "I'm sure your e-mailer will be sending the same e-mail to Senator Mikulski and Congressman Hoyer as well."

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski and Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, both Democrats, received donations from American Indian tribes once represented by Abramoff as a lobbyist. Mikulski has donated the money to charity; Hoyer's staff has kept the donations, saying there is no evidence they were steered by Abramoff.

Ehrlich portrayed the Abramoff donations as routine and a small portion of the many he receives, not deserving of special scrutiny. "When you are in public office ... you receive tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of contributions. Most of those checks, by the way, are small checks, $25, $50, whatever. No one obviously has an expectation that you are going to do a due diligence, or investigate every person who writes you a check in a political campaign. That's just ridiculous."

The Abramoff donations came in $4,000 segments, the maximum allowed by state law. Maximum-level donors are a small percentage of campaign contributors.

Abramoff's connections to the Ehrlich administration extend beyond donations. The lobbyist was a guest at a Hanukkah party in December 2003 at the governor's mansion, The Washington Post reported. Also in 2003, Edward B. Miller, now Ehrlich's deputy chief of staff, founded and was sole owner of a company that was central to Abramoff's money-laundering schemes, according to a federal charging document against Abramoff released last week. Miller founded GrassRoots Interactive, which laundered $1.8 million from Tyco Inc. in a two-month period in 2003, according to testimony before federal committees.

On Friday, the Maryland Democratic Party called on Ehrlich to fire Miller.

"When Bob Ehrlich's career-long dirty-trickster Joe Steffen was exposed and became a political liability, Governor Ehrlich fired him immediately," state Democratic Party Chairman Terry Lierman said in a statement. "Now the governor's deputy chief of staff, Ed Miller, is in the middle of the largest political scandal to hit Washington, D.C., in a century and Ehrlich does nothing."

Ehrlich did not address the topic of Miller on the radio show. He said last week that there is "nothing there" regarding Miller's activities on behalf of Abramoff.

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