By Peter H. Stone, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Dayname, Mnth. 00, 2005

About once a month since 2001, Grover Norquist has invited a top Bush administration official or a Republican congressional leader to dine with him and some 20 or 30 corporate lobbyists who help subsidize Americans for Tax Reform, the anti-tax group that Norquist heads.

The dinners at Norquist's Washington, D.C., home aren't cheap: The lobbyists pay ATR between $10,000 and $25,000 a year for the privilege of attending several of the intimate get-togethers, which have featured the likes of White House political guru Karl Rove and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, according to several lobbyists who have attended.

From time to time over the years, the K Street crowd has been joined at the dinners by other ATR supporters, including the leaders of some casino-owning Indian tribes who were top clients of one of Norquist's oldest friends, former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Representatives of the Saginaw Chippewas of Michigan, the Louisiana Coushattas, and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians were among those who either attended or helped to finance some of the Norquist-hosted soirees that were advertised as tax policy events. Moreover, some of these same tribal representatives also attended brief meetings at the White House with President Bush that Norquist has organized annually since 2001 for dozens of state legislators who have pushed anti-tax measures or signed anti-tax pledges.

The Indian tribes' participation in the ATR dinners and the White House visits underscores the long and successful political partnership that Norquist and Abramoff have maintained since the early 1980s, when Norquist managed Abramoff's successful campaign to be chairman of the College Republicans. The pair's friendship and political ties continued through the '80s as they worked on conservative causes. It blossomed in the decade after the GOP captured Congress in 1994 and Abramoff began his meteoric rise as a GOP lobbyist and fundraiser.

Abramoff's former colleagues at the two firms where he spent his lobbying career -- Preston Gates & Ellis, and Greenberg Traurig -- paint a picture of a close working relationship between Abramoff and Norquist.

"At Greenberg Traurig, [there] was an understanding that Jack was helping Grover with money and that Grover was there to help some clients," said one former lobbyist from the firm. "It was a symbiotic relationship."

Until early 2004, Norquist and ATR played a pivotal role in boosting Abramoff's lobbying career. Norquist championed the interests of Abramoff's two biggest clients to the influential network of conservatives, policy wonks, and politicians who attend ATR's regular Wednesday meetings. He also deployed his group's grassroots resources to help fend off the threat of taxes and regulation on Indian tribes' gambling ventures and on other Abramoff clients.

Their ties were adversely affected early last year, however, after Abramoff became the focus of congressional and other federal investigations into allegations that the high-flying lobbyist had bilked six of his Indian tribe clients out of tens of millions of dollars.

Before things went sour for Abramoff, however, the lobbyist had steered nearly $1.8 million in donations to Norquist's ATR from Indian tribes and other clients, according to former colleagues of both men and to sources familiar with their financial dealings.

Some conservatives who have known Norquist for years emphasize how valuable he was to Abramoff as the lobbyist made his K Street climb. "Grover gave Abramoff priceless credentials as a conservative lobbyist loyal to conservative Republican causes," said Michael Waller, a vice president of the right-leaning Center for Security Policy, who for several years was an occasional participant at Norquist's Wednesday meetings. In some cases, according to Waller, "ATR was acting as a front organization for some of Abramoff's clients and operations."

Abramoff used ATR as a conduit in 1999 and 2000, for example, to send some $1.15 million from the Mississippi Choctaws to the Alabama Christian Coalition and to an allied anti-gambling group in the state. The funds were for a campaign spearheaded by Ralph Reed, the former Christian Coalition leader-turned-business-consultant, that helped to defeat a proposed gambling venture in Alabama that posed a financial threat to the Mississippi Choctaws' casino enterprises.

ATR also boosted the interests of another big Abramoff client -- the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The government of the Marianas, a chain of Pacific Ocean islands that is a U.S. territory, has long fought against efforts by congressional Democrats to impose American minimum-wage and labor rules on the island nation's garment industry. According to sources familiar with ATR finances, the group sent Marianas officials a bill for $10,000 at least once in the mid-1990s for attendance at Norquist's tax policy dinners.

