Jack Abramoff

Obama Ad Links McCain to Reed, Abramoff

Zachary Roth | August 20, 2008, 5:14PM

Maybe there's some truth to the reports that Barack Obama is finally planning to get tough on John McCain. According to the Altanta Journal-Constitution, the Obama campaign will tomorrow release in Atlanta this ad, which links McCain to disgraced former Jack Abramoff crony Ralph Reed:

The hard-hitting ad notes that when McCain led a Senate probe of Abramoff, he never called Reed to testify, then points out that Reed is currently helping to raise money for McCain's campaign.

Reed, who during his unsuccessfully 2006 bid for Georgia Lieutenant Governor was dogged by questions about his Abramoff ties, did indeed send out an email to friends recently announcing his participation in an Atlanta fundraiser for McCain last week. After Reed's involvement raised eyebrows, he was a no-show at the event itself.

Ralph Reed

Email: Rove Killed Interior Nomination for Abramoff

Paul Kiel | September 29, 2006, 11:26AM

The House Government Reform Committee has released hundreds of new emails from Jack Abramoff's lobbying firm pertaining to his and his associates' contacts with Administration officials.

We're scouring them now, and here's a good one. In an email exchange subject-lined "were you able to whack mccain's wife yet?" Ralph Reed and Jack Abramoff discuss derailing the nomination of a woman named Angela Williams to an Interior post.

Williams was up for head of the Office of Insular Affairs in the Department of the Interior, which has authority over decisions affecting the Northern Mariana Islands, an Abramoff client.

With the White House's help, Abramoff's effort was successful. Ralph Reed emailed Abramoff, "talked to rove about this and I think I killed it." You can see the exchange here.

"Williams is married to former Federal Trade Commissioner Orson Swindle, who was a Vietnam POW with Senator John McCain," according to Time.

Ralph Reed

In Georgia Race, Abramoff Claims Latest Victim

Justin Rood | July 18, 2006, 11:30PM

Ralph Reed barely finished his concession speech when press accounts began fingering Jack Abramoff for Reed's failure. Reed -- Jack's longtime political companion, who was running for Georgia Lieutenant Governor -- appears to be the first electoral casualty of the Abramoff scandal.

CQPolitics: "[I]t appears that the sweeping scandal involving convicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff has claimed its first casualty at the polls this year. . . "

Wall Street Journal: "The Abramoff scandal appeared to claim its first electoral victim with the defeat of former lobbying ally and Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed in Georgia's Republican primary to pick a candidate for lieutenant governor."

AP: "Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed struggled to overcome his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff in his bid Tuesday for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor of Georgia[.]"

Ralph Reed

Judgment Day for Ralph Reed

Paul Kiel | July 18, 2006, 4:00PM

Don't think we've forgotten, TPMm readers. It's Ralph's big day down in Georgia, as voters line up for what many see as a referendum on the Jack Abramoff scandal (here's our brief for how he ties in). Reed is running to be the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor.

Check in here for election returns this evening - all signs are that it will be a squeaker.

Ralph Reed

Reed Blames Tribes for Laundering Scheme

Paul Kiel | July 17, 2006, 12:36PM

The Indians made me do it.

On the eve of a tense primary election, that's Ralph Reed's defense against corruption accusations that threaten to capsize his candidacy for Georgia lieutenant governor.

Reed is suffering some punishing body blows from his opponent for his schemes to use money from Indian casinos to pay for Christian anti-gambling efforts -- by funneling the cash through shell companies to disguise its true source.

The charges have been around for months, of course -- accompanied by ample evidence that Reed played a key role in concocting the schemes and putting them into practice. To date he has dodged the allegations by first claiming ignorance of the clients, and then woodenly chiming that "Had I known then what I know now, I would not have undertaken the work."

But yesterday, he changed his tune -- and blamed the Indians. During a debate with his primary opponent Saturday, Reed claimed:

I would have been happy if they [Abramoff's tribal clients] paid me directly. They were the ones who made the decision that I would be paid through nonprofits.

