President Met Disgraced Lobbyist At Least Six Times

The report follows up on a September 2006 report on Abramoff and the White House by the same panel, which found Abramoff and his associates had billed clients for 485 contacts with the White House.

At that time, the White House criticized the document for relying on billing records which were "widely viewed as fraudulent," and insisted that Abramoff "got nothing" for his efforts to influence White House decisions.

In its new draft report, the committee said that it could not confirm the majority of those 485 contacts by using the new documents it obtained from the White House and Abramoff's old lobby firm, though the new documents identified others.

While investigators could not corroborate roughly 400 of the 485 contacts reported in Abramoff's billing records, the new documents -- mostly emails -- indicated 70 other contacts had taken place between Abramoff's team and White House officials which were not included in the billing records, the report said.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto called the report "warmed up leftovers" and "a joke."

"Abramoff carried no weight here as the report makes clear," Fratto wrote in an e-mail Monday afternoon. "Abramoff was spectacularly unsuccessful in affecting policy," he said. "There's nothing new here."

The draft report's findings, however, stated that "communications from Mr. Abramoff and his associates carried weight with White House officials."

On "some occasions," investigators found, "White House offiicals initiated contact with Mr. Abramoff and his associates to solicit recommendations on nominations for Administration posts." However, aside from ousting a Clinton-era State Department employee Abramoff had drawn a bead on -- one who had already inflamed other conservatives -- the report shows little evidence of Abramoff getting results from the White House.

The committee's 2006 report found 19 instances in which White House officials asked for tickets to events from Abramoff and his associates, or were offered them. The new draft report said the new documents confirmed 15 of those and indicated six more instances, including tickets for soprano Sarah Brightman, to an NCAA basketball tournament game, tickets to the Washington Wizards and tickets to the Baltimore Orioles.