Democratic Leader Harry Reid Has Been Forced to Return $50,000 Or More to Corrupt Lobbyist Jack Abramoff Over the Years, But He Continues to Attack President Bush

When Will Tony Snow Launch a Counter-Attack?
            As we continue to witness the unfair attacks against the President by Harry Reid and by Senator Chuck Schumer and others, we took a few minutes to discover just a tiny bit of the politics of corruption that is followed by Reid. The following is a tiny part of what we found.
A.P. Says Reid Received Over $60,000 from Jack Abramoff
            In the wake of the 2006 corruption conviction of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, media criticism led over four dozen Congressmen, as well as President Bush, to return campaign donations associated with Abramoff.
           Reid had routine contact with clients and lobbying partners of Abramoff, and his campaign received over $60,000 in contributions from these groups, including about $50,000 from Native American gaming interests. According to an AP article, "Reid collected donations around the time of each action. Ethics rules require senators to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest in collecting contributions around the times they take official acts benefiting donors."
            Reid stated that the contributions and contacts were legal and his actions were proper. He also described the Abramoff affair as "a Republican scandal," referring to Abramoff's felony conviction for bribing Republican Congressman Bob Ney and his close affiliation with the Republican K Street Project.
                Reid spokesman Jim Manley said that Reid had never met Abramoff personally, that neither Reid nor his campaign has ever received money directly from Abramoff, and that his legislative work was done on behalf of his Nevadan constituents.

 Sen. Jim DeMint Blasts Sen. Harry Reid's Hypocrisy

            Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) chastized Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Jan. 18 for Reid’s hypocritical sermonizing on congressional ethics.

            "The idea that Senator Reid would attack other senators for taking Abramoff-related donations is laughable,” DeMint said, noting Reid is "among the top recipients of these funds in Congress, and still refuses to return or donate the money.”

            "And now,” DeMint continued, "he is using his taxpayer funded office to put out what amounts to campaign attacks. Senator Reid should clean up his own act before lecturing the rest of Congress on ethics.”

            On January 11, the Washington Times reported federal investigators were focusing on Reid and four other lawmakers in their probe of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The other lawmakers alleged to be "first tier” targets are Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.); Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.); Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.); and Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio).
            Reid has consistently denied ties to the Abramoff scandal. In December, he told Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace, "Don’t try to say I received money from Abramoff. I’ve never met the man, don’t know anything.”

            But a November Associated Press article revealed that Reid had accepted money from the Coushatta Indian tribe, an Abramoff client, just one day after interceding with Secretary of the Interior Gail Norton over a casino dispute with another tribe.

            Reid reportedly sent a letter to Norton on March 5, 2002. "The next day,” according to the AP, "the Coushattas issued a $5,000 check to Reid tax-exempt political group, the Searchlight Leadership Fund. A second tribe represented by Abramoff sent an additional $5,000 to Reid’s group. Reid ultimately received more than $66,000 in Abramoff-related donations between 2001 and 2004.”

            DeMint’s criticism did not stop with Reid. The Congressman also questioned what he alleged to be a non-existent Democratic agenda.
           "Democrats look like a bunch of rodeo clowns creating distractions,” he said. "They are hoping that Americans don’t notice their lack of ideas or solutions for today’s challenges. It’s been months since they promised to unveil a real legislative agenda, yet we still have heard nothing.”

Sen. Reid Linked to Abramoff
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid wrote at least four letters helpful to Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff, and the senator's staff regularly had contact with the disgraced lobbyist's team about legislation affecting other clients.

The activities — detailed in billing records and correspondence obtained by The Associated Press — are far more extensive than previously disclosed. They occurred over three years as Reid collected nearly $68,000 in donations from Abramoff's firm, lobbying partners and clients.

Reid's office acknowledged Thursday having "routine contacts" with Abramoff's lobbying partners and intervening on some government matters — such as blocking some tribal casinos — in ways Abramoff's clients might have deemed helpful. But it said none of his actions were affected by donations or done for Abramoff.

