Post by blackcrowheart on Dec 27, 2005 5:20:19 GMT -5
Tribe's gifts to lobbyist, Pombo emerge in inquiry
By Richard A. Serrano and Judy Pasternak
LOS ANGELES TIMES
MASHPEE, Mass. - Everybody got something.
The Mashpee Wampanoags, famed for greeting the Pilgrims at Plymouth,
will be named a nationally recognized tribe -- a designation they sought
for 30 years to benefit from federal aid programs.
Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist embroiled in a Washington corruption
scandal, and his firm championed the American Indians' cause and
pocketed tens of thousands of dollars in tribal money.
And Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, chairman of the influential House
Resources Committee, landed a lucrative source of political donations:
the small group of American Indians whose ancestral lands are about as
far from his Central Valley district as one can get in the United
States.
The trifecta of money, politics and power that quietly came together
over the past several years has attracted the attention of a federal law
enforcement task force investigating the burgeoning Abramoff scandal.
FBI officials have visited the tribal offices here to obtain financial
documents, and other task force investigators are reviewing what role
political leaders and others played in the Mashpee's success.
Where the investigation will lead is unknown.
But several people close to Abramoff have pleaded guilty already in
other aspects of the wide-ranging scandal.
And in recent days, Pombo and several Capitol Hill lawmakers have
returned donations from Abramoff or given the money to charity.
Officials do know that the flow of cash from the Mashpee to Abramoff and
Pombo is a textbook example of the kind of cases of alleged
influence-buying that the task force is assembling.
But what investigators want to determine is whether the Mashpee episode
crossed the line into criminal behavior, as other Abramoff ventures
allegedly did.
Those involved say no laws were broken and instead tell the story of one
of America's most fabled American Indian tribes and how the Mashpee have
petitioned for government recognition for three decades.
Unlike other tribes that hired Abramoff, the Mashpee weren't in the
casino business. The tribe sought official recognition to qualify for a
raft of federal benefits.
After years of languishing on a long list of tribes seeking Interior
Department designations, the Mashpee Tribal Council decided that its
efforts were going nowhere.
So three years ago, the tribe began spreading tens of thousands of
dollars around Washington.
It appeared to work.
On Oct. 1, in a settlement of a lawsuit against Interior Secretary Gale
Norton, the tribe was placed on "active" consideration status for
recognition. After a final round of reviews, the Mashpee will probably
be officially recognized by March 30, 2007.
The settlement would permit the Mashpee to seek a casino license if
Massachusetts legalizes gambling.
Tribal Council President Glenn Marshall and tribal chief Vernon Lopez
said in separate interviews that their unconventional strategy had paid
off. "Sometimes," Lopez said, "it's necessary to go out of your way to
get some of the things you need."
Pombo was clearly their biggest champion.
Now in his seventh term, he went to Washington on the cusp of the GOP
revolution in Congress and soon hitched himself to Texas Rep. Tom DeLay,
who became House majority leader.
DeLay sponsored Pombo's 2003 drive to become chairman of the Resources
Committee, which oversees American Indian affairs.
The post was seen as a coup for Pombo. One disgruntled rival for the
chairmanship publicly attributed Pombo's rise to his fund-raising
prowess.
But the Capitol Hill landscape has sharply altered since. DeLay is
fighting money-laundering charges in Texas and has had to leave his
House leadership post.
Abramoff reportedly is near a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
And Pombo, through his work on behalf of the Mashpee, has attracted
investigators' attention, as well.
Pombo, 44, did not reply to several requests for interviews this week.
His Resources Committee spokesman, Brian Kennedy, said the chairman had
simply been trying to draw attention to "the poster tribe on the need
for reforming the recognition process."
Kennedy said Pombo first learned of the Mashpee when the son of Pombo's
chief of staff learned during a school project that the tribe that
greeted the Pilgrims had been trying since 1975 to win federal
recognition.
"That's sort of how the chairman got engaged," Kennedy said.
The Mashpee also were getting to know Pombo.
