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The Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal is a United States political scandal relating to the work performed by political lobbyists Jack Abramoff, Ralph E. Reed, Jr., Grover Norquist and Michael Scanlon on behalf of Indian casino gambling interests for an estimated $85 million in fees. Abramoff and Scanlon grossly overbilled their clients, secretly splitting the multimillion-dollar profits. In one case, they secretly orchestrated lobbying against their own clients in order to force them to pay for lobbying services.
In the course of the scheme, the lobbyists are accused of illegally giving gifts and making campaign donations to legislators in return for votes or support of legislation. Representative Bob Ney (R-OH) and an aide to Tom DeLay (R-TX) have been directly implicated; other politicians, mostly Republican lawmakers, with connections to Indian affairs have various ties.
Scanlon and Abramoff have both pled guilty to a variety of charges related to the scheme.
On Friday, November 25, 2005, the Wall Street Journal reported the expansion of the investigation to four members of Congress: in addition to Ney and DeLay, the report includes Rep. John Doolittle (R., Calif.) and Sen. Conrad Burns (R., Mont.) http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Four_congressmembers_role_in_Abramoff_lobbying_1125.html On December 2, 2005, the New York Times reported that federal prosecutors were considering a plea bargain arrangement that would give Abramoff some consideration if he provided evidence that would implicate members of Congress and their senior staffers in receiving job offers in return for legislative favors.
On January 3, 2006, Abramoff pleaded guilty to three felony counts — conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion — involving charges stemming principally from his lobbying activities in Washington on behalf of Native American tribes. In addition, Abramoff and other defendants must make restitution of at least $25 million that was defrauded from clients, most notably the Native American tribes. Further, Abramoff owes the Internal Revenue Service $1.7 million as a result of his guilty plea to the tax evasion charge.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5081540 NPR. The court filing is available as a PDF.http://www.npr.org/documents/2006/jan/abramoff_charges.pdf
The agreement alleges that Abramoff bribed public officials. One of the cases of bribery described in detail involves a person identified as "Representative #1," who was reported by the Washington Post to be Representative Bob Ney (R-OH). Ney's spokesman confirmed that Ney was the Representative identified, but denied any improper influence.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/03/AR2006010301609.html The agreement also details Abramoff's practice of hiring former congressional staffers. Abramoff used these persons' influence to lobby their former Congressional employers, in violation of a one-year federal ban on such lobbying.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/abramoff_info_010306.pdf http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4579474.stm
After Abramoff's guilty plea, investigations were shifted early January 2006 to focus on the lobbying firm Alexander Strategy Group http://alexanderstrategy.com/company.asp, founded by a "close friend of DeLay's and his former chief of staff."http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/08/news/lobbyist.php The lobbying firm announced its closure come the end of the same month due to "fatal publicity"; it had represented such large firms as Microsoft and PhRMA. On May 1st, 2006, the Secret Service agreed to release logs of all meetings with Jack Abramoff on or before May 10th.
On June 22, 2006 the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs released its final report on the scandal. The report states that under the guidance of the Mississippi Choctaw tribe's planner, Nell Rogers, the tribe agreed to launder money because "Ralph Reed did not want to be paid directly by a tribe with gaming interests." It also states that Reed used non-profits, including Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, as pass-throughs to disguise the origin of the funds, and that "the structure was recommended by Jack Abramoff to accommodate Mr. Reed’s political concerns."
Background
| See Jack Abramoff for full details of Abramoff's life prior to tribal lobbying. |
Introduction to tribal lobbying
In the second half of the 1990s, Abramoff was employed by Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP, the lobbying arm of Preston Gates & Ellis LLP law firm based in Seattle, WA. In 1995, Abramoff began representing Native American tribes with gambling interests. He became involved with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. One of Abramoff's first acts as a tribal gaming lobbyist was to defeat a Congressional bill to tax Native American casinos, sponsored by Reps. Bill Archer (R-TX) and Ernest Istook (R-OK) in 1995. According to Washington Business Forward, a lobbying trade magazine, ""Team Abramoff"
On January 8 2001, Abramoff left Preston Gates to join the Government Relations division of the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, which once described him as "directly involved in the Republican party and conservative movement leadership structures" and "one of the leading fund raisers for the party and its congressional candidates." With the move to Greenberg Traurig Abramoff took as much as $6 million of client "work" from his old firm, including the Marianas Islands account. When asked in an interview why he moved to Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff replied "they have a dominant presence…This move is an excellent opportunity for me and my clients with the new Administration." http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:lLhVNtKvTfwJ:www.hillzoo.com/news032801.htm+%22Amy+Berger%22,+Preston+Gates&hl=en
At Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff assembled a "dream team" made up of lobbyists with past jobs working for Congressional leaders. This team included Tony Rudy, whom Abramoff had worked extensively with during the Marianas and eLottery lobbying, while Rudy was serving as Chief of Staff to Tom DeLay. Abramoff had hired Rudy while he was still at Preston Gates & Ellis, and brought him and six other staff lobbyists over to Greenberg Traurig. The hiring of Rudy was one of the first instances in a pattern by which Abramoff would directly hire aides of representatives he was actively lobbying.
