"As he serves time in federal prison, a picture is emerging in court documents and in a newly published book of a repentant Jack Abramoff, who is embracing the Jewish notion of “Teshuva” and turning his back on the days of power, money and politics.

At least that is what the once-powerful Republican lobbyist, convicted in a massive corruption investigation in the nation’s capital, would have us believe.

Portraying himself as a broken man, and depicted by friends as having undergone a complete transformation, Abramoff appealed for leniency at his sentencing earlier this month. “I’m not the same man who happily and arrogantly engaged in a lifestyle of political and business corruption,” he told Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle, who ignored the plea and sent him to prison for four more years — a harsher sentence than even that requested by the prosecution.

The sincerity of Abramoff’s remorse is hard to assess. Friends who have visited him in the Cumberland, Md., federal prison describe a man seeking humility, a man who believes he was punished by God for his wrongdoings. Critics view Abramoff’s makeover as yet another sophisticated maneuver from a man who has mastered political tactics and is now out to shorten his jail term."

Get the Story:
Just in Time for Yom Kippur, and Sentencing, Abramoff Paints Himself as Repentant (The Jewish Daily Forward 9/11)

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