Two of Jack Abramoff’s tribal clients gave money to the New Hampshire Republican State Committee shortly before Election Day in 2002. And as I reported last month, one of those contributions, a $10,000 check from the Mississippi Choctaw, was misreported as $5,000.
The Senate Majority Project has filed a complaint with the FEC today arguing that the NHRSC deliberately misreported the true amount of the contribution. Why? Well, $5,000 was the legal limit for the Choctaw to contribute that year. And beyond that, the NHRSC waited until just before the election to cash the check (October 29), despite having received it much earlier (it’s dated October 10) – a crafty move that allowed them to defer reporting the contributions until after the election. That way no one would know on Election Day that casinos thousands of miles away were inexplicably pumping money into the party.
And as they note, there were some pretty fishy things happening around Election Day in New Hampshire that year.
