"2002 shortly after the lawmaker took action favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients."
Abramoff is a lobbyist whose financials are based not on what favors he can get from politicians but on what favors people believe he got from polticians. Oddly enough, it gives him dual incentives to declare his ability to commit bribary to his clients while denying the claim to those upholding the law.
That being said, if Dorgan was going to "urge fellow senators to fund a tribal school program Abramoff's clients wanted to use," which, given a) the school was in North Dakota (I believe), b) the priority of education is a mainstream liberal cause, and c) Dorgan has a lot of North Dakotans as constituents, it seems that if Dorgan was acting noncorruptively, his actions would have been the same.
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