James Hirni, a former lobbyist who worked with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with an all-expenses-paid trip to the World Series for two congressional aides in exchange for favors for one of his clients, the Justice Department announced.

According to court documents, Hirni, 36, who worked for Republican Sens. Bill Frist, Jeff Sessions, and Tim Hutchinson, and whose most recent job was working in the government relations office of Wal-Mart, sought an amendment to a federal highway bill that would encourage “state public works agencies to rent rather than purchase construction equipment” from United Rentals, a firm he represented.

Hirni also wanted an amendment to the federal highway bill that would force state public works agencies to contract only with those companies that had large dollar amounts of liability insurance coverage – such as United Rentals, which is identified as “Equipment Rental Company” in court documents. However, an investigation by ABCNews.com last month concluded that the unnamed company was United Rentals.

In federal court, Hirni admitted that he offered to pick up the tab to an October 2003 World Series game for two congressional aides in hopes that they would take official action favorable to his efforts to amend the federal highway bill.

One aide, Trevor L. Blackann, 34, who worked with Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., pleaded guilty last month to making a false statement on his 2003 tax returns by failing to report thousands of dollars in illegal gifts, including the World Series trip Hirni paid for. Bond served on the Senate Transportation Committee, which had responsibility over the federal highway bill.

ABCNews.com also reported that Todd Boulanger, another former Abramoff associate under federal investigation, worked with Hirni in 2003 on the federal highway bill and took part in the quid pro quo discussions with the congressional aides. Boulanger abruptly left his lobbying firm, Cassidy & Associates, the company announced last month. Boulanger has not been charged with any crimes.

Court documents in Blackann’s case showed that, in exchange for gifts that appear to be unrelated to his association with Hirni, he got Bond to draft a support letter for an individual who sought an appointment to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Blackann cooperated with the DOJ in prosecuting Hirni.

The Justice Department did not name the other congressional aide, who has been referred to as Staffer D in court documents. That staffer, the Justice Department said, worked on a House committee that oversaw the federal highway bill.

In court documents related to his guilty plea, Hirni admitted that he discussed how the federal highway bill, if drafted in a certain way, would benefit United Rentals. After the World Series trip, Hirni and Boulanger proposed to Blackann and Staffer D specific amendments to the legislation sought by United Rentals, discussed a public official who could insert the amendments into the Senate’s version of the bill, and worked to prevent the removal of one of the amendments once it was added to the bill.

Hirni admitted that in exchange for the political favors from Blackann and Staffer D he paid for round-trip airfare to New York City, spent $1,100 on a chauffeured, seven-passenger sport utility vehicle, a ticket for each official to game one of the World Series, a souvenir baseball jersey for each official, meals, drinks and entertainment, including more than $600 in charges at a strip club.

A spokesperson for Hirni told ABCNews.com last month that Hirni “regrets one single instance as a first time lobbyist over five years ago when a mistake in judgment by agreeing to a client’s request led to an unfortunate chain of events one evening.”

“Jim has acknowledged his involvement and the involvement of those responsible for that incident. Jim is now cooperating with the Department of Justice during their investigation. Additionally his future plans include developing a program to educated government staffers or others involved in lobbying about ethics potential mistakes. He very much wants to help others in the future.”

Fifteen individuals, including lobbyists and public officials, have pleaded guilty or are awaiting trial as a result of the federal investigation into Abramoff’s corrupt lobbying practices. Abramoff was sentenced to four years in prison in September. He pleaded guilty two years go to corruption charges and has been cooperating with federal investigators.

Abramoff had 485 lobbying contacts with White House officials between January 2001 and March 2004, including 170 meetings over meals and 16 meetings over drinks.

Earlier this year, Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, released hundreds of pages of documents that showed Abramoff regularly communicated with former White House political adviser Karl Rove and his deputies regarding the administration’s domestic agenda.

Waxman also released six photographs of Abramoff and members of his family posing with Bush at GOP fundraisers and White House functions. Some of the photos were autographed by the President.

In January 2006, when one such photograph surfaced, Bush dismissed it as meaningless and insisted he barely knew the man.

“You know, I, frankly, don’t even remember having my picture taken with the guy,” Bush said. “I don’t know him. I can’t say I didn’t ever meet him, but I meet a lot of people. … I’ve had my picture taken with a lot of people.”

When the President was pressed for details about whether he was personally lobbied by Abramoff, Bush said “I’ve never sat down with him and had a discussion with the guy.”

The White House also maintained that Abramoff’s relationship with Bush administration officials was minimal and that the lobbyist was unsuccessful in influencing policy decisions. Rove called him a “casual acquaintance.”

However, the committee report, entitled “Jack Abramoff’s Contact With White House Officials,” painted a different picture.

“Senior White House officials held Mr. Abramoff and others on his team in high regard,” the report said. “Communications from Mr. Abramoff and his associates carried weight with White House officials. In some instances, White House officials took action that advanced Mr. Abramoff’s lobbying goals.

“Other times, White House officials reached out to Mr. Abramoff and his team to seek their views on policy matters. And the documents contain examples in which White House officials gave consideration to Mr. Abramoff’s communications in policy deliberations even though they ultimately did not take the action requested by Mr. Abramoff.”
 
The report said Abramoff did succeed in getting the White House to fire State Department official Alan Stayman, who advocated reforms in the Northern Mariana Islands that threatened the business interests of Abramoff’s clients.

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands paid Abramoff’s law firm some $6.7 million from 1995 to 2001 to protect the islands’ exemptions from U.S. labor and minimum wage laws, while the U.S. protectorate was allowed to stamp “Made in the USA” labels on manufactured goods.

In one exchange about the trouble being caused by Stayman, Matt Schlapp, director of the White House Office of Political Affairs from 2003 to 2005, e-mailed Monica Kladakis, deputy associate director of presidential personnel, to inquire, “How do we fix this?”

Kladakis responded: “I think we can do something about it, but I’m trying to figure out what is the best way to go about it. I don’t want a firing scandal on our hands.”

Both Rove and deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley “were informed of Mr. Abramoff’s opposition to Mr. Stayman,” the report said. Rove, who was considered Bush’s closest political adviser, resigned as White House deputy chief of staff in 2007. Hadley is now national security adviser.

The report said White House officials also accepted favors from Abramoff.

“White House officials joined Abramoff team members for expensive meals and … White House officials were offered and accepted expensive tickets to sporting and entertainment events from Abramoff associates,” the report said.

The tickets included floor-level seats at Washington Wizards basketball games, ice-level seats at Washington Capitals hockey games, box seats at Baltimore Orioles baseball games, and prime seats to U2 and Bruce Springsteen concerts.

The records also indicated that Abramoff lobbyists billed their clients over $24,000 for meals and drinks involving White House officials.
 
In an apparent effort to keep the contacts out of the official White House records systems, Abramoff communicated with Rove and others through non-governmental e-mail accounts that were maintained by the Republican National Committee.