Quick reality check: It has been long-established that Abramoff's casino-owning tribal clients hired Reed to whip up religious anti-gambling fervor and use it to squash any neighboring competition. In order to obscure the fact that Abramoff's casino money was funding Reed's anti-gambling campaigns, the money was funneled through various entities (shell companies and non-profits) before making its way to Reed. Read all the nitty-gritty here.

McCain's Senate investigation found that the funneling had been Reed's idea, because that is what the tribal representatives told investigators.

Read more »

Ralph Reed

GQ: Reed, Abramoff Discussed "Mortgaging Old Black People"

Paul Kiel | July 13, 2006, 12:26PM

Ralph Reed's primary is only a week away and things are heating up.

In advance of its August publication date, GQ has released a big piece on Ralph Reed today, with one gem in particular: a plan hatched by Reed and Jack Abramoff which sounds suspiciously like "mortgaging old black people," as a former Reed associate told the magazine.

In July of 2003, Abramoff and Reed considered launching something called the Black Churches Insurance Program.

We know how this scheme would have gone, because Abramoff pitched something similar to a cash-strapped Texas tribe, the Tigua. Basically, since the tribe couldn't pay Abramoff, he offered to arrange "a life-insurance policy for every Tigua 75 or older." When those elders died, the death benefits would have gone to Abramoff through one of his non-profits. The Tigua didn't take Abramoff up on the offer, but it was too good of an idea to let go.

So Abramoff apparently thought black churches were a good target. This would have been the same thing, according to GQ's Sean Flynn, except that it was African-Americans. Or as "a former associate of Reed's" told GQ, "Yeah... it sounds like Jack approached Reed about mortgaging old black people.”

According to Abramoff's email exchange (under the subject line "Black Churches insurance program") with Reed in July of 2003 pitching the idea, it would have been huge:

Per our previous discussion, Abramoff wrote. Let me know how we can move forward to chat with folks who can set this up with African American elders. It can be huge. Thanks.

A file called “Charity Elder Program2.doc” was attached.

Three days later, Reed replied: Yes, it looks interesting. I assume you’ll set up a meeting in DC as a next step, or whatever we should do next, let me know.

Reed would have been the point man with the church leaders, one assumes, ushering them through the sticky process of getting all of their elders to sign up for life insurance policies payable to Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed.

Reed's flack's response to the story was as off-point as always:

Reed’s communications director, Lisa Baron, initially said, “Your sources are wrong,” but not how or in what way. A day later, she notably did not say those sources were wrong. Ralph receives unsolicited requests of a political or business nature all the time, she wrote in an e-mail. Our records show no meeting took place to discuss the proposed project. Ralph had no involvement whatsoever in marketing such policies to African-American churches.

Jack Abramoff

Texas Tribe Sues Abramoff, Reed

Paul Kiel | July 12, 2006, 2:04PM

It's still unclear whether Ralph Reed has anything to fear from Justice Department prosecutors, but he's not going to get away without at least one legal headache.

Jack Abramoff hired Reed to squash any competition to his casino owning tribal clients. Now one of those tribes wants to get even. So they're suing him, along with Abramoff and other members of his team, for "fraud and racketeering."

The basis of the tribe's suit against Reed seems mainly to be that he's a hypocrite. I'm not sure what chance they have of winning, but I do anticipate the prospect of Ralph Reed being forced to explain under oath that, even though he was being paid by a rival casino, the work was really motivated out of Christian virtue. That would be a fun cross-examination to watch.

From the AP:

The tribe, which says it has strong Christian values, alleges Reed's group called state legislators, sent targeted mailings to voters and ran radio ads against the bill without revealing their true origins, preventing the tribe from fighting back.

Reed's work made the opposition to the tribe's casino appear to be based on Christian concerns, not competitive concerns from its sister tribe, the Alabama-Coushatta said.

Had the public or tribe known the Louisiana Coushatta tribe was the main opponent, Christian groups would have been "less mobilized." Because the Texas and Louisiana tribes share family ties, Louisiana Coushatta members would have opposed the attack on their sister tribe, the Alabama-Coushatta said.

Muck Polling Update

Paul Kiel | July 10, 2006, 4:18PM

Over in Ohio, I see that Zach Space's campaign has released a poll showing him leading Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) 46-35.