"The Marianas became a great cause celebre at the Wednesday meetings shortly after the Republicans took power," recalled Marshall Wittman, a onetime Christian Coalition lobbyist who now works for the centrist Democratic Leadership Council.

Among those who helped Abramoff and Norquist cement their political connections was Reed, who became a friend to both men in the early 1980s during the time that all three were in the College Republicans. Another player was former lobbyist David Safavian, who in 1995 became a partner of Abramoff's at Preston Gates for 18 months. Safavian then teamed up with Norquist for a couple of years; the two helped to found the lobbying firm Janus-Merritt Strategies, which represented several controversial clients, including the repressive regime in the African country of Gabon.

In September, the Justice Department arrested Safavian, who was once chief of staff at the General Services Administration, and charged him with perjury and obstructing the federal corruption probe into Abramoff's dealings with government officials. The complaint also alleged that Safavian, who resigned on September 16 from his most recent job as head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, concealed and then lied about his efforts at GSA to help Abramoff gain control of two government-run properties in Washington. Safavian's lawyer has said that his client will fight the charges.

Norquist has strongly defended his friend Abramoff and said that the lobbyist never asked him to do anything improper. In an interview with National Journal last year, after the Abramoff scandal broke, Norquist charged that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, who has been leading the Senate inquiry into Abramoff's alleged lobbying abuses, "hates Bush and hates DeLay, and Jack is an ally and friend of both." A McCain spokesman pointed out that the senator has said he "hates corruption," not DeLay or Bush. Norquist, who opposed McCain and backed Bush vigorously in 2000, said in the interview that Abramoff would be "fine" in the end, calling him "hardworking, smart, and completely up-front."

Norquist declined to answer a number of written questions submitted to him for this story. But following Abramoff's August indictment on wire-fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from his 2000 purchase of a floating casino operation in Florida, the friendship may be fraying. Abramoff has pleaded not guilty in that case.

Although Norquist invited Abramoff to his wedding in Virginia just a few months ago, Norquist has recently told close friends that he is worried that the probes may wind up hurting or destroying some of Abramoff's former colleagues. Norquist has also tried to downplay his links to the lobbyist. In June, he told Time magazine that he and Abramoff "have led very different lives over the last 20 years."

That may be true, but Abramoff and Norquist have crossed paths quite a bit in recent years, collaborating on different projects. The strongest link between the two longtime political comrades was through the Mississippi Choctaw tribe, which in the mid-1990s became Abramoff's first Indian casino client. Shortly after, ATR helped to rally grassroots opposition against proposed new federal taxes on Indian gambling revenues; the measures were killed in the House in 1995 and again in 1997.

From the mid-90s through 2002, according to sources, the Choctaws poured about $1.5 million into ATR coffers, roughly three-quarters of which was used to help defeat an Alabama lottery referendum and a video-poker proposal that was pending in the state Legislature. The Choctaws considered the lottery and video-poker proposals as economic threats to their casino operations.

Norquist has said that Abramoff asked for his help on this issue and that he agreed to have ATR act as a conduit for the Choctaw funds, in part because he opposes government-run lotteries. ATR's role also effectively allowed Reed and the Christian Coalition -- strong opponents of all forms of gambling -- to claim that the money for the campaign did not come from casinos. A statement issued by the Choctows over the summer supported the claim that the money did not come from casinos.

Some Abramoff e-mails released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee also indicate that Norquist took a cut of the Choctaw funds for ATR. In a February 7, 2000, e-mail, for instance, Abramoff cautioned Reed that he might be receiving a little less than expected because "I need to give Grover something (for helping), so the first transfer will be a little lighter." Then on February 22, Abramoff sent an e-mail memo to himself voicing surprise that "Grover kept another 25K!" Norquist told Time that he twice received permission from the Mississippi tribe to keep $25,000.