According to tribal spokesman Scott Ferson, half a dozen tribal leaders
attended several Pombo fund-raisers and eventually wrote $2,000 personal
checks to the lawmaker's Rich Political Action Committee.
In all, at least $20,000 in Mashpee money flowed into Pombo's coffers
soon after a September 2003 meeting the congressman had with Norton and
R. Lee Fleming, who oversees the American Indian recognition program.
The two-week run of donations accounted for about 5 percent of Rich
PAC's roughly $400,000 in revenues for the 2003-2004 election cycle,
according to two databases of political contributions.
Said Ferson: "Contributions to political candidates are perfectly legal
... and Pombo became our friend."
The federal recognition process traditionally has been a lengthy one.
The government reviews a tribe's history and ancestry, as well as the
genealogy of its members, to determine whether it is a bona fide
American Indian tribe.
A federally acknowledged tribe is eligible for special housing,
education, health care and other programs.
In his advocacy for the Mashpee, Pombo led a special committee hearing
in 2004.
He was seeking support for a bill he sponsored allowing tribes that had
petitioned for recognition before 1988 -- the year of an explosion of
Indian casinos and of tribes' petitions for federal recognition -- to be
moved to the head of the line.
The still-pending bill would apply to about a dozen tribes, according to
Interior Department records.
Pombo called it "unconscionable" that the Mashpee had not already gotten
what they wanted.
He added: "The tribe is being told it may have to wait 10 or more years
for a decision. The tribe could wait a half-century before obtaining a
final determination."
The congressman has come under fire in recent months from a fellow
Californian on his committee, George Miller, D-Martinez, who has
strongly urged the chairman to hold hearings and investigate Abramoff's
alleged lobbying improprieties on behalf of other American Indian tribes
seeking help for casinos.
In the latest in a series of letters, Miller told Pombo this month: "The
American people need to know, and deserve to know, the impact that
lobbyists and their allies within Congress and the administration have
had on public policy and the public interest."
But Pombo has largely deflected Miller's concerns.
Instead of opening his own investigation into Abramoff, he forwarded
Miller's letters to federal prosecutors. "Any allegations of criminal
matters of this sort are best addressed by the Department of Justice,"
he reportedly told Miller.
By Richard A. Serrano and Judy Pasternak
LOS ANGELES TIMES
MASHPEE, Mass. - Everybody got something.
The Mashpee Wampanoags, famed for greeting the Pilgrims at Plymouth,
will be named a nationally recognized tribe -- a designation they sought
for 30 years to benefit from federal aid programs.
Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist embroiled in a Washington corruption
scandal, and his firm championed the American Indians' cause and
pocketed tens of thousands of dollars in tribal money.
And Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, chairman of the influential House
Resources Committee, landed a lucrative source of political donations:
the small group of American Indians whose ancestral lands are about as
far from his Central Valley district as one can get in the United
States.
The trifecta of money, politics and power that quietly came together
over the past several years has attracted the attention of a federal law
enforcement task force investigating the burgeoning Abramoff scandal.
FBI officials have visited the tribal offices here to obtain financial
documents, and other task force investigators are reviewing what role
political leaders and others played in the Mashpee's success.
Where the investigation will lead is unknown.
But several people close to Abramoff have pleaded guilty already in
other aspects of the wide-ranging scandal.
And in recent days, Pombo and several Capitol Hill lawmakers have
returned donations from Abramoff or given the money to charity.
Officials do know that the flow of cash from the Mashpee to Abramoff and
Pombo is a textbook example of the kind of cases of alleged
influence-buying that the task force is assembling.
But what investigators want to determine is whether the Mashpee episode
crossed the line into criminal behavior, as other Abramoff ventures
allegedly did.
Those involved say no laws were broken and instead tell the story of one
of America's most fabled American Indian tribes and how the Mashpee have
petitioned for government recognition for three decades.
Unlike other tribes that hired Abramoff, the Mashpee weren't in the
casino business. The tribe sought official recognition to qualify for a
raft of federal benefits.
After years of languishing on a long list of tribes seeking Interior
Department designations, the Mashpee Tribal Council decided that its
efforts were going nowhere.