And down in Georgia, Ralph Reed is locked in a dead heat to win the Republican nomination for Lt. Governor - with only one week to go until the primary.

Will the muck stick? Stay tuned....

Ralph Reed

Reed Helped Abramoff Get Rove Meeting

Paul Kiel | July 7, 2006, 1:30PM

Yet another addition to the Ralph Reed and Jack Abramoff chronicles, this one from The National Journal's Peter Stone.

In this episode, the newly installed Bush administration was staffing the Department of Interior, and Jack really wanted to place his flunky high up. So he calls up Ralph, who's close to the White House...

On January 11, 2001, Abramoff e-mailed Reed. "I was thinking about this appointment" to the Office of Insular Affairs at Interior, Abramoff wrote. "I know it is perhaps a bizarre request, but considering how quickly I was named to the transition advisory team thanks to your request, perhaps it would be possible to ask Karl [Rove, the president's chief political adviser]... that they should appoint Mark Zachares to head the Office of Insular Affairs.... Do you think we could get this favor from Karl? It would be my big ask for sure."

Reed replied quickly: "It never hurts to ask. What's the next move?" Later that day, Reed sounded even more eager. "Just let me know who to call, when to call, and what to say. And while you're at it get me another client! NOW!"

On March 6, Abramoff met with Rove for about half an hour and pushed for Zachares, according to Abramoff's former lobbying colleagues at the firm Greenberg Traurig and to Secret Service logs released earlier this year. But Rove didn't come through, and Zachares didn't get the job.

N.B. In a statement, continuing his streak of bold denials, Reed denies ever getting Abramoff this meeting.

Grover Norquist

Norquist: McCain's a Liar, Delusional

Justin Rood | June 26, 2006, 5:57PM

Norquist found the time to talk with conservative news site Newsmax.com about the recently-released McCain Report, which highlighted numerous transactions between Jack Abramoff, Norquist's nonprofit, and various recipients, including organizations tied to former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed.

"When McCain claims this was something other than an annual contribution, he is lying," Norquist said of the report, which found that ATR frequently pocketed several thousand dollars off the top of the "pass-through" amounts Abramoff funneled through ATR to needy Republican causes:

"McCain has misused his chairmanship of the Indian Affairs committee for two years to attack me and Ralph Reed because he thinks we beat him in South Carolina," Norquist said, referring to McCain's primary battle for the presidency. "He has told people I personally spent $12 million to defeat him in South Carolina. He is delusional[.]"

Grover Norquist

Grover Faces Ruin, But No Jail Time

Paul Kiel | June 23, 2006, 5:36PM

As I mentioned yesterday, Grover Norquist, the cold-blooded anti-tax bogeyman of the right, got hit hard yesterday in the McCain report.

It's now clear to anyone who's paid attention that Norquist used his non-profit, Americans for Tax Reform, as a money-washing business and lobbying firm. He took a "management fee" for laundering gaming money through to Ralph Reed. He has a long list of corporate donors that seek his help; and like any other lobbyist, his advocacy is for sale -- even to Democrats.

So what? Is there even a chance that he's going to jail?

Read more »

Ralph Reed

AJC Presses Reed On McCain Report Details

Paul Kiel | June 22, 2006, 3:03PM

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has picked up some of the damning bits on Ralph Reed from today's McCain report, a report that makes it clear Reed laundered money from the tribes to hide his hypocrisy. Reed's still making a run for lieutenant governor down there, remember.

And what's Reed's reply?

"The report confirms I have not been accused of any wrongdoing in this matter...It also confirms that I was hired as a subcontractor for a very respected law firm, and had no direct relationship with their clients."

You have to appreciate the gumption there. According to Reed, the report, which details how Reed funneled money to avoid a direct relationship with Abramoff's clients, shows that he "had no direct relationship" with them. Bravo.

Jack Abramoff

Reed: An Ideologue "as Far as The Cash Goes"

Paul Kiel | June 22, 2006, 12:32PM

Yet another delightful characterization of Ralph Reed, courtesy of today's McCain report on the Abramoff scandal.

This one comes courtesy of Jack Abramoff himself, via his discussion with Marc Schwartz, a public relations representative for the Tigua tribe in Texas.

