Ralph Reed
Ralph Reed, a lifelong conservative operative, is a longtime business and personal associate of Jack Abramoff. He lost the GOP primary for the Lt. Governor of Georgia on July 18 to the unknown State Senator Casey Cagle, who consistently attacked Reed for his lobbying activities with Abramoff.
Reed and Abramoff met during their involvement in the College Republicans in the early 1980s, where Reed ultimately went on to become executive director in 1983. After Reed's run as executive director of the Christian Coalition from 1989 to 1997, he founded a political consultancy called Century Strategies. Century specialized in delivering the Christian grassroots for a host of causes.
He began working with Abramoff early on, writing to him in 1998: "I need to start humping in corporate accounts! . . . I'm counting on you to help me with some contacts."
Reed's own words testify to his closeness to Abramoff: "abramoff is arguably the most influential and effective gop lobbyist in congress. i share several clients with him and have yet to see him lose a battle. he also is very close to [then-House majority leader Tom] DeLay...."
Reed also has close ties to Grover Norquist, another old College Republican, and Karl Rove. Associates of Rove's assistant, Susan Ralston, Abramoff's former assistant, told The Washington Post that Reed was responsible for her landing the job. Reed was Chairman of Bush-Cheney's Southeast region in the 2004 election.
He has not been reported to be under investigation, although Justice Department prosecutors have named him in a subpoena.
Follow news about Reed's involvement in the Abramoff scandal at TPMmuckraker.
Key Points:
Reed was paid by Indian casinos, Abramoff's clients, to wage anti-gambling campaigns.
Abramoff's work for the tribes included rubbing out competition to their casinos from neighboring tribes or other forms of gambling. It was for this service that Abramoff hired Reed's Century Strategies. Reed's job, as Abramoff's partner Michael Scanlon put it, was to "bring out the wackos" - to create the appearance of overwhelming popular opposition to rival casinos or other forms of gaming.
In 1999, Abramoff hired Reed's firm to squash competition to the Mississippi Choctaw in neighboring Alabama. The Alabama legislature was considering two bills--one for a state lottery, the other to allow video poker at the state's dog-race tracks. Because Reed didn't want to receive money directly from gaming interests, Abramoff gave money to intermediaries, including Grover Norquist's group Americans For Tax Reform, who then wrote checks to Century Strategies, according to John McCain's Report to the Committee on Indian Affairs. The Choctaw paid Reed's firm $1.15 million. The lottery bill passed, but the other was stopped.
In 2001, he worked to kill competition to the Louisiana Coushatta's Grand Casino elsewhere in Louisiana and Texas by other tribes. Reed's firm was paid $4.2 million. Reed helped whip up public support for Texas Attorney General, now Senator, John Cornyn's effort to shut down the casinos of two Texas tribes.
Reed was paid by an online gambling company, an Abramoff client, to kill anti-gambling legislation.
In 2000, eLottery, Inc., which sold state lottery tickets online, hired Abramoff to fight the Internet Gambling and Prohibition Act. Abramoff worked to oppose it, by pushing the argument that the bill, because it made an exception for dog and horse racing, was soft on gambling.
Reed was paid $150,000 for work he did helping to pressure Republican Members of Congress who were thinking of supporting the bill. Another $150,000 went to a company run by a close associate, American Marketing, Inc.; Abramoff describes it in an email as "the company Ralph is using."
Reed laundered the money from Abramoff's clients to disguise his association with them.
For all three of the clients mentioned above, Reed's fees went through at least two intermediaries before reaching him. According to Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), who's heard unreleased Senate testimony, the laundering was Reed's idea.
In 1999 and 2000, Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform funneled the Mississippi Choctaw's money to two different Christian organizations in Alabama: the Alabama Christian Coalition ($850,000) and Citizens Against Legalized Lottery ($300,000). The organizations passed the money on to Reed's firm.
Louisianna Coushatta leaders described in Senate testimony the path of one $400,000 payment: from the tribe to Southern Underwriters, a company run by the tribe's chief financial officer. From there it went to the American International Center, a sham organization set up by Michael Scanlon. Then the money went to Reed's firm. Of the $4.1 million the tribe paid Reed, $2.3 million was washed through the American International Center. The rest ($1.8 million) went through Scanlon's PR firm Capitol Campaign Strategies.
The eLottery, Inc. money went first to Americans for Tax Reform, then to a sham organization called the Faith and Family Alliance, and then on to Reed's firm. Robin Vanderwall, the man who ran the Faith and Family Alliance, has since admitted that he was "operating as a shell" - the organization had no other purpose than to pass on payments.
Reed lied, saying that he did not know the source of his fees.
Reed repeatedly claimed that he had no direct knowledge of where the money was coming from. "The reason why we didn't know every detail was because we were a subcontractor," Reed said.
Emails subsequently released by the Senate Indian Affairs showed that he did know the identity of his Indian clients. He then said that he was "assured" that his fees came from non-gambling revenue. This seems to have been true of the Mississippi Choctaw (though the tribe derives 85 to 90 percent of its revenue from casinos and related entertainment businesses); it was not true of the Louisiana Coushatta, which has no non-gambling revenue.
Emails uncovered by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution suggest that Reed also knew from the start that eLottery was funding his effort to kill the anti-gambling legislation.
Reed helped Abramoff shut down a casino in Texas; Abramoff subsequently offered to represent the tribe to help them reopen.
As part of their work for the Louisiana Coushatta, Reed worked with Abramoff and Michael Scanlon to build public support for Attorney General John Cornyn's effort to close the casinos two Texas tribes - the Tigua and the Alabama Coushatta. The casinos were closed in 2002. Abramoff soon after offered his services to the Tiguas, who had no idea that Abramoff had worked against them, to help them reopen soon after they closed.
Reed accompanied Abramoff on a golf trip to Scotland, paid for by an Indian tribe whose casino he helped to close.
Also on the August 2000 trip were Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) and David Safavian. $50,000 of the trip's cost was paid by the Alabama Coushatta of Texas; their casino was closed in July of 2002, due in part to Reed's efforts.
Reed failed to register as a lobbyist when he lobbied in Texas and faces a possible criminal investigation.
Despite boasting in emails to Abramoff about numerous contacts with Texas state officials about shutting down the casinos, Reed never registered as a lobbyist. This was also true of Reed's activities for another Abramoff client, Primedia. "Texas law generally requires people to register as lobbyists if they receive more than $500 a quarter to directly communicate with a state official on public policy." Travis County prosecutor David Escamilla has said that he is considering launching an investigation into the matter.
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