So three years ago, the tribe began spreading tens of thousands of
dollars around Washington.
It appeared to work.
On Oct. 1, in a settlement of a lawsuit against Interior Secretary Gale
Norton, the tribe was placed on "active" consideration status for
recognition. After a final round of reviews, the Mashpee will probably
be officially recognized by March 30, 2007.
The settlement would permit the Mashpee to seek a casino license if
Massachusetts legalizes gambling.
Tribal Council President Glenn Marshall and tribal chief Vernon Lopez
said in separate interviews that their unconventional strategy had paid
off. "Sometimes," Lopez said, "it's necessary to go out of your way to
get some of the things you need."
Pombo was clearly their biggest champion.
Now in his seventh term, he went to Washington on the cusp of the GOP
revolution in Congress and soon hitched himself to Texas Rep. Tom DeLay,
who became House majority leader.
DeLay sponsored Pombo's 2003 drive to become chairman of the Resources
Committee, which oversees American Indian affairs.
The post was seen as a coup for Pombo. One disgruntled rival for the
chairmanship publicly attributed Pombo's rise to his fund-raising
prowess.
But the Capitol Hill landscape has sharply altered since. DeLay is
fighting money-laundering charges in Texas and has had to leave his
House leadership post.
Abramoff reportedly is near a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
And Pombo, through his work on behalf of the Mashpee, has attracted
investigators' attention, as well.
Pombo, 44, did not reply to several requests for interviews this week.
His Resources Committee spokesman, Brian Kennedy, said the chairman had
simply been trying to draw attention to "the poster tribe on the need
for reforming the recognition process."
Kennedy said Pombo first learned of the Mashpee when the son of Pombo's
chief of staff learned during a school project that the tribe that
greeted the Pilgrims had been trying since 1975 to win federal
recognition.
"That's sort of how the chairman got engaged," Kennedy said.
The Mashpee also were getting to know Pombo.
According to tribal spokesman Scott Ferson, half a dozen tribal leaders
attended several Pombo fund-raisers and eventually wrote $2,000 personal
checks to the lawmaker's Rich Political Action Committee.
In all, at least $20,000 in Mashpee money flowed into Pombo's coffers
soon after a September 2003 meeting the congressman had with Norton and
R. Lee Fleming, who oversees the American Indian recognition program.
The two-week run of donations accounted for about 5 percent of Rich
PAC's roughly $400,000 in revenues for the 2003-2004 election cycle,
according to two databases of political contributions.
Said Ferson: "Contributions to political candidates are perfectly legal
... and Pombo became our friend."
The federal recognition process traditionally has been a lengthy one.
The government reviews a tribe's history and ancestry, as well as the
genealogy of its members, to determine whether it is a bona fide
American Indian tribe.
A federally acknowledged tribe is eligible for special housing,
education, health care and other programs.
In his advocacy for the Mashpee, Pombo led a special committee hearing
in 2004.
He was seeking support for a bill he sponsored allowing tribes that had
petitioned for recognition before 1988 -- the year of an explosion of
Indian casinos and of tribes' petitions for federal recognition -- to be
moved to the head of the line.
The still-pending bill would apply to about a dozen tribes, according to
Interior Department records.
Pombo called it "unconscionable" that the Mashpee had not already gotten
what they wanted.
He added: "The tribe is being told it may have to wait 10 or more years
for a decision. The tribe could wait a half-century before obtaining a
final determination."
The congressman has come under fire in recent months from a fellow
Californian on his committee, George Miller, D-Martinez, who has
strongly urged the chairman to hold hearings and investigate Abramoff's
alleged lobbying improprieties on behalf of other American Indian tribes
seeking help for casinos.
In the latest in a series of letters, Miller told Pombo this month: "The
American people need to know, and deserve to know, the impact that
lobbyists and their allies within Congress and the administration have
had on public policy and the public interest."
But Pombo has largely deflected Miller's concerns.
Instead of opening his own investigation into Abramoff, he forwarded
Miller's letters to federal prosecutors. "Any allegations of criminal
matters of this sort are best addressed by the Department of Justice,"
he reportedly told Miller.