Yesterday there was lots of discussion about McCain's habitual high-stakes craps playing. That was prompted by the observation McCain is so scrupulous he reports 14 bucks in interest as a line item on his 1040, yet he has NEVER reported any winnings or offsetting losses, even though we know he has been an habitual high-stakes gambler for many years.
Most of that conversation concentrated on tax implications, questions of judgment, or moral lapses. We barely touched on the potential corruption angle.
I want to focus on the corruption angle now because I found something interesting in the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act Database.
Remember those marathon gambling sessions in 2005? We know he was often in the company of Wes Gullett, a former staffer and now a lobbyist. If you check the client list on the web site for Gullett's firm you find nothing strange there -- now. However, look at their former clients and things get more interesting...
I actually saw it yesterday when I checked the site, but I overlooked it because it was tucked in among a bunch of other stuff. I'm talking about the former clients listed as "Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians." It is easy to overlook the way it is laid out on the page. But it is worth revisiting.
According to the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act database, Gullett’s firm filed a client registration on 12/13/ 05 for the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians dated 11/29/05. The purpose of the lobbying was to promote Indian gambling. But on 1/12/06, Gullett filed an amended registration because the Senate had never received an ID number.
Walter Gray, the head of the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians testified before McCain’s committee in July 2005 so why would the Pomo Indians hire Gullett in November? Especially AFTER they got their access? The answer is they probably didn't hire him afterwards. He just didn't report it until afterwards and no one knew to ask because he didn't file the paperwork with the Senate when he was doing the lobbying. Looks to me like a sloppy way to retroactively cover your tracks in case anyone ever wanted to check if you were secretly lobbying for a client.
The bottom line: It looks like Gullett got $20,000 for secretly lobbying McCain while McCain was chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and the committee was actively investigating Indian gambling in connection with Jack Abramoff.
Here are the filings from the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act Database. I have put up the original registration, the amended registration, the year end report (covering the last half of 2005), and the termination report from Jan. 2006. Note: All of these were filed about the same time, so all the work had been started and finished before there was any record of the relationship. The key date here being July 2005. Basically, they paid 20,000 for their access. Access they got presumably because of their representation through McCain's long-time friend and gambling partner. Once that was done, the relationship was terminated. Note the paper trail didn't appear until after everything was done. In other words, there was no way to connect these people while they were actively engaged in lobbying prior to testifying.
Click on the thumbnails for larger versions:
Pomo Tribe Registration form as clients
Pomo Tribe Amended Registration
Pomo Tribe Year End Report
Pomo Tribe Termination
Since then, the Guidiville Band of the Pomo Tribe has been using Hogan & Hartson as their lobbyists, but no significant billings have been reported.
UPDATE!!!!!!!!! LOOK WHAT I FOUND!!!!!!
Turns out we have been sitting on this tidbit for months! h/t to Mrs. Panstrappon for covering this even though no one noticed it at the time.