Picayune Item: Documents show Reed's firm got casino money

WASHINGTON (AP) - Georgia lieutenant governor candidate Ralph Reed knew in 2002 that a casino-operating Indian tribe was the client of a now-embattled lobbyist who hired him to run an anti-gambling campaign, according to documents released by a Senate panel.

But Reed's spokeswoman, Lisa Baron, said Thursday Reed didn't know until last year that lobbyist Jack Abramoff was forwarding to Reed the money he got from the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, which derives virtually all its revenue from gaming.

Testimony at Wednesday's Senate Indian Affairs Committee meeting and the release of more e-mails between Abramoff and Reed shed further light on their business relationship.

In one exchange from 2001, Reed jokes that instead of sending $10,000 to his campaign to be Georgia's Republican chairman, Abramoff should make the check payable to his retirement fund in the Cayman Islands.

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The committee is investigating Abramoff and political consultant Michael Scanlon, who are accused of profiting from both sides in the battle over a Texas Indian casino and defrauding six tribes out of millions of dollars.

Reed hasn't been accused of a crime or ordered to testify. He says that he knew Abramoff's firm was getting money from tribes but that he always assumed none of it was going to his consulting firm, Century Strategies, which ran a multimillion-dollar publicity campaign that successfully closed a casino.

Among the documents released by the committee late Wednesday is an exchange in February 2002 between Reed and Abramoff involving the Coushattas. Reed sends Abramoff an article about the Coushattas' efforts to prevent a rival tribe from building a casino. The next day, Abramoff writes back: “That's our client. We did this release.”

In a statement, Reed reiterates that he didn't know he was getting tribal money, even though he knew who Abramoff was.

“To associate me with the alleged misdeeds of others is an attempt at guilt by association, and is unfair and wrong,” Reed said.

During the hearing, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said it was clear there was a scheme to redirect the money sent to Reed as a way of disguising that it came from tribal casinos. Reed must have been involved, he suggested.

Under questioning, William Worfel, a former tribal council member of the Coushattas, said he couldn't confirm Reed knew where the money was coming from but that “he should have known.”

Baron called Dorgan's allegations “false” and politically driven.