Newsday.com: Tribe Says Abramoff Told Them to Donate

By JOHN SOLOMON and SHARON THEIMER
Associated Press Writers



WASHINGTON -- Lobbyist Jack Abramoff instructed an Indian tribe to make a $5,000 donation to Sen. Byron Dorgan shortly after the lawmaker signed a letter requesting federal money for a school program that Abramoff's tribal clients wanted, the tribe's lawyer said Monday.

The disclosure from the Louisiana Coushattas came as Dorgan, D-N.D., sharply criticized The Associated Press for reporting last week that he had collected $20,000 in donations from Abramoff's lobbying firm and tribal clients around the time of his Feb. 11, 2002, letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Dorgan told a news conference in North Dakota he saw no reason to step aside as the top Democrat on the Senate committee investigating Abramoff's controversial lobbying.

Reiterating comments his staff gave in the AP's story, Dorgan said he never met the lobbyist and his letter had nothing to do with Abramoff or the donations. He said he wrote the letter because he supported the tribal school construction program and believed tribes in his state might benefit.

"The Bush administration wanted to shut the program down. I disagreed. The program saves the federal government money and gets results. That makes sense to me," he said. Dorgan's staff said Dorgan believes the letter was drafted by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., who also signed it.

As for the $20,000 in donations that came to him from Abramoff's firm and four tribal clients within weeks of the letter, Dorgan said: "I don't have any idea what was contributed to me, or by whom. No contribution has been made to me that was ever represented as a contribution coming from Mr. Abramoff, or any relationship to things that he was involved in."

At the time, Dorgan and Burns sent the letter, Abramoff was trying to keep the tribal school construction program alive and win more money. One of his tribes, the Mississippi Choctaw, had already gotten money from the program and another, the Saginaw Chippewa, was seeking money. Dorgan's letter mentioned the Choctaw for its successful use of the program.

A tribe that sent money to both Dorgan and Burns three weeks after the 2002 letter said Monday that Abramoff instructed it to make the donations.

The Louisiana Coushattas' check ledger shows the tribe on March 6, 2002, wrote checks for $5,000 to Dorgan's political group, called the Great Plains Leadership Fund, and $25,000 to Burns. That money ultimately landed in Burns' Friends of the Big Sky political group, records show.

In all, the Coushattas issued more than five dozen checks to lawmakers and their groups that day. Several of the recipients had written letters favorable to Abramoff's clients.

Jimmy Faircloth, a lawyer for the Coushattas, told the AP that all the checks, including those to Dorgan and Burns, were written at Abramoff's behest. "I am confident of that fact," Faircloth said.

Dorgan said Monday he believed the AP story last week unfairly suggested there was a connection between the donations and the letter, even though the AP quoted his staff saying there was no connection.

"The suggestion in the story that I may have supported that school construction program because of Jack Abramoff or because of campaign contributions from Indian tribes is clearly and despicably wrong," he said.

Dorgan's spokesman, Barry E. Piatt, said he believed his boss had pursued the congressional investigation of Abramoff aggressively. Asked why that investigation hasn't focused more on donations to lawmakers who wrote letters favorable to Abramoff's clients, Piatt said, "They're investigating what appears to be massive fraud, and there's lots of ground to cover and it is still early."

Dorgan's office also corrected one piece of information it provided last week. In an interview last Wednesday, Dorgan chief of staff Bernie Toon told the AP that congressional aide Peter Kiefhaber worked for Dorgan's subcommittee in late January 2003. Kiefhaber did work for the Democratic staff of the Senate Interior Appropriations subcommittee at the time and Dorgan was a member, but Dorgan didn't take over as the top Democrat on the panel until March 4, 2003, his office said Monday.