Let's pick up the report on page 148. Schwartz was evaluating whether the tribe should hire Abramoff as its lobbyist...

To Schwartz, Abramoff appeared to have the right credentials. Abramoff claimed to be a close friend of Congressman Tom DeLay. He also discussed his friendship with Reed, recounting some of their history together at College Republicans. When Schwartz observed that Reed was an ideologue, Schwartz recalled that Abramoff laughingly replied “as far as the cash goes.” [my emphasis]

Jack Abramoff

Ralph Reed: "Kind of Like Hypocritical"

Paul Kiel | June 22, 2006, 12:00PM

I couldn't put it any better myself.

Here's another damning excerpt on Ralph Reed from today's McCain report on the Abramoff scandal.

In this section (see page 56), the report covers Abramoff's work for the Louisianna Coushatta tribe. I'll let the report tell it:

In furtherance of the grassroots strategy devised for the [Lousianna Coushatta] Tribe, Abramoff and Scanlon persuaded the Tribal Council to financially support other groups opposed to gaming expansion, namely Christian evangelical conservatives, to help the Tribe protect its share of the regional gaming market. Abramoff specifically proposed that the Tribe work with former Christian Coalition Executive Director Ralph Reed. According to [Coushatta lawyer Kathryn] Van Hoof, Abramoff understood that gaming opponents, like Christian conservatives, would of course eschew direct contributions from the Tribe. [Former Coushatta Vice-Chairman William] Worfel recalled that Van Hoof “came back and told us that [sic] a guy named Ralph Reed. She was real careful about a Ralph Reed person. It can’t get out. He’s Christian Coalition. It wouldn’t look good if they’re receiving money from a casino-operating tribe to oppose gaming. It would be kind of like hypocritical.” [my emphasis]

Jack Abramoff

Committee: Reed, Norquist Used as Pass-Throughs

Paul Kiel | June 22, 2006, 11:25AM

Here are some damning details about Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist, courtesy of the newly-released McCain Report. It goes into great detail describing Ralph Reed's scheme to launder casino fees through non-profits.

Everybody who's been paying attention to the Abramoff scandal knows that when Ralph Reed, the boy-king of the Christian right, went to work for Jack Abramoff's Indian casino clients (his job was to roust grassroots Christians against competiting gambling platforms), he got skittish about accepting money from the tribes directly, since he's, you know, supposed to be anti-gambling. So he used non-profits, like Grover Norquist's American for Tax Reform, as pass-throughs to disguise the origin of the funds.

But it's refreshing to hear the Senate Indian Affairs Committee not mince words in their report. As part of their retelling of Abramoff's work for the Mississippi Choctaws, the report provides a damning blow-by-blow of how Reed came on this scheme, and how Norquist got started accepting a "management fee" (read: laundering fee) for his services.

The report is unequivocal. According to the Choctaw's planner, Nell Rogers, the tribe agreed to launder the money because "Ralph Reed did not want to be paid directly by a tribe with gaming interests." And at one point, she told the committee, Norquist became "nervous" about laundering the money. (But apparently not too nervous, because he kept on doing it.)

The section on Reed and Norquist begins on page 23 of the 373-page report, but I've reproduced the juiciest excerpt below (with my emphasis). In the beginning, Abramoff paid Reed through his lobbying firm Preston Gates (Abramoff even once suggested that the Choctaw pay Reed directly). But at some point, Reed became uncomfortable with that arrangement.

The report goes on (what follows is all excerpted):

Read more »

Jack Abramoff

Interview with Nina Easton

Paul Kiel | April 6, 2006, 5:23PM

Nina Easton is the author of the seminal Gang of Five: Leaders at the Center of the Conservative Ascendacy, which told the story of five conservatives who played a major role shaping the modern conservative movement (they were the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol, former Rep. David McIntosh (R-IN), Clint Bolick, Ralph Reed, and Grover Norquist). We talked with her last week about two of her gang, Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist, and their friend Jack Abramoff, who didn't make the cut.

TPMm: I wanted to start out talking about the work you did on the book. But most of all we at TPMmuckraker concentrate on Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed. So I'd like to first ask you why you decided to pick the five you did for the book, and why Abramoff didn't make the cut.

