Jack Abramoff and His Cronies
The Democratic National Committee today announced that it is filing a lawsuit seeking the release of Secret Service records detailing White House visits by Jack Abramoff’s cronies and other central figures in the Republican culture of corruption, including Grover Norquist, Patrick Pizzella, Ralph Reed, Michael Scanlon and David Safavian. The suit follows a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the information filed by the DNC in January. The Secret Service has failed to comply with that request, despite the fact that the legal deadline for doing so passed in February.
Ever since Norquist helped Abramoff win his campaign for Chairman of the College Republicans in the early 1980s, the two have maintained a relationship that outsiders call “symbiotic.” Norquist provided Abramoff with key conservative credentials to boost his lobbying career and allowed Americans for Tax Reform to serve as a “front organization” for Abramoff clients. In return, Abramoff steered about $1.5 million in donations from the Choctaws and other clients to Americans for Tax Reform. With all that money changing hands, it’s clear why Norquist and Abramoff have had a long and successful relationship.
Norquist and Abramoff: A “Long and Successful” Relationship. Abramoff and Norquist have maintained a “long and successful political partnership…since the early 1980s, when Norquist managed Abramoff’s successful campaign to be chairman of the College Republicans. The pair’s friendship and political ties continued through the ‘80s as they worked on conservative causes. It blossomed in the decade after the GOP captured Congress in 1994 and Abramoff began his meteoric rise as a GOP lobbyist and fundraiser.” One former lobbyist described it as “symbiotic.” [National Journal, 10/1/05]
MISSISSIPPI BAND OF CHOCTAWS
Abramoff Lobbied for Choctaws; Norquist Funneled $1.15 Million from the Choctaws to Anti-Gambling Groups, Taking $300,000 For Himself. Abramoff lobbied for the Mississippi Band of Choctaws on “tax and tribal issues.” Since 1995, the tribe has paid Abramoff at least $7 million. Norquist admitted to receiving over $1.15 million from the Mississippi tribes which he later funneled to two groups who were running anti gambling campaigns in neighboring Alabama. From the mid-90s through 2002, according to sources, the Choctaws poured about $1.5 million into ATR coffers, roughly three-quarters of which was used to help defeat an Alabama lottery referendum and a video-poker proposal that was pending in the state Legislature. [Wall Street Journal, 7/3/01 Boston Globe, 5/13/05; Email from Jack Abramoff to Ralph Reed, 2/7/00; National Journal, 10/1/05]
MARIANAS ISLANDS
Marianas Islands Was Key Abramoff Client; Norquist Embraced the Cause. Abramoff’s was hired by textile manufacturers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands – a U.S. protectorate – to preserve the islands’ exemption from minimum-wage laws, and Abramoff and his lobbying team had almost 200 contacts with Bush Administration officials. According to sources familiar with ATR finances, the group sent Marianas officials a bill for $10,000 at least once in the mid-1990s for attendance at Norquist’s tax policy dinners. “The Marianas became a great cause celebre at the Wednesday meetings shortly after the Republicans took power,” recalled Marshall Wittman, a onetime Christian Coalition lobbyist who now works for the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. [National Journal, 10/1/05; Washington Post, 8/12/05; AP, 5/6/05]
Abramoff Had E-Lottery As Client and Funneled Money Through Norquist’s Group To Fund Attacks on Conservatives; Norquist Kept a Cut. “In the eLottery fight, [Abramoff] employed a win-at-any-cost strategy that went so far as to launch direct-mail attacks on vulnerable House conservatives…In May, eLottery hired Abramoff's firm, Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, for $100,000 a month, according to lobbying reports. In the following months, Abramoff directed the company to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to various organizations…The groups included Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform. The eLottery money went first to Norquist's foundation, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), and then through a second group in Virginia Beach called the Faith and Family Alliance, before it reached Reed's company, Century Strategies.” Norquist's group retained $10,000 from the money as it passed through. [Washington Post, 10/16/05]
COUNCIL OF REPUBLICANS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY
Abramoff Funneled Cash to Group Norquist Founded in Order to Block a Casino Proposed by Rivals of His Clients. CREA was founded in the 1990s by conservative anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and Gale Norton, now Secretary of the Interior. Norquist also sublet or gave space to the new organization for about a year at ATR’s former offices on 18th Street NW, in Washington. In the effort to block the establishment of an Indian casino that would compete with one of his clients (the Michigan Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe), Abramoff relied on Italia Federici, the president of Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy. He asked her to intercede with her friend Deputy Secretary of the Interior J. Steven Griles. Abramoff directed tribes he represented to donate $225,000 to CREA from 2001 to 2003. [National Journal, 10/1/05; Washington Post, 8/28/05]
Before becoming Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Bush Administration, Pizzella was handpicked by Jack Abramoff to lobby for weakened labor standards for the MarianasIslands, together with Abramoff’s bagman-to-be David Safavian. And after Bush was first elected President, Pizella was a member of the transition team for the Government Services Administration – where his good friend Safavian took over as Chief of Staff.
