Tiguas outraged that D.C. insiders worked both sides of casino's closure
/- Originally published in the El Paso Times September 28, 2004
By Gary Scharrer, El Paso Times
Tigua leaders and tribal members are angry at revelations this weekend that two associates of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay took $4.2 million from them to help reopen Speaking Rock Casino after working behind the scenes to shut down the tribe's economic lifeline.
Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and political consultant Michael Scanlon were not able to convince Congress to pass laws that could have allowed Speaking Rock to reopen -- and it is unclear how they used the $4.2 million.
Their relationship with the Tiguas, outlined in a front-page story in Sunday's Washington Post, is part of broader investigations by a Senate committee and federal law enforcement.
"There's outrage right now," Tigua Gov. Art Senclair said Monday. "You can sense it among tribal members who are asking, 'How could this happen?' "
"Shouldn't a victim of a crime be outraged?" he asked.
Senclair and other tribal leaders declined to address specific allegations because of congressional and FBI investigations. Defrauding an Indian tribe is a felony under federal law.
The Washington Post story chronicled the alleged efforts of Abramoff and Scanlon to exploit the tribe's financial crisis, even as they privately condemned "those moronic Tiguas." Lawyers for the pair either declined to comment or didn't return calls, the Post said.
The newspaper said its story was based on dozens of e-mail exchanges among Abramoff, Scanlon and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, who now is a regional chairman for President Bush's re-election campaign.
Federal courts in 2002 sided with then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn in shutting down Speaking Rock Casino on grounds that the casino violated the state's anti-gambling laws.
Abramoff and Scanlon worked with Reed to fan support for Cornyn's attempt to close Speaking Rock, according to the Post. Several Christian and conservative organizations defended Cornyn while the case was being heard in court in 2001 and 2002.
The Washington pair paid Reed and his consulting company as much as $4 million to organize a coalition to block several tribal casinos in the South, the Post reported. Abramoff and Scanlon at the time were representing tribes in Louisiana and Mississippi that were attempting to block competing tribal casinos in Texas, Louisiana and Alabama, the newspaper said.
After the Tigua casino closed in February 2002, Abramoff and Scanlon pitched themselves as Washington influentials to Tigua leaders, while the tribe desperately tried to reopen the casino.
Abramoff wrote a tribal representative that he would get Republicans in Congress to fix the "gross indignity perpetuated by Texas state authorities" and assured the representative that he had lined up "a couple of Senators willing to ram this through," the Post reported.
A month later, in March 2002, the Tiguas sent three checks to Scanlon's firm totaling $4.2 million, according to the story. A check for half that amount was sent a month later from another Scanlon company to a company formed by Abramoff, the Post reported.
Abramoff sent Reed an e-mail Feb. 11, 2002, according to the Post story, which said: "I wish those moronic Tiguas were smarter in their political contributions. I'd love us to get our mitts on that moolah!! Oh well, stupid folks get wiped out."
The Tiguas first became active in contributing to political candidates in 1998, when most of their $206,000 in contributions went to unsuccessful Democratic candidates for state offices in Texas.
A month after hiring Scanlon and Abramoff, the Tiguas began sending hefty contributions to Republican candidates and GOP national committees. By the end of the year, they had made more than $550,000 in contributions to federal and state candidates, according to an El Paso Times review of campaign finance records.
At least $150,000 of the tribe's $176,000 in federal contributions that year went to Republicans, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The tribe also made $379,000 worth of political contributions to state candidates and committees in 2002, according to campaign finance reports with the Texas Ethics Commission. Their state political contributions were more balanced between Republicans and Democrats.
Former tribal Gov. Albert Alvidrez said he felt devastated when he learned that the Washington lobbyists who were paid millions by the tribe had worked earlier to defeat its goal -- and characterized tribal members as morons.
"That's degrading and demoralizing," Alvidrez said. "I am very upset. I have always said that this has not been an issue of the law. It's always been politics, and this is dirty politics."
Current tribal Gov. Senclair said the tribe hired Abramoff and Scanlon because of their previous track record and standing in the nation's capital. Scanlon had been DeLay's press secretary. Abramoff has a nearly 20-year friendship with DeLay and was considered a high-powered lobbyist working in one of the capital's upper-crust law firms, Greenberg Traurig.
