New details on Abramoff connections

Grover Norquist
The conduit relationship to pay Reed then changed over to Grover Norquist. Norquist, another long-time friend of Abramoff's used his group, Americans for Tax Reform, to pay Reed. When Abramoff suggested the Choctaw start using ATR as a conduit, the Tribe agreed. According to the report, Norquist demanded that he receive a large management fee for letting ATR be used as a conduit.

Norquist and his ATR organization, according to its website, "opposes all tax increases as a matter of principle" and serves as "a national clearinghouse for the grassroots taxpayers. According to one document in the Committee's possession, Abramoff described ATR as "an effective conduit of support for other groups which have provided assistance to Indian gaming's efforts to fight the tax proposal." There were a number of anti-tax grassroots groups in various states, and "it was ATR's job to make contacts with those groups, to assist them in making contacts with members of the Ways and Means Committee or other committee members."

But, according to the report, Norquist apparently began getting nervous about his role as a pass-through. Part of Norquist's discomfort, the reports states, was derived from press accounts reporting that ATR was one of the largest contributors to an organization that was fighting against the expansion of gaming.

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