2001 White House Transition Team Member
Jack Abramoff was a member of the Bush Administration's 2001 Transition Advisory Team assigned to the Department of the Interior. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-05-06-abramoff-bush_x.htm The Department of the Interior has Federal regulatory authority over tribal affairs such as tribal recognition and gaming.
Abramoff befriended the incoming Deputy Secretary of the Interior, J. Steven Griles. In the first 10 months of 2001, the Abramoff lobbying team logged almost 200 contacts with the new Administration. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-05-06-abramoff-bush_x.htmof He may have used these senior level contacts to assist in his lobbying for Native American tribes concerning tribal gaming.
Abramoff's main contact in Deputy Secretary of the Interior Steven Griles' office was through Italia Federici, a former political aide to Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton.http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Italia_Federici Abramoff's main contact in the West Wing of the White House was his former aide Susan Ralston who became Executive Assistant to then Senior Advisor to the President Karl Rove.
Guilty plea—confirmed corrupt lobbying practices
Abramoff and his partner Scanlon are alleged to have engaged in a series of corrupt practices in connection to their lobbying work for various Indian Casino gambling tribes. The fees paid to Abramoff and Scanlon for this work are believed to exceed $85 million.
In particular, Abramoff and Scanlon are alleged to have conspired with Washington power broker Grover Norquist and Christian activist Ralph Reed to co-ordinate lobbying against his own clients and prospective clients with the objective of forcing them to engage Abramoff and Scanlon to lobby against their own covert operations. Reed was paid to campaign against gambling interests that competed with Abramoff clients. Norquist served as a go-between by funneling money to Reed.
Allegation of double dealing
Ralph Reed repeatedly denied knowing the source of the money used to fund his campaign against the casinos until prosecutors released e-mails exchanged between him and Abramoff. According to e-mails, Reed and Norquist contacted Abramoff separately in 1999 to say they wanted to do business. Norquist complained about a "$75K hole in my budget from last year." Reed said he was counting on Abramoff "to help me with some contacts."On February 7, 2000, Abramoff warned Reed that an initial payment for anti-lottery radio spots and mailings would be less than Reed thought. "I need to give Grover * something for helping, so the first transfer will be a bit lighter," Abramoff wrote. The transfer was apparently lighter than even Abramoff expected. In a note to himself on February 22, Abramoff wrote, "Grover kept another $25K!" Norquist claims he had permission.
On May 23, 2000, Abramoff e-mailed Reed a retainer letter for Reed's work to build grass roots support to help defeat a ban on Internet gambling that was then being considered by Congress. The e-mail stated that the agreement was in connection with the "elot project." eLot Inc. is the parent company of eLottery Inc. an Internet gambling company that feared that the passage of the anti-Internet gambling legislation would hurt its business. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/0304metreed.html
On June 22, 2000, Susan Ralston e-mailed Abramoff, "I have 3 checks from elot: (1) 2 checks for $80K payable to ATR and (2) 1 check to TVC for $25K," * "Let me know exactly what to do next. Send to Grover? Send to Rev. Lou?" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/15/AR2005101501539_3.html
Thus eLottery money went through Norquist's foundation, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), the Faith and Family Alliance, and Reed's company, Century Strategies, while the last check was sent to Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition (TVC).
In 2000, Abramoff forced the Choctaws to give the Alabama Christian Coalition $1.15 million in installments. Norquist agreed to pass the money on to the Coalition and another Alabama antigambling group, both of which Reed was mobilizing for the fight against a proposed Alabama state lottery.
In 2002, after Abramoff worked with Reed to close the casino of the Tigua tribe, he persuaded the tribe to hire him to lobby Congress to reopen the casino.
