Dodd Denies Involvement With Abramoff, Scanlon
WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2004-Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) denied Wednesday any political involvement with Jack Abramoff or Michael Scanlon, Republican lobbyists under congressional investigation for allegedly swindling six Indian tribes out of $66 million in lobbying fees in 2002.
“I don’t know Jack Abramoff or Mike Scanlon,” Dodd said in a written statement read before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. “So any representations they might have made without my knowledge regarding me . are categorically wrong and false.”
An e-mail message in July of 2002 from Abramoff to Scanlon, obtained by The Day, appears to support Dodd. In that e-mail, Abramoff said he had just been told that Dodd was not supporting their lobbying effort.
In what the committee chairman, retiring Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo), referred to as a “classic shakedown operation,” Scanlon and Abramoff are accused of masterminding a multi-million-dollar scheme against the Tigua Indian tribe that began with their involvement in the closing of the tribe’s Speaking Rock casino near El Paso, Texas.
The casino opened its doors in 1993. Six years later, it was pulling in an estimated $60 million in annual gross revenue. In 1999, Texas Attorney General John Cornyn – now the state’s junior senator -concluded that gambling was illegal under state law. He sued the tribe.
On Sept. 27, 2001, a U.S. District Court judge sided with Cornyn, and the Tiguas shut down Speaking Rock by the end of that year.
The following February, the tribe’s public relations and government affairs representative, Marc Schwartz, had a conversation with Abramoff about the possibility of the Republican lobbyist representing the Tiguas on Capitol Hill in their bid to get their casino reopened, according to Schwartz’s testimony Wednesday. Abramoff offered the services of his law firm, Greenberg Traurig LLP.
On Feb 18, Schwartz offered Abramoff and Scanlon’s public relations firm, Scanlon/Gold, $4.2 million to lobby Congress to regain the Tigua Tribe’s main source of revenue.
What Schwartz didn’t know at the time was that Abramoff and Scanlon had allegedly been involved in helping to shut down the casino in the first place.
As revealed in a September 2004 investigation by The Washington Post, dozens of e-mail messages allegedly exposed Scanlon’s and Abramoff’s efforts to rally Cornyn’s office against the casino by hiring a conservative religious – and anti-gambling – activist, Ralph Reed.
Abramoff and Scanlon had strong political ties to leaders on Capitol Hill. Abramoff, who rounded up more than $100,000 in contributions for President Bush during his reelection bid, had been recommended to the tribe as a close contact of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas). Scanlon formerly served as DeLay’s spokesman.
Using the attraction of their connections, the men allegedly proposed to the tribe that they could get language inserted into federal legislation that would allow the Tiguas to reopen Speaking Rock Casino, according to hearing testimony. In the early summer of 2002, Abramoff and Scanlon told Schwartz, through mail and phone calls that they had found just the right legislative vehicle: the election reform bill.
Over the next few months, according to his testimony, Schwartz received various updates from Abramoff and Scanlon about the legislation. They told him, “The progress of the bill was a little slower than had been anticipated but was moving forward and was expected to fall into place in late summer.”
That legislation would eventually become law in October 2002, but without the language restoring the Tiguas’ gaming business.
To keep the tribe satisfied, Schwartz testified Wednesday, the lobbyists listed the names of lawmakers who would be responsive to keeping the tribe’s language in the bill. In e-mail messages, Abramoff referred to multiple conversations with Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), the chief House sponsor of the election reform bill. Dodd, a sponsor of the Senate version, was also mentioned.
“For the rest of the months leading up to October of 2002, both Abramoff and Scanlon continued to report that the Senate side would not be a problem since Sen. Dodd had agreed to include the solution through his side,” Schwartz said in his testimony. “It wasn’t until the announcement of the final passage of the election reform measure that Abramoff phoned to say.that Sen. Dodd had gone back on his word and stripped the measure from the committee report.”
In his e-mail to Scanlon on July 25, 2002, Abramoff appeared to be taken by surprise by Dodd’s status.
“I just spoke with Ney, who met today with Dodd on the bill and raised our provision,” Abramoff wrote. “Dodd looked at him like a ‘deer in headlights’ and said he has never made such a commitment and that with the problems of new casinos in Connecticut, it is a problem.”
On behalf of the Indian Affairs Committee, Campbell (R-Colo.) offered support for Dodd.
“Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon contended that Mr. Dodd and Congressman Ney were enlisted to spearhead efforts in Congress to provide a legislative fix to the Tiguas problem,” he said. “But we know that was not the case.”
