Abramoff, Scanlon, and the New Hampshire Phone Jamming

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Was Jack Abramoff involved somehow in the New Hampshire phone jamming? New details discovered by TPMmuckraker.com strengthen the case.

It’s been widely reported that two of Abramoff’s tribal clients made contributions to the New Hampshire Republican State Committee shortly before Election Day. The contributions had been reported to total $10,000 – but the tribes actually gave at least $15,000, according to records obtained by TPMmuckraker.com.

And now there are new details that show that two of Abramoff’s business associates, Michael Scanlon and Ralph Reed, had both hired GOP Marketplace, the consulting firm hired to do the jamming, to do election work during the same year. According to a source close to the case, GOP Marketplace’s work for Scanlon had related to the Lousiana Coushatta’s election for tribal chairman. The Coushatta were an Abramoff client.

Clearly Allen Raymond, who ran GOP Marketplace and who’s since pled guilty to his role in the phone jamming, was tapped into Jack Abramoff’s business circle. And the tribes’ contributions to the New Hampshire Republican State Committee (NHRSC), which paid Raymond’s GOP Marketplace $15,600 to execute the jamming, show Abramoff taking a curious interest in New Hampshire in 2002.

The AP, among others, reported last year that two of Abramoff’s tribal clients, the Mississippi Choctaw and the Agua Caliente, had made $5,000 contributions to the NHRSC in October of 2002. According to FEC records, the NHRSC deposited the contributions on October 28, 2002, eight days before Election Day, when the jamming took place.

A copy of the Choctaw’s check, however, shows that they had actually written the NHRSC a $10,000 check on October 10, 2002. This, together with the Agua Caliente’s $5,000 contribution to the party, means that Abramoff directed at least $15,000 to New Hampshire shortly before the jamming. There is no clear reason why Indian tribes in Mississippi and California would have been giving money to the New Hampshire Republican Party, except at Abramoff’s behest. There are no Indian tribes located in New Hampshire.

Around the same time that Abramoff was directing tribal money to New Hampshire, Allen Raymond was doing work for Abramoff’s longtime business associates.

The income ledger for GOP Marketplace, introduced as evidence at James Tobin’s trial, shows payments from Capital Campaign Strategies (CCS) and a company identified only as “Millenium.” CCS was owned by Abramoff’s business partner Michael Scanlon, who’s pled guilty to fraud and bribery charges. Millenium refers to Millenium Marketing, a subsidiary of Ralph Reed’s consulting firm, Century Strategies.

According to a source close to the investigation, Raymond has admitted that GOP Marketplace was hired by both CCS and Millenium Marketing in 2002 to perform work related to elections.

GOP Marketplace’s work for CCS related to the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana’s election of a new chairman in 2002, according to the source. The ledger shows a $6,433.74 payment for the services. The Coushatta were an Abramoff client – Scanlon worked closely with him in his work for the tribe.

GOP Marketplace’s work for Millenium Marketing related to elections in Georgia, where Ralph Reed is based. The ledger shows a $12,904 payment.

The precise nature of the work in both elections is not yet known.

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