Email shows Norquist asked Abramoff for client's donations

John Byrne and Ron Brynaert
Published: Thursday June 22, 2006

Update: A bipartisan Senate report released on Thursday documents more than $5 million in payments to Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition and a longtime Republican Party strategist, from an influence-peddling scheme by the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff on behalf of Indian tribe casinos, the New York Times will report Friday, RAW STORY has learned. The report by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee describes Reed as a central figure in Abramoff's lobbying operations for Indian casinos.

According to the last page of the 373-page final report issued by Senator John McCain and his Senate Indian Affairs Committee in an investigation into tribal lobbying matters related to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his former partners, a few nonprofit organizations may have run astray of the Internal Revenue Service.

"In the course of its investigation, this Committee uncovered numerous instances of nonprofit organizations that appeared to be involved in activities unrelated to their mission as described to the Internal Revenue Service," the report says (PDF link, p. 373).

"In addition, the Committee observed that a number of nonprofit organizations were used as instruments to channel money from one entity to another in an effort to obscure the source of funds, the eventual use of funds, and to evade tax liability on funds," the report continues. "Finally, the Committee also observed tax exempt organizations apparently serving as or being used as extensions of for-profit lobbying operations."

According to the report, on Feb. 9, 2006 "a number of relevant documents pertaining to this issue" were forwarded to the Senate Committee on Finance, recommending it to "investigate, hold hearings, and report to the Senate on its findings."

Although the nonprofits aren't specifically cited at that portion of the report, documents collected in a PDF file indicate that a prominent anti-tax group is now under the microscope.

The following email shows president of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) Grover Norquist asking for money from Indian tribes, clients of fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Anti-Torricelli campaign

Documents referred to the Senate Finance Committee reveal Jack Abramoff's role in an unsuccessful campaign by ATR against Bob Torricelli's race to replace New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley in 1996. It's been alleged that the Republican Party also assisted to stop Torricelli by donating millions to Norquist's group.

"In the last weeks of the '96 race, Americans for Tax Reform, a nonprofit group headed by Grover Norquist, paid for a campaign burnishing the Republican image on the Medicare issue as well as an ad attacking New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Torricelli," CNN reported in October of 1997. "About the same time, Norquist's group received $4.6 million from the G.O.P. Norquist and party officials have denied coordinating their efforts."

"But bank records reviewed by Time show that four days after a $2 million G.O.P. infusion, Americans for Tax Reform paid $280,000 to buy time for the anti-Torricelli ad, an expense the group could not cover otherwise," CNN reported. "An additional $600,000 was paid out for phone banks and direct mail less than two hours after the same amount came in from the R.N.C."

In a fax sent some time in late 1995, Abramoff told Jim Lucier Jr., Director of Economic Research for A.T.R., that the anti-Torricelli independent expenditure campaign sounded "most impressive," and that he had discussed it with Norquist the previous evening.

According to a memo sent by Lucier, the anticipated budget for the anti-Torricelli campaign was to be $981,000, with $300,000 allocated to "taxpayer coalition activities."

Abramoff was determined to keep everything "as close to the vest as possible."

"We do not want the opponents to think that we are trying to buy the tax payer movement," Abramoff warned an associate at Preston Gates in October of 1995 by email.

In order to get the "taxpayer movement," Abramoff claimed, in an email sent to another member of his lobbying firm, that Norquist told him that the client - whose name is redacted - should "become a major player with ATR."

Ralph Reed fingered

Ralph Reed, a longtime friend of Abramoff's who once served as the executive director of the Christian Coalition, also figures prominently in the documents referred to the Senate Finance Committee.

Reed, who is currently running for lieutenant governor of Georgia, has denied accepting "payments of any kind" from Abramoff.

"Did you accept any gifts, commissions or other payments of any kind from Mr. Abramoff, and are you likely to be a party in the unfolding investigation?" Reed was asked at a Republican event in January (as reported by The Washington Post).

"Silence enveloped the 60 or so Republicans in the auditorium, and Reed's cheerful manner turned tense," Thomas B. Edsall wrote for the Post. "'No,' he replied. 'No to all these.'"

But two newly released emails from 2000 may conflict with Reed's public statements of innocence.

The first email from Reed shows that he was clearly involved in helping coordinate payments to anti-tax groups, while the second one from Abramoff notes that the lobbying firm had "to get him more money asap."

"The Senate report documented payments to Mr. Reed from two sources, $2.3 million from the Choctaw Indians of Mississippi, paid through Mr. Abramoff's law firm, Preston Gates, through May 1999 and $4 million that Mr. Reed and his associates received from organizations controlled by Mr. Scanlon in 2001 and 2002," reports the New York Times.