That law firm has launched an investigation into his work, Jill Perry, the firm's spokeswoman, said in a statement. "The firm will finish its internal investigation before making further public comment," she said.
Abramoff resigned from the national law firm's Washington office only days after disclosing "personal transactions and related conduct, which are unacceptable to the firm," Perry said.
The Tigua governor said Indian tribes have been abused for several hundred years. "Who do we trust?" Senclair asked.
"We made an honest effort to step into the arena and to play by the rules of the game and all of a sudden, there's a whole different agenda to it. That's disheartening," said Senclair, a retired El Paso police officer.
Senclair and tribal lawyer Tom Diamond said they couldn't comment on specific topics that have triggered the congressional and FBI investigations.
"They told us to keep it quiet," Senclair said. "We have to be careful as to what we say."
The Senate Indian Affairs Committee has scheduled a hearing Wednesday to review "lobbying practices involving Indian tribes."
The committee plans to scrutinize the activities of four tribes -- the Mississippi Choctaw, the Louisiana Coushatta, the Agua Caliente in California and the Saginaw Chippewa in Michigan. All four were clients of Scanlon and Abramoff.
In addition to the committee, the Justice Department and several other federal agencies are jointly investigating large payments by the four tribes to Abramoff. Some of that money was spent by tribes that sought to block other nearby tribes from opening casinos.
U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said the disclosures affecting the Tiguas "show you how corrupt the system can get ... when you've got lobbying firms that are working first to create a problem and then to shake down the victims."
Nearly 700 El Pasoans lost their jobs after Speaking Rock shut down, Reyes said, "because of the scheming and underhanded tactics that these people utilized. In addition, millions of dollars that could have been used for houses and other things here by the Tiguas went to these scam artists. I think people ought to go to jail.
"And I think people need to understand the hypocrisy that Ralph Reed brings to an issue that's so important to our community," Reyes said. "The most troubling thing is Ralph Reed said he owns some people in the Texas Legislature. That should be some concern to all of us."
Reed has been unwilling to speak to the media about his role. Through a spokeswoman, Reed told the Washington Post that he did not know the Tiguas had hired Abramoff and Scanlon after the casino closed.
State Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, sponsored legislation three years ago to, in essence, legalize Indian gaming for the Tiguas. Anti-gambling groups countered with an aggressive radio advertising blitz, and his bill died in the Senate after passing in the House.
"It was clear to me that some of the opposition to treating the Indians fairly was coming from anti-gambling people who weren't really the money people in the equation," Keel said. "The anti- gambling interests in Texas were being funded by gambling interests in other states."
Keel, a former prosecutor and the first Republican sheriff elected in Travis County, said that what has happened to the Tiguas is "people's worst nightmare about potential corruption and special interests."
"It's very sad. I hope that the federal government gets to the bottom of it, and I hope that some people are held accountable," Keel said.
E-mail excerpts
Excerpts from e-mails by lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to the Washington Post:
."I wish those moronic Tiguas were smarter in their political contributions. I'd love us to get our mitts on that moolah!! Oh well, stupid folks get wiped out."
."I'm on the phone with Tigua! Fire up the jet baby, we're going to El Paso!!"
More excerpts
Excerpts from e-mails by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and public relations consultant Michael Scanlon reported in the Washington Post:
. Scanlon sent Abramoff a Feb. 19, 2002, El Paso Times story headlined "450 casino employees officially terminated" with the message: "This is on the front page of today's paper while they (Tigua leaders) will be voting on our plan." Abramoff's response: "Is life great or what!!"
.In November 2001, the Tiguas took out full-page newspaper ads in Washington and Texas to plead their case to keep Speaking Rock Casino open. Republican strategist Ralph Reed e-mailed Abramoff on Nov. 12: "Wow. These guys are really playing hard ball. Do you know who their consultant(s) are?" Abramoff responded: "Some stupid lobbyists up here who do Indian issues. We'll find out and make sure all our friends crush them like bugs."
