Reed Blames Tribes for Laundering Scheme

The Indians made me do it.

On the eve of a tense primary election, that’s Ralph Reed’s defense against corruption accusations that threaten to capsize his candidacy for Georgia lieutenant governor.

Reed is suffering some punishing body blows from his opponent for his schemes to use money from Indian casinos to pay for Christian anti-gambling efforts — by funneling the cash through shell companies to disguise its true source.

The charges have been around for months, of course — accompanied by ample evidence that Reed played a key role in concocting the schemes and putting them into practice. To date he has dodged the allegations by first claiming ignorance of the clients, and then woodenly chiming that “Had I known then what I know now, I would not have undertaken the work.”

But yesterday, he changed his tune — and blamed the Indians. During a debate with his primary opponent Saturday, Reed claimed:

I would have been happy if they [Abramoff’s tribal clients] paid me directly. They were the ones who made the decision that I would be paid through nonprofits.

Quick reality check: It has been long-established that Abramoff’s casino-owning tribal clients hired Reed to whip up religious anti-gambling fervor and use it to squash any neighboring competition. In order to obscure the fact that Abramoff’s casino money was funding Reed’s anti-gambling campaigns, the money was funneled through various entities (shell companies and non-profits) before making its way to Reed. Read all the nitty-gritty here.

McCain’s Senate investigation found that the funneling had been Reed’s idea, because that is what the tribal representatives told investigators.

As Nell Rogers from the Mississippi Choctaw told the Committee: “Ralph Reed did not want to be paid directly by a tribe with gaming interests. It was our understanding that the structure was recommended by Jack Abramoff to accommodate Mr. Reed’s political concerns.”

And Former Louisiana Coushatta Vice-Chairman William Worfel told investigators that Abramoff “asked whether the Tribe had any business through which payments to Reed could be made.”

All other available evidence shows that Reed and Abramoff came up with the funneling idea to protect Reed’s Christian bona fides — which is, after all, the only narrative that makes any sense.

Let’s think of what Reed is asking us to believe when he says that the tribes “were the ones who made the decision that I would be paid through nonprofits.”

Remember that Reed worked for two different tribal clients of Abramoffs – the Louisianna Coushatta and the Mississippi Choctaw. In both cases, Reed’s fees were laundered through nonprofits and shell companies.

Did both of those tribes come up with this scheme independently?

And what about another client of Abramoff’s, eLottery, Inc.? In 2000, Abramoff hired Reed to kill anti-gambling legislation moving forward in the House. The eLottery, Inc. money was funneled through Grover Norquist’s 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 to Reed’s company.

Was that eLottery’s idea? Abramoff’s other Christian rabble-rouser on the gambling bill, Rev. Louis Sheldon, was paid directly by eLottery.

The primary is tomorrow. What other excuses will Reed come up with before then?