"All the actions that Senator Reid took were consistent with his long-held beliefs, such as not letting tribal casinos expand beyond reservations, and were taken to defend the interests of Nevada constituents," spokesman Jim Manley said.

Reid, D-Nev., has led the Democratic Party's attacks portraying Abramoff's lobbying and fundraising as a Republican scandal.

But Abramoff's records show his lobbying partners billed for nearly two dozen phone contacts or meetings with Reid's office in 2001 alone.

Most were to discuss Democratic legislation that would have applied the U.S. minimum wage to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory and Abramoff client, but would have given the islands a temporary break on the wage rate, the billing records show.

Reid also intervened on government matters at least five times in ways helpful to Abramoff's tribal clients, once opposing legislation on the Senate floor and four times sending letters pressing the Bush administration on tribal issues. Reid collected donations around the time of each action.

Ethics rules require senators to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest in collecting contributions around the times they take official acts benefiting donors.

Abramoff's firm also hired one of Reid's top legislative aides as a lobbyist. The aide later helped throw a fundraiser for Reid at Abramoff's firm that raised donations from several of his lobbying partners.

And Reid's longtime chief of staff accepted a free trip to Malaysia arranged by a consulting firm connected to Abramoff that recently has gained attention in the influence-peddling investigation that has gripped the Capitol.

Abramoff has pleaded guilty in a fraud and bribery case and is now helping prosecutors investigate the conduct of lawmakers, congressional aides and administration officials his team used to lobby.

Abramoff spokesman Andrew Blum declined to comment on the Reid contacts.

Reid has assailed Republicans' ties to Abramoff while refusing to return any of his own donations. He argues there's no need to return the money.

"Senator Reid never met Jack Abramoff and never has taken contributions from him, and efforts to drag him into this are going to fail," Manley said. "Abramoff is a convicted felon and no one has suggested the other partners we might have dealt with have done anything impermissible."

While Abramoff never directly donated to Reid, the lobbyist did instruct one tribe, the Coushattas, to send $5,000 to Reid's tax-exempt political group, the Searchlight Leadership Fund, in 2002. About the same time, Reid sent a letter to the Interior Department helpful to the tribe, records show.

Abramoff sent a list to the tribe entitled "Coushatta Requests" recommending donations to campaigns or groups for 50 lawmakers he claimed were helpful to the tribe. Alongside Reid's name, Abramoff wrote, "5,000 (Searchlight Leadership Fund) Senate Majority Whip."

Following a pattern seen with Abramoff and Republicans, Abramoff's Democratic team members often delivered donations to Reid close to key events.

Reid himself, along his Senate counsel Jim Ryan, met with Abramoff deputy Ronald Platt on June 5, 2001, "to discuss timing on minimum wage bill" that affected the Marianas, according to a bill that Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff's firm, sent the Marianas.

Three weeks before the meeting, Greenberg Traurig's political action committee donated $1,000 to Reid's Senate re-election committee. Three weeks after the meeting, Platt himself donated $1,000 to Reid.

Manley said Reid's official calendar doesn't list a meeting on June 5, 2001, with Platt, but he also said he couldn't say for sure the contact didn't occur. Manley confirmed Platt had regular contacts with Reid's office, calling them part of the "routine checking in" by lobbyists who work Capitol Hill.

As for the timing of donations, Manley said, "There is no connection. This is just a typical part of lawful fundraising."

The Marianas, U.S. territorial islands in the Pacific Ocean, were one of Abramoff's highest-paying clients and were trying to keep their textile industry exempt from most U.S. laws on immigration, labor and pay, including the minimum wage. Many Democrats have long accused the islands of running garment sweatshops.

The islands in 2001 had their own minimum wage of $3.05 an hour, and were exempt from the U.S. minimum of $5.15.

