S. HRG. 108–720 TRIBAL LOBBYING MATTERS HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON OVERSIGHT HEARING REGARDING TRIBAL LOBBYING MATTERS, ET AL SEPTEMBER 29, 2004 NOVEMBER 17, 2004 WASHINGTON, DC ( TRIBAL LOBBYING MATTERS S. HRG. 108–720 TRIBAL LOBBYING MATTERS HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON OVERSIGHT HEARING REGARDING TRIBAL LOBBYING MATTERS, ET AL SEPTEMBER 29, 2004 WASHINGTON, DC ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 96–229 PDF WASHINGTON : 2005 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, Colorado, Chairman DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii, Vice Chairman JOHN McCAIN, Arizona, KENT CONRAD, North Dakota PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico HARRY REID, Nevada CRAIG THOMAS, Wyoming DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota GORDON SMITH, Oregon MARIA CANTWELL, Washington LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska PAUL MOOREHEAD, Majority Staff Director/Chief Counsel PATRICIA M. ZELL, Minority Staff Director/Chief Counsel (II) C O N T E N T S Page Statements: Abramoff, Jack, Washington, DC .................................................................... 14 Campbell, Hon. Ben Nighthorse, U.S. Senator from Colorado, chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs ....................................................................... 1 Conrad, Hon. Kent, U.S. Senator from North Dakota .................................. 9 Dorgan, Hon. Byron L., U.S. Senator from North Dakota ............................ 11 Inouye, Hon. Daniel K., U.S. Senator from Hawaii, vice chairman, Com- mittee on Indian Affairs ............................................................................... 4 Johnson, Hon. Tim, U.S. Senator from South Dakota .................................. 12 Lowell, Abbe, attorney ..................................................................................... 14 McCain, Hon. John, U.S. Senator from Arizona ............................................ 5 Milanovich, Richard, chairman, Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians . 19 Petras, Christopher, former legislative director, Saginaw Chippewa In- dian Tribe of Michigan ................................................................................. 38 Sprague, Bernie, subchief, Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan ... 22 APPENDIX Prepared statements: Milanovich, Richard ......................................................................................... 51 Petras, Christopher .......................................................................................... 54 Sprague, Bernie ................................................................................................ 53 Additional material submitted for the record: Documents most pertinent to matters covered by this hearing .................... 57 NOVEMBER 17, 2004 Statements: Campbell, Hon. Ben Nighthorse, U.S. Senator from Colorado, chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs ....................................................................... 219 Conrad, Hon. Kent, U.S. Senator from North Dakota .................................. 227 Dorgan, Hon. Byron L., U.S. Senator from North Dakota ............................ 227 Hisa, Carlos, Lieutenant Governor, Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo .......................... 231 Inouye, Hon. Daniel K., U.S. Senator from Hawaii, vice chairman, Com- mittee on Indian Affairs ............................................................................... 231 McCain, Hon. John, U.S. Senator from Arizona ............................................ 222 Schwartz, Marc, president, Marc Schwartz Partners, Inc. ........................... 228 APPENDIX Prepared statements: Campbell, Hon. Ben Nighthorse, U.S. Senator from Colorado, chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs ....................................................................... 251 Dodd, Hon. Christopher J., U.S. Senator from Connecticut ......................... 252 Hisa, Carlos (with attachment) ....................................................................... 254 Schwartz, Marc ................................................................................................. 276 Additional material submitted for the record: Documents most pertinent to matters covered by this hearing .................... 284 (III) TRIBAL LOBBYING MATTERS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2004 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m. in room 216, Hart Senate Building, Hon. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (chairman of the committee), presiding. Present: Senators Campbell, Inouye, Conrad, Cantwell, Dorgan, Johnson, McCain, and Murkowski. STATEMENT OF HON. BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, U.S. SENATOR FROM COLORADO, CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS The CHAIRMAN. We will now move to the second matter on the committee’s schedule this morning. The committee today is launch- ing the first in a planned series of hearing into allegations of im- proprieties by Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon involving lobby- ing and so-called grassroots political activities on behalf of Indian tribes. To put these allegations into some context, Mr. Abramoff ran the government affairs department for Greenberg Traurig, a Washing- ton, DC law firm where he lobbied on behalf of several Indian tribes. Mr. Scanlon owned Capital Campaign Strategies, a firm that provided grassroots political support in the form of coalition building, letter writing and telephone campaigns. The allegations that touched off this committee investigation came to light earlier this year in a series of newspaper articles. The articles alleged that Mr. Abramoff convinced some of his tribal cli- ents to retain Mr. Scanlon’s firm. Mr. Scanlon charged the tribes exorbitant fees, while producing very little work, and Mr. Scanlon split the overcharges with Mr. Abramoff. Among the specific charges in the original and follow-up articles that were included as late as yesterday, Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon received more than $45 million in fees from tribal clients. Mr. Scanlon paid Mr. Abramoff $10 million that was not disclosed to the tribes or to Greenberg Traurig. Mr. Abramoff convinced at least one tribe to make donations to the Capital Athletic Founda- tion, a local charity which the press reported Mr. Abramoff sup- ports, and Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon may have influenced trib- al elections. While our investigation is continuing, we have come to some very disturbing conclusions. That is, the accusations in the newspapers (1) 2 were not entirely accurate. In fact, the truth is it is much worse than as reported. The articles vastly understated both the amounts the tribes paid to Mr. Scanlon and the amounts he gave to Mr. Abramoff. In fact, all told, six tribes paid more than $66 million to Mr. Scanlon, and Mr. Abramoff received more than $21 million from Mr. Scanlon for his share of the scheme. These are rather eye-popping sums of money, to be sure. As you might guess, it appears that Mr. Scanlon and Mr. Abramoff did not want a lot of people to know how much money they were making. The committee’s investigation has revealed that Mr. Abramoff did not inform his partners at the Greenberg firm of this arrangement. Neither did he or Mr. Scanlon disclose this arrangement to their tribal clients. The allegation that concerns me the most is that Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon may have tried to manipulate the outcomes of tribal elections for their own personal profit. Our investigation has found in at least two instances, Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon sought to profit by becoming involved in attempting to manipulate tribal elections. They helped elect tribal council members at no charge, but apparently with the understanding that they would be compensated at a later date. Shortly after successful campaigns by the candidates Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon supported, they solicited and received multimillion dollar contracts aided by the tribal council members that they helped elect. Clearly, these circumstances raise serious, but unanswered, questions about whether there was an explicit or implicit quid pro quo, ‘‘we get elected and then you will give us big money contracts.’’ Today, the committee will hear testimony from individuals on both sides of these allegations. Their testimony will shed consider- ably more light on the information that I have discussed so far. In recovering the information that I have discussed so far, the com- mittee and its staff has combed through literally thousands of pages of documents. While these documents were available to com- mittee members prior to this hearing, they have not been available to the public. To assist the members as well as the general public, the commit- tee staff has prepared those documents most pertinent to the mat- ters covered by this hearing. I now offer in the form of a motion these documents for the record, and move that they be entered into the record at this hearing. Senator INOUYE. Second. The CHAIRMAN. Senator Inouye seconds it. Those in favor say aye. [A chorus of ayes.] The CHAIRMAN. Are there any opposed? [No response.] The CHAIRMAN. Hearing none, that will be included. All the docu- ments will be part of the record. [Referenced documents appear in appendix.] The CHAIRMAN.