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11/18/2005:

"Lawmakers Acted on Heels of Abramoff Gifts"

WASHINGTON - While Congress investigated Jack Abramoff's efforts to win influence inside government, its members held a secret: Nearly three dozen lawmakers pressed to block a Louisiana Indian casino while collecting large donations from the lobbyist and his tribal clients.

Many lawmakers, including leaders in both parties, intervened with letters to Interior Secretary Gale Norton within days of receiving money from tribes represented by Abramoff or using the lobbyist's restaurant for fundraising, an Associated Press review of campaign reports, IRS records and congressional correspondence found.

Lawmakers said their intervention had nothing to do with Abramoff and that the timing of donations was a coincidence. They said they wrote letters because they opposed the expansion of tribal gambling, even though they continued to accept donations from casino-operating tribes.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., held a fundraiser at Abramoff's Signatures restaurant in Washington on June 3, 2003, that collected at least $21,500 for Hastert's Keep Our Majority political action committee from the lobbyist's firm and tribal clients.

Seven days later, Hastert wrote Norton urging her to reject the Jena tribe of Choctaw Indians' request for a new casino. Hastert's three top House deputies also signed the letter.
news.yahoo.com