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AUSTIN — An East Texas tribe on Wednesday sued disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, claiming they illegally lobbied Texas officials to shutter the tribe's casino operations.
The federal lawsuit, filed in Austin on behalf of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, tells a tale of deceit and double-dealing. The tribe says the Washington figures conspired in 2001 to hide millions of dollars spent by a competing Louisiana tribe against a bill legalizing casino gambling for Texas tribes, including the Alabama-Coushattas.
The lawsuit claims the Abramoff team used sham groups and Reed's contacts in the religious community to make lawmakers believe they faced a groundswell of opposition from moral conservatives. Instead, the Louisiana-Coushatta tribe was underwriting the gambling opposition to thwart competition with its own casino.
Finally, once Abramoff and Reed worked secretly to derail the state legislation for the Louisiana tribe, they enticed rival Texas tribes to pay them money to lobby Congress. The federal fix Abramoff promised for the Texas tribes never materialized.
Reed, now a lieutenant gubernatorial candidate in his native Georgia, denied wrong-doing through campaign manager Jared Thomas: "It's a totally frivolous lawsuit. This was a casino that was operating in flagrant violation of the law, and was shut down for it."
A representative for Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to federal charges as part of a public corruption investigation, declined to comment. Others sued included Abramoff's business partner Michael Scanlon, a former aide to retired Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land; and lobbyists Neil Volz and Jon Van Horne. They could not be reached for comment.
The Alabama-Coushattas are claiming they lost out on millions of dollars because of the deception by the Abramoff team.
"It denied us the opportunity to improve our reservation," said Alabama-Coushatta leader Joanne Battise.
Unlike tribes in neighboring states, most Texas tribes are barred from operating casinos. Both the Tiguas of El Paso and the Alabama-Coushattas tested that ban by operating casinos, but then-Attorney General John Cornyn ultimately shut them down earlier this decade by going to court.
In 2001 the Legislature was considering a bill to legalize casino gambling for all Texas tribes. It passed out of the House, then died in the Texas Senate when then-Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, gambling opponent, refused to bring the bill up for debate.
The Alabama-Coushatta tribe is not accusing state officials of wrongdoing. Instead, the lawsuit claims the Abramoff team violated state lobbying laws by failing to register as lobbyists or identifying their client — both to state officials and in radio and prints ads mailed to their constituents.
"The Alabama-Coushatta tribe was misled," Battise said. "So was the Texas Legislature."
According to the lawsuit, the Louisiana-Coushattas spent almost $3.4 million with Reed over four months to kill the bill. To disguise the source of the money, Abramoff and Reed had the tribe write the checks to American International Center, a sham think-tank. In turn, the lawsuit claimed Reed used the money to create the Committee Against Gambling as a front group fighting the Texas gambling bill.
At times the lobbying effort was intense. In an e-mail, Reed reported to Abramoff that he was sending out 100,000 anti-gambling postcards to lawmakers' constituents and "patching through" 8,000 phone calls to members of a key House committee.
A former Reed employee, quoted in the lawsuit, claimed bogus organizations were set up to make phone calls. The organizations were just telephones in a drawer. When a phone would ring, the employee would open the drawer, figure out which phone was ringing and answer in the name of that organization, according to the lawsuit.
Once the legislation died, Abramoff and Scanlon tried to get the Alabama-Coushattas and Tigua Indian tribe in El Paso to hire them to lobby Congress.
Abramoff, according to the lawsuit, wanted 10 percent of the Alabama-Coushattas' gambling revenue forever in return for getting federal legislation to legalize their casino. The East Texas tribe refused, but the Tiguas hired Abramoff and Scanlon.
In one e-mail Abramoff wrote Reed: "I wish those moronic Tiguas were smarter in their political contributions. I'd love us to get our mitts on that moolah!! Oh well, stupid folks get wiped out. Now let's get AC (Alabama-Coushatta)."
Although the Alabama-Coushattas didn't hire Abramoff, they paid $50,000 to an Abramoff charity at the behest of the Tiguas. The tribe's lawyer, Fred Petti of Phoenix, said tribal officials thought they were paying for a congressional fact-finding trip, not a golf vacation for Ney, a congressman key to getting federal legislation passed, and Abramoff. (Ney has denied wrongdoing while acknowledging he went on the trip.)
In addition to Petti, the East Texas tribe has retained Andy Taylor, a Houston lawyer who was the top assistant to Cornyn before returning to private practice to represent Republican interests in high-profile cases. Taylor said he can represent the Alabama-Coushattas because all the allegations in the lawsuit began five months after Taylor left his state job.
Despite Reed's e-mails claiming he was working with Cornyn's staff on closing Indian casinos, Cornyn said he does not remember meeting Reed and believes he was just boasting to clients about his role.
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