Why Abramoff wasn't arrested in Baltimore

Last week I posted some early details of a Fort Lauderdale grand jury's indictment of Jack Abramoff. Early reports stated the likelihood of FBI agents detaining him in the Baltimore area Thursday afternoon. Later, ZS commented that he was actually taken into custody in Los Angeles on Thursday evening.

The new issue of Newsweek sheds some light on the matter:

The Justice Department played hardball last week with former superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, in part because of concerns he might flee to Israel. Hours before Abramoff was indicted on fraud charges in Miami last Thursday, FBI agents tried to arrest him at his Maryland home. But he'd already left for Los Angeles. Agents tracked him down on his cell phone and ordered him to surrender to the local FBI office. When Abramoff did, later that day, he was handcuffed, thrown into jail, then released last Friday on a $2.2 million bond.

The story also includes a quote from Jewish lawyer Nathan Lewin and intimates that yet another Karl Rove scandal might be coming up the pike.