The Senate Indian Affairs Committee held their fourth hearing on lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his involvement in lobbying certain members of Congress and the White House. J. Steven Griles, former deputy secretary of the Interior testified,
making him the highest-ranking official implicated in the Abramoff scandals.
Griles called the allegations "untrue" and "outrageous," despite being confronted with numerous e-mails documenting his involvement.
More inside.
Michael Rossetti, former counsel of the Interior secretary Gale Norton, also testified to the effect of Griles' involvement:
"I was alarmed that Mr. Griles all of a sudden had an inexplicable desire to be involved in this particular issue...who's water was he carrying on this issue?"
(Source)
A key witness, Italia Federici, was unable to attend the hearing after receiving a subpoena from the Committee last week. Federici, a Republican 'environmentalist' and president of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA), is said to have acted on behalf of Abramoff to influence members of the Interior.
"Documents obtained in the course of the investigation suggest that Mr. Abramoff might have had his tribal clients pay so much because he perceived that CREA's president, Italia Federici, would help him get inside information about, and possibly influence, tribal issues pending at the Department of Interior."
The documents in question (warning: 318 pg. .pdf) contains numerous instances of Abramoff and Federici corresponding about meetings between Federici and Interior members. A March 1, 2001 e-mail details a party held by Federici and others for secretary Norton. In it, Abramoff offers to pay for the reception.
Another e-mail, dated March 22, 2001, details a meeting between Abramoff and Interior officials:
I met with the Interior guys today and they were ecstatic that the tribe was going to help. If you can get me a check via federal made out to "Council for Republican Enviornmental Advocacy" for $50K that would be great. This is really going to help. We'll chat tomorrow.
An additional hearing, most likely to be held next week, was established to focus solely on Federici, CREA and her participation on behalf of Abramoff and his clients.
CREA, which received at least $250,000 from Abramoff's tribal clients, was founded by then-secretary Gale Norton and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist.
Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform also received kickbacks from Abramoff's tribal groups, including a $25,000 donation from the Lousiana Coushatta.
Also mentioned in the documents are Ralph Reed, former lobbyist of Abramoff's and candidate for Lt. Governor in Georgia. Reed, via Century Strategies, received funds from tribal clients through a labyrinthine passageway,
Says Abramoff in an e-mail to Reed:
The originating entity had to transfer to a separate account before they transferred to the entity which is going to transfer to you.
Abramoff and Reed used the American International Center, a think-tank established by former Tom DeLay press secretary Michael Scanlon, to launder the funds.
Reed received close to a million dollars from Abramoff's clients during a March 2001 to do the bidding of Abramoff's tribal clients in the Louisiana legislature. An e-mail documenting Reed's involvement in a LA Senate bill to Abramoff subsequently deleted all references to Reed when forwarded, presumably to protect Reed.
For more on the backstory of the Senate Indian Affairs hearings, see here, here, witness testimony from the June hearing here and testimony from today's hearing here.
Said the Committee's chair, John McCain, following the meeting, "All we did is follow the money."