Beginning in 2000, Abramoff began looking for work for Zachares in Washington, D.C., according to the guilty plea, and "in June 2002, with the assistance of Abramoff and others, Zachares was hired onto the staff of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee."

One of those others was Gibson, who passed Zachares' name on to his former employers at the committee, said sources familiar with the case.

Gibson had worked for Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) when the Congressman chaired the House Resources Committee from 1995 to 2000, then moved to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee when Young became chairman of that panel in 2001. He left the committee in May 2002 to join Greenberg Traurig; Young hired Zachares in June.