Some campaign finance experts and white-collar-crime lawyers say that ATR faces potential legal problems over its role in funneling the funds in Alabama. "Transactions involving third parties such as ATR are going to attract the attention of investigators" who are looking at Abramoff's dealings with the tribes, said Stan Brand, a former House counsel. But Brand cautioned that, as of yet, too little is known "to assess [ATR's] legal exposure."

Nonetheless, it's clear that over the years, Abramoff tried to help bolster ATR's funding. In early 1997, for instance, Abramoff arranged a meeting at Preston Gates in which Norquist pitched his group to Choctaw leaders and leaders of the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana. To help his friend, Abramoff penned some "talking points" for Norquist to use in his pitch. National Journal has obtained a copy of the talking-points memo.

"The message is that the Choctaws can't do this alone: They need help," Abramoff suggested to Norquist. "The Choctaws were kind enough to provide resources" to ATR in an earlier fight on the Hill in 1995 in which a tax on Indian casinos was blocked in conference, Abramoff added. "By the way, it would be a big help if you could laud Chief Martin (of the Choctaws) for all he has done," Abramoff advised Norquist.

Abramoff concluded that Norquist should also say, "While it is great to have resources to fight this fight, you (the tribes) will have an easier time in convincing other tax activists to help the tribes if the tribes are there to help [the] taxpayer movement with efforts that are not related to tribal issues." It's not clear whether this same pitch to the Chitimachas paid off for ATR.

More recently, Norquist appears to have played some role in helping Abramoff hook up with the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, a group that Norquist helped to found in 1997 along with Gale Norton, who is now secretary of the Interior.

In 2002 and 2003, CREA became a key lobbying ally for at least two of the tribes that Abramoff represented -- the Louisiana Coushattas and the Saginaw Chippewas. The Coushattas gave $150,000 and the Chippewas gave $75,000 to CREA when Abramoff was seeking the council's help.

CREA proved instrumental to Abramoff's efforts to persuade a top Interior Department official -- including the then-No. 2 at the department, Steve Griles -- to side with some of Abramoff's Indian casino clients against rival tribes that were seeking to open casinos in Louisiana and Michigan. The Washington Post has reported that Italia Federici, who runs CREA, used her personal pull with Griles to get the Interior official to help Abramoff's tribal clients ward off competition from other tribes that wanted to open casinos. Both efforts resulted in short-term successes in delaying competition.

Norquist not only co-founded CREA, he also sublet or gave space to the new organization for about a year at ATR's former offices on 18th Street NW, in Washington, according to sources familiar with ATR's operations. Norquist also continued to help raise money for CREA in D.C. Former colleagues of Abramoff's recall that Norquist was a featured guest at a CREA fundraiser at the Caucus Room restaurant, which also drew Griles and representatives of energy interests that support CREA.

One former Greenberg lobbyist recalls that Abramoff was eager to help Griles get into the Bush administration because the lobbyist viewed Griles as a trusted ally. Not long after Abramoff joined Greenberg in early 2001, and soon after Griles had been nominated for his post, this lobbyist says, Abramoff described Griles as "a friend who had been nominated who we need to help get confirmed."

The Post has also reported that Griles is facing scrutiny in the widening federal probe of Abramoff, because of allegations that Abramoff was trying to hire Griles while he was at Interior and making decisions that could have affected Greenberg's tribal clients, a potential violation of conflict-of-interest laws.

Meanwhile, despite Norquist's efforts to help Abramoff's Indian clients, not all of those tribes think they got their money's worth in donating to ATR. "We were told that this group was going to stop laws that were going to tax Indian gaming," said Bernie Sprague, an official with the Chippewas who opposed his tribe's hiring of Abramoff as its lobbyist in 2001.

"But I was never shown who was trying to tax us, or who was introducing a bill," Sprague said. "I've been suspicious of them all along. It sounds like it was just another Abramoff scheme."

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