MARIANAS ISLANDS
Abramoff Handpicked Pizzella To Join His Lobbying Effort For Marianas. In 1996, Patrick Pizzella started lobbying for the Common Wealth of Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), a client he shared with Jack Abramoff. Pizzella used his contacts in the conservative movement to lobby for the pacific island, going as far as attending Grover Norquist’s weekly meeting of conservatives to “hawk his goods.” Pizzella also used his conservative connections to arrange meetings between CNMI officials and conservative activists, and sent them on, all expenses paid junkets to the Marinas Islands. According to the New Republic, “Abramoff plucked conservative lobbyists from key congressional offices [for his lobbying team] – two came directly from Tom DeLay's staff. He also picked Patrick Pizzella.” While working for Abramoff, Pizzella also put together a think-tank trip to the Marianas for conservative activists and members of Congress. [New Republic, 6/18/01; www.govbenefits.gov, Washington Technology, 3/7/05, AP, 5/3/05]
NAFTASIB / CHELSEA COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES
Pizzella and Abramoff Registered to Lobby For Chelsea Commercial Enterprise Limited, Front Group For Russian Energy Company Naftasib. According to Senate lobbyist filings, Abramoff was registered to lobby on behalf of Chelsea Commercial Enterprises in 1997, an effort that was described as being intimately liked to a diversified Russian energy firm known as Naftasib. In 1998, U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group with close ties to Abramoff and DeLay, received a $1 million donation from an undisclosed source. DeLay’s former chief of staff, Ed Buckham, subsequently revealed that the donation was from Naftasib executives, and was specifically intended to influence DeLay’s vote on legislation to protect the interests of these companies. In that same year, DeLay voted against a Clinton Administration proposal that was strongly opposed by Naftasib and other Russian oil companies, voting for the proposal only when the companies’ concerns had been addressed. [www.sopr.senate.gov; Secretary of the Senate, 2/13/98; Washington Post, 4/6/05]
E-LOTTERY
Pizzella and Abramoff Lobbied for E-Lottery; Pizzella Monitored Congress During Gambling Bill Vote, E-mailed Abramoff Updates. Pizzella and Abramoff were registered to lobby for E-Lottery. During a vote on a bill that E-Lottery opposed, Pizzella served as Abramoff’s eyes and ears in the Capitol, emailing him updates about the actions of Louis Sheldon, a conservative leader who Abramoff had paid to oppose the bill. When the bill was killed on a procedural vote, Pizzella wrote to Abramoff, “There was lucky Louie out front hi fiving with some lobbyists.” [www.senate.gov; Washington Post, 10/16/05]
ABRAMOFF’S TRIBAL CLIENTS
Abramoff and Pizzella Hired To Lobby for Mississippi Choctaws and Saginaw Chippewas. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and the Michigan Saginaw Chippewa Indians retained Abramoff and Pizzella as lobbyists. [www.sopr.senate.gov]
When Abramoff had to make sure his clients’ concerns got the attention of the right people in the Bush White House, he often turned to Ralph Reed, whose ties there -- especially with Karl Rove -- were far better than his. Reed was an obliging, even eager middleman, judging by e-mail exchanges between the two.
