Asked if he could become Washington's money man again, former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, recently released after three years in prison, said he "absolutely" could come back to Capitol Hill and do it again.
"Sure, there are people doing it right now the same way," Abramoff said on NBC's "Press Pass." "Now mind you again, I crossed lines, even the lines, the murky lines that they’ve set which are frankly absurd, I crossed even those lines."
After his stint in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges of corruption, fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion, Abramoff released a book called Capitol Punishment in which he argues that everyone on Capitol Hill and K Street is complicit in a system of favors and influence-peddling.
Abramoff, in his interview with NBC, continued his attack on the corruption he was once part of and addressed the history of Republican presidential hopeful and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in Washington.
"People who come to Washington who have public service, and they cash in on it," Abramoff said. "And they use their public service and their access to make money, and unfortunately Newt Gingrich is one of them who’s done it."
Gingrich on Wednesday defended his role as a consultant to Freddie Mac, saying he never lobbied on behalf of the mortgage giant.
Bloomberg News reported that the former House Speaker received between $1.6 million and $1.8 million in consulting fees from Freddie Mac.
"I don't know if he'll survive this, to be honest with you, this is a very big thing," Abramoff said. "Because he is doing, and engaging in the exact kind of corruption that America disdains. The very things that anger the Tea Party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement and everybody who is not in a movement and watches Washington and says, 'Why are these guys getting all this money? Why do they go become so rich? Why do they have these advantages?'"
