Ex-Client Sues Disgraced DC Lobbyist Abramoff:Case Reveals About politics

[NVMojo]

A Former Client Sues Disgraced Washington Lobbyist Jack Abramoff: What the Case Reveals About American Politics

July 17, 2006

Last week, the saga of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff took a new and odd turn. One of Abramoff's former clients, the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, sued him and others, alleging that their misdeeds cost the tribe millions of dollars in foregone casino revenue.

The allegations in the tribe's complaint are not exactly news, as they are drawn mostly from documents already made public--including records of congressional hearings and Abramoff's own plea agreement with the government. Yet the tribe has done a public service in weaving them into a compelling, if sickening, narrative of greed and corruption.



That is not to say, however, that the tribe will prevail in its lawsuit; it may not. For instance, one of the tribe's claims is downright perverse; the tribe essentially argues that Abramoff and his associates failed to deliver on an attempt to purchase federal legislation. Another claim asserts that Abramoff and company "tricked" Texas citizens and elected officials into believing that gambling is harmful.

More broadly, the potential legal obstacles that the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe's suit faces underscore disturbing facts about how lobbyists and legislators do business, even when everyone scrupulously obeys the law.

Abramoff's Failures to Disclose and Other Sins

Jack Abramoff and his associates raised sleaze to an art form, as the Texas casino gambling saga illustrates. Abramoff was hired by the Louisiana-Coushatta Tribe to lobby Texas elected officials so that the latter would not permit casino gambling by their cousins, the Alabama-Coushatta of Texas, and another Texas tribe, the Tigua. The Louisiana-Coushatta feared competition from the Texas tribes if Indian gaming were legalized in Texas.

According to the complaint of the Alabama-Coushatta, the lobbying efforts of Abramoff and his associates consisted primarily of attempts to deceive the public and Texas elected officials about who really opposed casino gambling in Texas. Rather than revealing that their client's interest was purely economic, Abramoff and the other defendants allegedly created front organizations that purported to object to gambling on moral and religious grounds.

Meanwhile, the complaint alleges, even as Abramoff and the others were taking millions of dollars of Louisiana-Coushatta Tribe money to prevent gaming by the Texas tribes such as the Alabama-Coushatta, they were soliciting money from those very same Texas tribes to lobby Congress to permit them to operate casinos. (Because of the complicated interaction of federal statutes and judicial precedents in this area, gaming by the Texas tribes would be permissible if permitted by either the state or federal government.) This undisclosed conflict of interest was one of the bases for Abramoff's guilty plea on charges of criminal fraud.

Yet, as disgusting as it is, Abramoff's pattern of behavior does not clearly entitle the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas to the relief it seeks from the court.

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