MISSISSIPPI CHOCTAWS
Reed Weighed In With Rove On Funding For Choctaw Project. “Abramoff wrote Reed that he needed some ‘serious swat from Karl’ to get the Justice Department to free up $16.3 million for a jail that his Choctaw Indian clients were planning to build in Mississippi. As it happened, Abramoff had caught Reed at a ripe moment. ‘Am at a lunch with Rove at the (Republican National Committee) meeting and just talked to the AG (John Ashcroft),’ he e-mailed Abramoff on his BlackBerry. ‘Will report the substance shortly.’ Reed agreed to give Rove materials arguing the Choctaws’ case.” [Time, Sunday 10/23/05]
MARIANAS ISLANDS
Reed Helped Abramoff In His Effort to Stop A Key Hire At the Interior Department. Reed acknowledges he used his White House access for Abramoff. In December 2001 [Abramoff] was eager to prevent Angela Williams from being appointed head of the Interior Department’s Office of Insular Affairs, which oversees the government’s dealings with the Northern Mariana Islands, an Abramoff client…Reed assured Abramoff he had ‘weighed in heavily’ with the White House personnel office to block her appointment but had received no commitment. ‘Any ideas on how we can make sure she does not get it?’ Abramoff asked. ‘Can you ping Karl on this? I can’t believe they just don’t get this done?’ Reed replied, ‘I am seeing him tomorrow at the WH and plan to discuss it with him as well.’” [Time, Sunday 10/23/05]
CRUISE SHIPS AND 9/11
Abramoff Asked Reed to Help With Scheme To Use Cruise Ships to House Rescue Workers After 9/11. Ten days after 9/11, Abramoff was promoting a business venture to rent cruise ships to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to billet rescue workers off New York City. Reed assured Abramoff he had “put in a tag call to karl to find out the best contact at fema.” [Time, Sunday 10/23/05]
E-LOTTERY
Abramoff and Reed Used Norquist To Launder E-Lottery Money. “Abramoff was lobbying for…eLottery Inc against a bill in Congress that would have banned most online betting. First the money was sent by eLottery to Americans for Tax Reform…headed by Grover Norquist, who knew both Reed and Abramoff. Norquist then wrote a check for $150,000 to a group called Faith and Family Alliance of Virginia Beach. Faith and Family Alliance wrote a check for the same amount to Reed’s Century Strategies…One of Faith and Family’s founders, Tim Phillips, was a vice president for Century Strategies.” [Atlanta Journal Constitution, 3/4/06]
LOUISIANA COUSHATTAS
Abramoff and Reed Worked Together on Louisiana Coushatta Interests. Abramoff, who hired Reed to manage the anti-casino campaign, made it clear to Reed that he was working for the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, according to a February 11, 2002, e-mail. After Reed sent Abramoff an article about The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana and the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians. Abramoff responded, “That’s our client.” Reed was eager for more with with the Coushattas, asking in an email for an update on where things stood with the Lousiana project. Reed wrote, “Let me know where we stand on budget with your client. I think there is an opportunity to show a lot of progress quickly.” [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/3/05; Abramoff/Reed E-Mail, 2/11/02; Abramoff/Reed/Scanlon E-Mail, 2/14/02]
Michael Scanlon was Abramoff’s partner and was involved in all of his lobbying schemes from the Mississippi Choctaws to the Saginaw Chippewa scandal. Scanlon pled guilty in the Abramoff investigation and has critical knowledge of the inter-workings of Abramoff’s business deals.
ABRAMOFF’S TRIBAL CLIENTS
Scanlon Was Heavily Involved in Coushatta Tribal Issues, Wrote Political Plan for Tribe. According to emails released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee Scanlon had extensive knowledge and was heavily involved in Abramoff’s lobbying on behalf of the Coushatta Indian Tribe. In an email dated April 18, 2001 Scanlon wrote to the Katherine Van Hoof, the former Counsel to the Coushatta Tribe, laying out the cost for the tribe’s Political program. Scanlon’s program came to $539,000, and on June 26, 2001 he wrote a summary of his efforts building the Coushatta’s political program. [Scanlon Emails, 4/18/01; 6/26/01]
Scanlon’s Firm Capitol Campaign Strategies Received $500,000 From Mississippi Choctaws in October of 2002. According to emails and tax records, Jack Abramoff convinced the Mississippi Choctaw to donate $1 million to the Nation Center for Public Policy Research in October of 2002. Shortly after, $500,000 was transferred out of the NCPR’s bank accounts to Capitol Campaign Strategies, which was controlled by Scanlon. [Arizona Republic, 6/23/05; Senate Indian Affairs Committee Hearing, 6/22/05; Roll Call, 11/3//05]