Republicans were intent on protecting the Marianas' exemption. Democrats, led by Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Rep. George Miller of California, wanted the Marianas to be covered by the U.S. minimum and crafted a compromise.

In February 2001, Kennedy introduced a bill that would have raised the U.S. hourly minimum to $6.65 and would have covered the Marianas. The legislation, which eventually failed, would have given the islands an initial break by setting its minimum at just $3.55 — nearly $3 lower than any other territory or state — and then gradually increasing it.

Within a month, Platt began billing for routine contacts and meetings with Reid's staff, starting with a March 26, 2001, contact with Reid chief of staff Susan McCue to "discuss timing and status of minimum wage legislation," the billing records say.

In all, Platt and a fellow lobbyist reported 21 contacts in 2001 with Reid's office, mostly with McCue and Ryan.

One of the Marianas contacts, listed for May 30, 2001, was with Edward Ayoob, Reid's legislative counsel. Within a year, Ayoob had left Reid's office to work for Abramoff's firm, registering specifically to lobby for the islands as well as several tribes. Manley confirmed Ayoob had subsequent lobbying contacts with Reid's office.

Manley cast doubt on some of the contacts recorded in the billing records, saying McCue was out of Washington for a couple of the dates. But he acknowledged the contacts could have occurred by cell phone.

In January 2002, McCue took a free trip, valued at $7,000, to Malaysia with several other congressional aides. The trip, cleared by Senate ethics officials, was underwritten by the U.S. Malaysia Exchange Association, a group trying to foster better relations between the United States and Malaysia.

The trips were part of a broader lobbying strategy by Malaysia, which consulted with Abramoff and paid $300,000 to a company connected to him, according to documents released by Senate investigators. The arrangements included a trip by then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and his wife to Malaysia in October 2001.

While Abramoff worked behind the scenes, the Alexander Strategy Group run by two former DeLay aides, Ed Buckham and Tony Rudy, publicly registered to lobby for the U.S. Malaysia Exchange Association.

Rudy, who was cited in Abramoff's court case, had worked temporarily for Abramoff before joining Buckham at Alexander Strategy, and the three men were friendly. In January 2002, Alexander Strategy arranged two congressional trips to Malaysia underwritten by the association.

One trip took a delegation of Republican congressmen. A Democratic consultant hired by Alexander Strategy, former Clinton White House aide Joel Johnson, invited McCue and went on the second trip with congressional staffers.

Johnson said he invited McCue on behalf of Alexander Strategy and went on the trip with her but said he knew of no connections to Abramoff. "My interest was in getting Democrats to travel to the country and to learn more about Malaysia," Johnson said.

Reid intervened on other matters.

On March 5, 2002, he sent a letter to the Interior Department pressing the agency to reject a proposed casino by the Jena band of Choctaw Indians in Louisiana. Fellow Nevada Sen. John Ensign, a Republican, also signed.

The Jena's proposed casino would have rivaled one already in operation in Louisiana run by the Coushattas, and Abramoff was lobbying to block the Jena. The day after Reid's letter, the Coushattas wrote a $5,000 check to Reid's Searchlight group at Abramoff's suggestion.

Reid and Ensign recently wrote the Senate Ethics Committee to say their letter had nothing to do with Abramoff or the donation and instead reflected their interest in protecting Las Vegas' gambling establishments.

"As senators for the state with the largest nontribal gaming industry in the nation, we have long opposed the growth of off-reservation tribal gaming throughout the United States," Ensign and Reid wrote. Reid authored the law legalizing casinos on reservations, and has long argued it does not allow tribal gambling off reservations.

On Nov. 8, 2002, the Nevada Democrat signed a letter with California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein urging Interior Secretary Gale Norton to reject a proposal by the Cuyapaipe Band of Mission Indians to convert land for a health clinic into a casino in southern California.