Of the $7.7 million Abramoff and Scanlon charged the Choctaw for projects in 2001, they spent $1.2 million on their behalf and split the rest in a scheme they called "gimme five."
Guilty plea—confirmed spending irregularities
In 2004, Abramoff resigned from Greenberg Traurig amid a scandal related to spending irregularities in his work as a lobbyist for Native American tribes involved in gambling, namely The Mississippi Choctaw, the Louisiana Coushatta, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, Sandia Pueblo, the Saginaw Chippewa and the Tigua of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo.The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians paid $15 million to Abramoff and Scanlon's organizations. The bills were heavily padded. For example, in April 2000 he padded 2 hours with over 60 hours to achieve a "$150k minimum." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/28/AR2005122801588_4.html The funds were diverted to a number of projects, including the Eshkol Academy, an all-boys Orthodox Jewish school set up by Abramoff in Maryland.
Israel
Abramoff—who has been described by his spokesman Andrew Blum as, "an especially strong supporter of Israel" and by another associate as "a super-Zionist-freak-azoid"—diverted "money meant for inner-city kids" to Jewish settlers occupying the Palestinian West Bank in order to help them "fight the Palestinian intifada."Fund-Raising: Take It to the (West) Bank Newsweek, May 2, 2005. Tribal donors were outraged by Abramoff's diversion of funds to Israeli settlers. " 'This is almost like outer-limits bizarre,' says Henry Buffalo, a lawyer for the Saginaw Chippewa Indians who contributed $25,000 to the Capital Athletic Foundation at Abramoff's urging. 'The tribe would never have given money for this.' "Investigators believe that more than $140,000 of Capital Athletic Foundation funds were actually used for "purchases of camouflage suits, sniper scopes, night-vision binoculars, a thermal imager and other material described in foundation records as 'security' equipment." US Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearings revealed that the Capital Athletic Foundation "paid a monthly stipend and Jeep payments to a high-school friend of Abramoff" to conduct sniper workshops for Israeli Defense Force members in Israel's West Bank."[http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/062305/indian.html Indian Affairs panel hears 'tale of betrayal' The Hill, June 23, 2005.http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a9s0nfJm4uZA
However, as Professor Juan Cole asserts, in critiquing The Hill report on this subject, "the Israeli army does not need shooting lessons from The sniper lessons were for the colonists, practice for shooting Palestinians."[http://www.juancole.com/2006/01/abramoff-and-al-arian-lobbyists.html Abramoff and al-Arian: Lobbyist's "Charity" a Front for Terrorism Informed Comment, January 4, 2006. The "high-school friend" is, apparently, "Abramoff's connection" to the Jewish West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit, "Schmuel Ben-Zvi, an American emigre who, the lobbyist told associates, was an old friend he knew from Los Angeles;" Ben-Zvi has denied knowing Abramoff.
American International Center
Part of the sums paid by the tribes for lobbying were paid to the American International Center, an organization presenting itself as a think tank headed by David Grosh, a lifeguard on the Delaware shore who operated it from his beach house. Grosh had no qualifications or experience relevant to policy research and currently works in construction. At a Senate hearing, Grosh admitted that he had abetted the deception and said that he was "embarrassed and disgusted to be a part of this whole thing."GrassRoots Interactive
A document from Abramoff's files shows that in the summer of 2003 he pushed to sign President Omar Bongo of the poor west central African nation of Gabon as a client, even offering to travel to Gabon immediately after an August golfing vacation to Scotland "with the congressmen and senators I take there each year." Documents also show that Abramoff and his colleagues drew up a draft contract that called for $9 million in fees from Gabon to be paid to GrassRoots Interactive, a small Maryland lobbying company that his former colleagues say he controlled. (The firm, founded in May 2003 by Edward B. Miller, a Republican political figure in Maryland, was sold to Abramoff associate Samuel Hook in September 2003.
Documents, including copies of canceled checks, show that millions of dollars flowed into GrassRoots Interactive in 2003, the year it was created, and then flowed out again to unusual places. At least $2.3 million went to a California consulting firm that used the same address as the law office of Abramoff's brother, Robert. A separate check for $400,000, from GrassRoots, was made out to Kay Gold, another Abramoff family company.*
Derogatory references to Native American clients
In emails now made public by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, which is investigating his activities, Abramoff repeatedly referred to Native Americans as "monkeys", "troglodites" and "morons."http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/06/AR2006010601796.htmlAbramoff once asked his co-conspirator Scanlon to meet a client, saying in an email, "I have to meet with the monkeys from the Choctaw tribal council. You need to close the deal... with the client..."
