Lobbyist May Have Cost Tribe Millions (DeLay $ ---> Christian group)

[Bluebear]

ELTON, La. - Though far removed from Washington, the Coushatta Indian tribe quickly learned the cost of influence in the Capitol: "Wire all funds. Professional Services. $3,405,000.00," one of the tribe's lobbyists, now under investigation, wrote the Coushattas in 2002.

Other invoices such as this one from Michael Scanlon, a business partner of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, carry similar commands for large sums. Before it was all over the tribe had spent $32 million of its casino profits on a lobbying effort that many now question as exorbitant, and tribal members had ousted their leadership.

Along the way, Abramoff directed the tribe to make tens of thousands of donations and once directed tribal leaders to cancel $55,000 in checks to House Republican leader Tom DeLay and divert them to other groups. DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority and Americans for a Republican Majority never reported receiving any checks from the Louisiana tribe to federal or state regulators, their reports show. The donations, however, are recorded in memos and ledgers kept by the tribe. "Enclosed please find a check for $10,000 to the Texans for a Republican Majority. This check needs to be reissued to America 21," Abramoff, now under criminal investigation, wrote the Coushattas in a May 2002 letter obtained by The Associated Press.

America 21 is a Nashville, Tenn.-based Christian group focused on voter turnout that helped Republican candidates in the pivotal 2002 elections that kept DeLay's party in control of the House.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050622/ap_on_re_us/delay_tribal_donations

[Bluebear]

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