Blackbear

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FROM: INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY NEWSPAPER

_http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096413189_
(http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096413189)

Senate Committee votes to release Abramoff investigation report

(javascript:PrintWindow();) Posted: June 22, 2006 by: _Jerry Reynolds_
(http://www.indiancountry.com/author.cfm?id=331) / Indian Country Today

WASHINGTON - The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs voted June 22 to
release "Gimme Five," a record of its investigation into the many-tentacled
activities of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates. The ironic title
phrase was an Abramoff favorite as he fleeced tribes.

Media attention to the Abramoff scandal and the resulting demand for a
357-document guided a decision to print only enough paper copies for committee
members with a few extra. The report is primarily available on the committee
website at http://indian.senate.gov/public. Click on the Business Meeting
caption and follow instructions for downloading.

The committee business meeting featured strong praise for Sen. John McCain,
R-Ariz., the committee chairman, who first called for the SCIA investigation.
The scandal surfaced in February 2004, when the Washington Post newspaper
broke a story alleging payments of more than $45 million over three years from
four tribes to Abramoff and an associate, Michael Scanlon. Ultimately the
number of tribes entangled in Abramoff's schemes grew to six, and their fees
and "donations" to something north of $66 million. The number of Abramoff's
associates also grew to include members of Congress and their staff.

"Unfortunately we now know that these allegations were true, and much
worse," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., just before the June 22 vote.

Abramoff and Scanlon have plea-bargained on charges of bribery and fraud;
several associates have been indicted and one convicted; a number of
congressional members and staff remain under federal investigation; and further
indictments are widely anticipated.

For his part, McCain praised the bipartisanship of the committee
investigation.

A majority of the nine senators who made statements prior to the vote
lavished praise on the committee staff. The investigation's staggering work-load
included tracking down and poring over tens of thousands of pages of documents
to establish factual records on the tribes that paid Abramoff and Scanlon,
the organizations Abramoff ginned up or convinced to channel tribal donations,
and the host of individuals who came into Abramoff's and Scanlon's orbit. The
report includes corrective recommendations for tribes contracting for legal
or lobbying services, and refers evidence on the misuse of nonprofit and
tax-exempt organizations to the Senate Committee on Finance, raising the
question of "whether existing federal revenue laws should be altered" in view of the
"Gimme Five" findings.

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