About one tribal client (date unknown) Abramoff wrote to Scanlon, "These mofos are the stupidest idiots in the land for sure." In another email message he wrote, "we need to get some money from those monkeys!!"
"Monkey" and "Troglodyte" are considered racist when applied to a specific racial or ethnic group.
Ralph Reed's and James Dobson's denials
From a television interview conducted on October 19 2005 in AtlantaRalph E. Reed, Jr. said he asked Abramoff's firm for assurances his pay would not be in gambling dollars."And I was provided with those assurances by the law firm," Reed said. "If we were paid with funds that derived from gambling activity, then it was contrary to my understanding and the assurances that I received."http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=71383
From the Chicago Tribune on January 5 2006,
Abramoff recruited prominent Christian conservatives James Dobson and Ralph Reed to campaign against the Jena Band's casino on the grounds it would expand gambling, even though Abramoff's clients were casinos. Dobson and Reed have said they were duped http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0601050072jan05,1,7234190.story though their stories don't add up.http://mediamatters.org/items/200603020007
Abramoff's monetary influence
Abramoff has a reputation for largesse considered exceptional even by Washington standards. In addition to offering many Republican members of Congress expensive free meals at his restaurant, Signatures, Abramoff maintained four skyboxes at major sports arenas for political entertaining at a cost of more than $1 million a year. Abramoff hosted many fundraisers at these skyboxes including events for politicians publicly opposed to gambling, such as U.S. Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA). http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050628/NEWS/506280307/1039
Of the approximately $85 million in tribal money entrusted to Abramoff, his employers, or his related organizations, in excess of $4.4 million were directed to Congressional politicians, primarily Republicans in leadership positions or on relevant committees and Democrats with standing connections to Native American interests (in a 2-1 GOP ratio). While some of these lawmakers received contributions from these organizations before the organizations hired Abramoff, under Abramoff a higher percentage of funds were contributed to Republicans, suggesting Abramoff actually directed contributions away from Democrats and toward Republicans. Jack Abramoff himself never contributed to any Democrat nor any Democratic organization.
Other connected parties
The Bush Administration
Abramoff scotland3.jpg|thumb|right| A picture at St. Andrews, the famed Scottish golf course. From left to right: convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, golf organizer Jason Murdoch, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, convicted former Bush administration official David Safavian and Congressman Bob Ney ]].- US GSA Chief Procurement Officer David Hossein Safavian (R)
- Deputy United States Secretary of the Interior J. Steven Griles (R)
Maryland - Edward B. Miller
In 2005, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena in 2005 to Edward B Miller, the deputy chief of staff of the Republican governor of Maryland, Robert L. Ehrlich, because of Miller's connection to Grassroots Interactive.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/23/AR2005092302050.html
Quotations
"The Abramoff scandal is but the tip of a giant iceberg that threatens the integrity of the entire legislative branch of government."
- Stephen Hess, professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University.
See also
References
External links
Research/Media
- The Abramoff Galaxy: Washington Post Graphic
- Bush men race to return Abramoff cash
- Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist Billing Clients for Face Time with G.W. Bush
- Abramoff and Congressional Reform, JURIST
- Fund-Raising: Take It to the (West) Bank Newsweek, May 2, 2005.
- Indian Affairs panel hears 'tale of betrayal' The Hill, June 23, 2005.
- Emails from Abramoff regarding his relationship with George W. Bush], posted February 8, 2006.
- Abramoff Team and Harry Reid's Office Had Frequent Contact The Washington Post February 10, 2006
- Vanity fair article: "Washington's Invisible Man" A tell-all interview w/Jack Abramoff (pdf)
- Paradise Lost: Greed, Sex, Slavery, Forced Abortions and Right-Wing Moralists, Rebecca Clarren for "Ms. Magazine", Spring 2006
Opinion/Blogs
- * friendster links
- who in the Abramoff scandal is guilty of what?
- Will trail of corruption & influence peddling lead to Ralph Reed, evangelicals?
- Abramoff and al-Arian: Lobbyist's "Charity" a Front for Terrorism Informed Comment, January 4, 2006.
- Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay Fairly comprehensive list of links
- Republicans Try to Distract from Abramoff Pay-To-Play Schemes, Says Democratic National Committee, January 31, 2006 (includes "DNC Research" analysis)
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