The casino would have competed with the Palm Springs gambling establishment run by the Agua Caliente, one of Abramoff's tribes.

Two weeks later, Reid went to the Senate floor to oppose fellow Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow's effort to win congressional approval for a Michigan casino for the Bay Mills Indians, which would have rivaled one already operating by the Saginaw Chippewa represented by Abramoff.

"The legislation is fundamentally flawed," Reid argued, successfully leading the opposition to Stabenow's proposal.

The next month, Reid joined six other Democratic senators in asking President Bush in mid-December 2002 to spend an additional $30 million for Indian school construction. Several Abramoff tribes, including the Saginaw and the Mississippi Choctaw, were seeking federal money for school building.

Six weeks after that letter, three Abramoff partners — including Platt and Ayoob — donated a total of $4,000 to Reid's Senate re-election campaign. Later in 2003, the Agua Caliente contributed $13,500 to Reid's political groups while the Saginaw chipped in $9,000.

Reid sent a fourth letter on April 30, 2003, joining Ensign a second time to urge Interior to reject the Jena casino.Two months later, Abramoff's firm threw a fundraiser for Reid at its Washington office that netted the Nevada senator several more donations from Greenberg Traurig lobbyists and their spouses. Ayoob was instrumental in staging the event, Reid's office said.

New York Times Lobbyist, Senator Schumer, Surfaced Again in 2005 in Sordid Activities for Pinch Sulzberger
            The personal lobbyist for the New York Times, Sen. Charles Schumer, surfaced again in 2005 by attacking Pres. Bush and hinting that Bush be impeached for the sordid activities of lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
            As we had reported earlier, Sen. Schumer is a close personal friend of Pinch Sulzberger who used the Times to elevate Schumer from an unknown Congressman to a prominent U.S. Senator. As a result, Sulzberger and the Times now have their own U.S. Senator on staff as a personal valet and lobbyist.
            With the help of the Times, Schumer generates a lot of media attention, especially on television news.
            It is noticeable that Schumer never mentioned yesterday that Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senator, is one of those who took money from lobbyist Abramoff, including many other prominent Democrats.
            As the Sulzberger family seeks to increase their power to the point that they will elect their own President of the United States who will do their bidding, Sen. Schumer will be a big help in causing that to happen.

  

Reid Refused to Answer Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday”

When Sen. Reid was on “Fox News Sunday” last Dec.18, he refused to answer the following questions from Chris Wallace:

WALLACE: I just have to pick up on this, because you've been mentioning corruption several times here. One of the biggest scandals in Washington right now involves Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist who's under investigation, and his clients.

It turns out that you received $66,000 in campaign contributions from Abramoff and his clients. Some of your colleagues...

REID: Chris, Chris...

WALLACE: May I ask the question?

REID: Don't try to say I received money from Abramoff.

 I've never met the man, don't know anything...

WALLACE: But you've received money from...

REID: Make sure that all your viewers understand — not a penny from Abramoff. I've been on the Indian Affairs Committee my whole time in the Senate.

WALLACE: But you've received money from his firm. You've received money from some of his clients. The question I'm asking if I may get the question out, Senator. Some of your colleagues, both Republican and Democrats [including Pres. Bush] have given back campaign contributions that had any taint of Abramoff to it. Are you going to do so?

REID: Well, first of all, Chris, make sure that — again, I'll repeat, Abramoff gave me no money. His firm gave me no money. He may have worked [for] a firm where people have given me money. But I have — I feel totally at ease that I haven't done anything that is even close to being wrong.

And I'm going to continue doing what I've done for my entire tenure in Congress. My record — any money that I've received — it's a federal law. You can look who gave it to me, how much, when they gave it to me, and what their occupations are.

So don't lump me in with Jack Abramoff. This is a Republican scandal. Don't try to give any of it to me.

WALLACE: Senator Reid, we're going to have to leave it there. We want to thank you so much, and please come back soon, sir.

REID: OK.