NE: I chose the five for very specific reasons. The first was I wanted each of them to represent a different piece of the movement, so I chose Ralph Reed, for example, to represent the religious right, Grover Norquist as a tax activist, Bill Kristol as the neoconservative Straussian. Each one of them represents a different piece of the movement, and then they also had to be institution builders.

And this is why Jack Abramoff at the time, when I started the book in '96, he wasn't - he was a lobbyist, he wasn't a big movement-conservative-player at the time. So I chose movement-conservative-players who were institution builders, who looked like they would be on the scene for a long time. Like I said, he was a lobbyist.

TPMM: Do you think in retrospect he was more of an institution builder than he seemed like he was?

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Ralph Reed

Reed Slips By

Paul Kiel | March 27, 2006, 12:48PM

An exoneration for Ralph Reed in Texas...sort of.

Texas Travis County Attorney David Escamilla has just released a statement saying that he will not pursue a formal criminal investigation into Ralph Reed's lobbying activities in Texas. Not because Reed didn't break any laws - actually he says quite the opposite - but because there is a two-year statute of limitations for prosecuting misdemeanors in Texas. So Reed gets off the hook.

Reed was facing a possible investigation for not registering as a lobbyist in Texas in 2001 and 2002 while he was working there for Jack Abramoff. As I pointed out before, Reed didn't register because he wanted his work for Abramoff to be as much off-the-books as possible.

Texas law generally requires people to register as lobbyists "if they receive more than $500 a quarter to directly communicate with a state official on public policy." It was evident from emails released as part of the Abramoff investigation that Reed had done a lot of traditional lobbying - contacting public officials and the like. And Reed was certainly getting a lot more than $500 a quarter. So Common Cause Texas, Public Citizen Texas, and Texans For Public Justice filed a complaint with Escamilla's office and asked for an investigation.

But they were too late. It just took too long for all this to come to light.

Here's what Escamilla had to say about it:

Read more »

Grover Norquist

Norquist: The Heat Is On

Justin Rood | March 14, 2006, 12:13PM

For quite awhile, Grover Norquist has stood blithely in the eye of the hurricane as his pals Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed have been swept up in bad publicity. Maybe that's changing. As we noted below, the Senate Finance Committee is ramping up their investigation of Abramoff's sham charities. They will no doubt be giving Grover's Americans for Tax Reform a hard look.

And today CREW filed a complaint with the IRS - pointing out that it's not exactly in ATR's mission statement to be a money-laundering operation for Jack Abramoff. Ask not for whom the bell tolls? Oh, but if there's one thing we can be sure of, it's that Grover will NOT go easily.

For those eager for all the gruesome details, we have a rundown of Grover's shenanigans with Abramoff here.

Ralph Reed

Reed Caught Again

Paul Kiel | March 4, 2006, 5:10PM

Oh, Ralph, what can we say? Best laid plans and all that.

Today's story on Ralph Reed in the Atlanta Journal Constitution reveals that he knew that he was working for an online gambling company named eLottery, Inc. when he helped kill the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.

He's said, of course, that he did not know.

But really, that just makes him sound sloppy. Let's give the man his due: he very carefully and skillfully obscured his relationship with Jack Abramoff's gaming clients. He knew that it would have been bad for his reputation, and thus for business. So he took a number of key steps to leave no paper trail:

First, the true client's name did not appear on the contract. Nominally, Reed was working for Abramoff's law firm.

Second, he did not register as a lobbyist for the client. The eLottery contract specifically said that none of his activities would "require registration as a lobbyist in any state or with the federal government."

Third, the fees were routed through at least two intermediaries before they reached Reed. In the case of the eLottery work, the money went first to Americans for Tax Reform, then on to a shell organization called the Faith and Family Alliance, and then on to Reed's firm.

Fourth, and here's where you have to admire his restraint, he almost never referred to the client in writing. Hundreds of pages of Abramoff's emails have been released, and he's only gotten burned a few times.

It's a shame that the fifth step, lying to the press, has received so much attention. Reed was the architect of a much larger, more sophisticated effort than that.