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Jack Abramoff was somber, bitter and feeling betrayed. Once a Washington superlobbyist, Abramoff is now the target of a Justice Department criminal probe of allegations that he defrauded American Indian tribes of tens of millions of dollars in fees. As stories of his alleged excess dribble out—including the emergence of e-mails showing he derisively referred to his Native American clients as "monkeys" and "idiots"—some of Abramoff's old friends have abandoned him and treated him like a pariah. They claim they knew nothing of his questionable lobbying tactics. So last week, glumly sitting at his corner table at Signatures, the tony downtown restaurant he owns that remains his last redoubt, Abramoff lashed out in frustration.

"Everybody is lying," Abramoff told a former colleague. There are e-mails and records that will implicate others, he said. He was noticeably caustic about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. For years, nobody on Washington's K Street corridor was closer to DeLay than Abramoff. They were an unlikely duo. DeLay, a conservative Christian, and Abramoff, an Orthodox Jew, traveled the world together and golfed the finest courses. Abramoff raised hundreds of thousands for DeLay's political causes and hired DeLay's aides, or kicked them business, when they left his employ. But now DeLay, too, has problems—in part because of overseas trips allegedly paid for by Abramoff's clients. In response, DeLay and his aides have said repeatedly they were unaware of Abramoff's behind-the-scenes financing role. "Those S.O.B.s," Abramoff said last week about DeLay and his staffers, according to his luncheon companion. "DeLay knew everything. He knew all the details."

The widening probe in D.C. may prove more troubling for DeLay than the separate investigation into his fund-raising in Texas. DeLay has had a longstanding relationship with the center; the group, for which he has signed a fund-raising letter, paid for two of his overseas trips—including a $70,000 excursion in 2000 during which he and Abramoff (a member of the center's board) played golf in Scotland. The Washington Post reported last week the trip was mostly paid for by two $25,000 checks from two Abramoff lobbying clients that were sent to the center the day the trip began. In 2002, the center received a $1 million contribution from one of those Abramoff clients, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. The funds were intended to finance "educational" efforts promoting the idea that casinos like the one operated by the Choctaws helped Native Americans, Ridenour said. At Abramoff's urging, the center allotted $500,000 to a public-relations firm owned by Scanlon, and an additional $450,000 was paid to a foundation controlled by Abramoff. The next year, the center received its largest donation, $1.5 million, from another Abramoff client, an Internet gambling group in Gibraltar. This time, Abramoff suggested most of the grant, $1.28 million, be given to a firm called "KayGold LLC." Unbeknownst to Ridenour, KayGold was owned by Abramoff.

Ridenour said she and the center's lawyers became concerned in 2003 about the absence of any work product and began pressing Abramoff for documentation. By March 2004, worried about a possible audit, she sent an e-mail saying it would be "extremely helpful" if he could supply any polls or even "leftover printed materials" in order to "reassure anyone, such as the IRS, who might wonder if the effort really took place." But, she said, nothing was ever turned over; Abramoff later resigned from the center's board. The group is now cooperating with the Feds and may sue Abramoff. Asked about the payments, Abramoff's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said, "No comment." Scanlon's lawyer said suggestions the work was not completed "are totally inaccurate," but declined to elaborate. DeLay, whose spokesman said the congressman knew nothing of the payments, is distancing himself from his former golfing partner. "I go about my job," he told reporters. "Jack Abramoff has his own problems. Any other questions?"