Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has led the Democratic Party's attacks portraying the Abramoff lobbying and fundraising as a Republican scandal. But the Associated Press reports Abramoff's billing records show his lobbying partners billed for nearly two dozen phone contacts or meetings with Reid's office in 2001 alone.
According to the Associated Press, on at least five occasions, Reid also intervened on government matters in ways helpful to Abramoff's tribal clients, once opposing legislation on the Senate floor and four times sending letters pressing the Bush administration on tribal issues. Reid collected donations around the time of each action.
The Associated Press reports more questionable activities connecting Reid and Abramoff:
Abramoff's firm also hired one of Reid's top legislative aides as a lobbyist. The aide later helped throw a fundraiser for Reid at Abramoff's firm that raised donations from several of his lobbying partners.And Reid's longtime chief of staff accepted a free trip to Malaysia arranged by a consulting firm connected to Abramoff that recently has gained attention in the influence-peddling investigation that has gripped the Capitol.
[. . .]
While Abramoff never directly donated to Reid, the lobbyist did instruct one tribe, the Coushattas, to send $5,000 to Reid's tax-exempt political group, the Searchlight Leadership Fund, in 2002. About the same time, Reid sent a letter to the Interior Department helpful to the tribe, records show.
Abramoff sent a list to the tribe entitled "Coushatta Requests" recommending donations to campaigns or groups for 50 lawmakers he claimed were helpful to the tribe. Alongside Reid's name, Abramoff wrote, "5,000 (Searchlight Leadership Fund) Senate Majority Whip."
Spokesman Jim Manley defended Reid saying:
Senator Reid never met Jack Abramoff and never has taken contributions from him, and efforts to drag him into this are going to fail.
The Associated Press article makes one wonder whether Manley is correct. According to the Associated Press, Abramoff's Democratic team members often delivered donations to Reid close to key events:
Reid himself, along his Senate counsel Jim Ryan, met with Abramoff deputy Ronald Platt on June 5, 2001, "to discuss timing on minimum wage bill" that affected the Marianas, according to a bill that Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff's firm, sent the Marianas.
Three weeks before the meeting, Greenberg Traurig's political action committee donated $1,000 to Reid's Senate re-election committee. Three weeks after the meeting, Platt himself donated $1,000 to Reid.
[. . .]
In all, Platt and a fellow lobbyist reported 21 contacts in 2001 with Reid's office, mostly with McCue and Ryan.
The Associated Press reveals that Reid intervened on other matters, but I you get the idea.
Senator Reid's defense, that he never met Jack Abramoff and never has taken contributions from Abramoff, doesn't quite meet the Senate's ethics rules require senators to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest in collecting contributions around the times they take official acts benefiting donors.
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