Hey folks. I'm gonna crosspost this material from
The Stakeholder. I'm pretty sure I saw a diary referencing this latest Dubose piece on Norquist, Abramoff, and Bush generally, but I wanted to focus in on Abramoff and the Bush Department of the Interior. I'm laying out a fair amount of stuff here, but I have a sense that I'm only scratching the surface, and I was hoping other folks might help me go deeper. I think this is likely to be the biggest, and perhaps most explosive, missing piece of the Abramoff puzzle. Ok, here's the stuff...
The Pimping of the President [Texas Observer]
Four months after he took the oath of office in 2001, President George W. Bush was the attraction, and the White House the venue, for a fundraiser organized by the alleged perpetrator of the largest billing fraud in the history of corporate lobbying. In May 2001, Jack Abramoff's lobbying client book was worth $4.1 million in annual billing for the Greenberg Traurig law firm. He was a friend of Bush advisor Karl Rove. He was a Bush "Pioneer," delivering at least $100,000 in bundled contributions to the 2000 campaign. He had just concluded his work on the Bush Transition Team as an advisor to the Department of the Interior. He had sent his personal assistant Susan Ralston to the White House to work as Rove's personal assistant. He was a close friend, advisor, and high-dollar fundraiser for the most powerful man in Congress, Tom DeLay. Abramoff was so closely tied to the Bush Administration that he could, and did, charge two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President. From the same two clients he took to the White House in May 2001, Abramoff also obtained $2.5 million in contributions for a non-profit foundation he and his wife operated.
[...]
Norquist has not responded to inquiries about using the White House as a fundraiser. It is, however, a regular ATR practice to invite state legislators and tribal leaders who have supported ATR anti-tax initiatives to the White House for a personal thank-you from the President. A source at ATR said no money is ever accepted from participants in these events. The $25,000 check from the Coushattas suggests that, at least in this instance, Norquist's organization made an exception. The $75,000 collected from the Mississippi Choctaws and two corporate sponsors mentioned in Abramoff's e-mail suggests there were other exceptions. Norquist recently wrote to the tribes who paid to attend White House meetings. His story regarding that event is also evolving. The contributions, he told tribal leaders in letters that went out in May, were in no way related to any White House event. That doesn't square with the paper trail Abramoff and Norquist left behind, which makes it evident that they were selling access to the President.
The entire article is nauseating, and a great piece. But I want to focus on something else, because I have to confess that I was unaware that Abramoff's role on the Bush Transition Team as an advisor to the Department of the Interior. Boy, does that stink to high heaven. If you were not aware, the Department of the Interior oversees Indian gaming.
And who was running the show at the Department of the Interior while Abramoff was running his swindle?
Our good friend, Gale Norton:
A Republican environmental group with links to Interior Secretary Gale Norton and former powerhouse lobbyist Jack Abramoff claims it is a tax-exempt corporation and does not have to account publicly for at least $250,000 that Indian tribes report contributing to it at his urging.
But the IRS says it has no record that the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy has been granted tax-free status as a corporation.
The absence of IRS approval raises questions about the extent of the council's political activities.
A news report Sunday drew connections between the group and the casino gaming interests of an Abramoff client. Also, another tribe disclosed late last week that it had been steered by the lobbyist to make $75,000 in contributions to the conservative-leaning council. The council, known as CREA, is organized two ways under the same name. As a political advocacy group, it is required to publicly disclose its contributors and expenditures. As a corporation, it can obtain tax-exempt status and keep its donors confidential, but is limited in the extent of its lobbying activities.
CREA would not provide documentation of any application to become what the Internal Revenue Service designates a "social welfare organization."
In other developments, Norton acknowledged to The Arizona Republic last week that she has had "brief discussions" with the group since becoming Interior secretary in 2001, and the Washington Post reported that CREA's leader had communicated with Norton's aides in 2001 and 2002 about issues related to Abramoff's Indian gaming interests.
Where's the money, Gale?
In searches of public records where recipients are required to disclose finances, The Republic found no accounting for approximately $220,000 in contributions from the two tribes. The amount consists of $175,000 directed to CREA and $45,000 to other political committees.
CREA's origins date to about 1997, when Norton, then attorney general of Colorado, organized it with the name "coalition" rather than "council." Federici had been involved in Norton's 1996 campaign for the U.S. Senate, according to news reports at the time.
A spokesman for Norton said the Interior secretary has not been involved with CREA since joining President Bush's Cabinet in 2001.
Norton's leadership of the earlier incarnation of the group became an issue in her Senate confirmation hearing because other conservationist groups had branded CREA a front for the interests of oil, mining, chemical and pollution-risk industries.
How and why Abramoff expected at least two, and possibly three, tribes to benefit from making five- and six-figure contributions to an environmental group remains unexplained.
Evidence shows that Abramoff inquired in early 2002 whether a third tribe, the Saginaw Chippewas of Michigan, had approved a $30,000 request for CREA. The tribe did not respond to the newspaper's questions on whether the money was given.
CREA has two staffers, a mailbox, a Web site and a telephone answering machine. Its most recent listing of its place of business, an address in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C., is no longer valid.
CREA was subpoenaed by DoJ in March.
As for that CREA website, you can check out their cache - they're down to a mailbox now I guess. Needless to say it was a total sham.
Now that's an awful lot of money flying around. Help me out - what's under there? I know if anybody can get to the bottom, it's you guys, and I'll be checking this thread to see if anybody's taken an interest or dropped a tidbit.
Thanks in advance,
Jesse Lee
Online Editor, DCCC
UPDATE: Ah, there she blows. Andrew D from Burnt Orange has another thread on the Dubose piece.