New revelations surface in Abramoff probe

Timely pressure
The Abramoff team’s pressure came the same day the NRCC, the GOP’s fund-raising arm for Republican House candidates, held its major fund-raising dinner with President Bush. The Saginaw were a dinner sponsor, donating $50,000.

Kaplan’s resistance drew the ire of Abramoff’s team.

“The bottom line is that a staffer received several letters from appropriators, Native American Caucus co-chairs and others supporting a project that costs the federal government ZERO dollars and he is refusing to put it in the bill because it’s ‘his account,”’ Boulanger wrote.

Kaplan, who worked at the White House budget office before becoming an aide on the House Interior appropriations committee, did not return repeated phone calls to his office seeking comment. He currently works for a private firm.

Abramoff’s team devised a multi-pronged strategy.

Meeting ‘with DeLay’s folks’
Tony Rudy, an Abramoff colleague who was a former top aide to then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, reached out to his old boss’ office. Rudy recently pleaded guilty in the corruption probe and is assisting prosecutors.

“I just came out of a meeting with DeLay’s folks. Joel ain’t budging,” Rudy wrote, referring to Kaplan.

Abramoff was copied on each of the e-mail exchanges, at one point affirming the strategy. “This is brilliant,” Abramoff wrote.

Abramoff’s team persisted, calling the White House intergovernmental affairs office that often deals with Congress. “Just talked to White House intergovernmental. I’m pretty sure they will weigh in. Just trying to figure out if they should call Joel or some other player in this drama,” Abramoff associate Kevin Ring wrote.

Congress leaps in
Several people familiar with the lobbying effort said the possibility of White House help became moot when congressional leaders intervened.

In early 2003, Kaplan’s new boss, House subcommittee chairman Charles Taylor, R-N.C., ended any problems in the House when he signed on to the Saginaw money. Burns’ office took up the fight in the Senate.

Both oversaw subcommittees that controlled Interior’s budget, and the two lawmakers wrote a letter in May 2003 in an effort to overcome resistance inside Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, which was arguing the Saginaw shouldn’t qualify for the school program.

“It is our belief the Saginaw Chippewa tribal school in question clearly falls within” the school construction program, Burns and Taylor wrote, sharply criticizing the BIA. “We hope our collective response has cleared up any unnecessary confusion.”

The blunt letter has caught federal investigators’ interest because it referenced correspondence that had been drafted inside Interior but never delivered. Federal agents are investigating whether an Interior official leaked the draft to Abramoff’s team so it could be used by the lawmakers to pressure the department.

In addition, both Burns and Taylor got campaign money around the time of their help.

2003 fund-raiser gains donations
A month before the letter, Abramoff’s firm threw Taylor a fund-raiser on April 11, 2003, that scored thousands of dollars in donations for the lawmaker’s campaign, including $2,000 from Abramoff and $1,000 from the Saginaw. The tribe donated $3,000 more to Taylor a month after the letter.

Burns, likewise, got fresh donations. Several weeks before the letter, Burns collected $1,000 from the Saginaw and $5,000 from another Abramoff tribe. The month after the letter, the Saginaw delivered $4,000 in donations to Burns.

Taylor’s office did not respond to several calls seeking comment. The lawmaker had his own interest in the school construction program. The year after the Saginaw money, Taylor arranged for the Cherokee tribe in his home state to get similar money.

In a letter to the Senate Ethics Committee, Burns’ lawyer confirmed the senator’s staff met with Abramoff’s lobbying team about the Saginaw but insisted any “suggestion that funding for this project resulted from Mr. Abramoff’s influence is not accurate.”

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