Scanlon Was Involved in Saginaw Chippewa Account. In an email dated December 12, 2002 Scanlon wrote to Abramoff about possible ways to get the Interior Department to reject a land request for a tribe that wanted to open a casino, which would have competed with Abramoff and Scanlon’s Saginaw Chippewa clients. [Abramoff Email, 12/16/01]
ABRAMOFF’S WORK WITH THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
Scanlon May Have Knowledge of Abramoff’s Interior Dealings. “Scanlon may also be able to elaborate on e-mails that have been made public by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, in which Abramoff discussed job offers to public officials and his efforts to get political appointees at the Interior Department to intercede on issues affecting clients.” [Washington Post, 11/20/05]
MONEY LAUNDERING WITH NORQUIST AND REED
Scanlon May Have Knowledge of Abramoff’s Money Laundering Scheme With Norquist and Reed. Scanlon may also be knowledgeable about Abramoff’s direction of tribal funds to several charitable foundations and advocacy groups and tax-exempt organizations, including one run by Grover Norquist. E-mail shows that Scanlon was also intimately familiar with some of the financial dealings of Ralph Reed. Abramoff went so far as to forward Reed’s emails to Scanlon, keeping him aware of Reed’s efforts on their behalf. In emails dated October 8 and November 9, 12, and 30; 2001 Abramoff forwarded emails to Scanlon from Reed with status reports and strategy discussions in them. In an email dated November 13, 2001 Abramoff looped Scanlon into a discussion of strategy to prevent the Alabama Coushatta tribe from moving slot machines into their casino. [Washington Post, 11/20/05; Abramoff Emails, 10/8/01; 11/9/01; 11/12/01; 11/13/01; 11/30/01]
David Safavian, former Chief of Staff for GSA and Chief Procurement Officer at the Office of Budget and Management, was arrested for obstructing an ongoing Federal investigation into Abramoff’s business dealings with the Bush Administration and Republican members of Congress. Safavian helped Abramoff lease government property controlled by the agency where he worked. He gave him advice over email, reviewed memos that Abramoff was sending to other GSA employees, and set up a meeting for Abramoff’s wife and business partner with Administration officials.
CHITIMACHA TRIBE
Abramoff Wanted to Get Office Space in the Old Post Office Pavillion for His Client, the Chitimacha Tribe. Safavian tried to help Abramoff arrange a lease on favorable terms for the Old Post Office Building, which was controlled by the General Services Administration. An FBI affidavit said the client was one of several Indian tribes that Mr. Abramoff has represented. Email from Safavian to Abramoff identify that tribe as the Chitimachas. Abramoff and Safavian even discussed the need for possible “Hill pressure” to close the deal for Abramoff’s tribal client on the office space in the Old Post Office building. [New York Times, 9/20/05; Email from Safavian to Abramoff, 11/18/02; Washington Post, 1/21/05]
THE ESHKOL SCHOOL
Abramoff Asked Safavian For Help Obtaining Property in Silver Spring for Religious School; Safavian Followed Up With Phone Calls to the Hill. Abramoff was hoping to secure a GSA lease for land in Silver Spring for the Eshkol Academy. In a July 23, 2002, e-mail to GSA employee Shawn McBurney, Safavian discussed getting information about the Silver Spring site to Capito's office. He wrote “Spoke with people in property disposal. They don’t have the White Oak info. Can you please…get that information for Shelly Moore Capito?” McBurney wrote back “Already have. They [property disposal] need to know what the info will be used for and who’s requesting it. I have a call into Mark [Capito’s chief of staff] with those questions.” [AP 2/11/06; Emails from Safavian to Shawn McBurney, 7/23/02]
MARIANAS ISLANDS
Safavian Named in Abramoff Marianas Trip Memo. In memos dated May 6 and May 20, 1997 Bush Administration officials are named as having traveled to the Marinas islands while working for a lobbying firm. The memo shows that David Safavian was on the trip to the Marianas Islands lead by Abramoff and had his expenses picked up by the firm. [AP, 5/3/05]
TYCO
Safavian Told Abramoff That His Client Tyco Was About to Lose Contracts; Abramoff Gave Tyco Heads-Up. According to documents filed by the Justice Department, Abramoff tipped his clients at Tyco off in 2003 that their contracts with the government were about to be canceled. Abramoff got the information David Safavian. Justice Department prosecutors accused Safavian of providing “sensitive and confidential information” about GSA deliberations. Safavian was also accused of providing advice to Abramoff on how to circumvent the suspension. [Washington Post, 1/28/06]
