Norquist Funneled Illegal Money To GOP

The Senate Finance Committee issued a 600 page report today, (Oct.
13) naming five tax- exempt political action groups that may have
broken tax laws. Their tax- exempt status may also be in question
because they may have been helping convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Included on the list were Americans for Tax Reform, Citizens Against Government Waste and the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy. It is illegal for tax- exempt groups to be paid to lobby or do public relations. Americans for Tax Reform is led by Grover Norquist, a big time Bush supporter and ally. He is also a longtime associate of Karl Rove. Norquist's group, according to the report, took $1.5 million from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, an Abramoff client. Most of that money was then passed to Christian Coalition founder Ralph Reed as part of an Abramoff effort to block a rival tribe's proposed casino in Alabama. Of course Norquist and others involved in this denied any wrongdoing. They also questioned the timing of the report's release so close to Nov. 7 elections in which Republicans are trying to return their control of Congress. John Kartch, communications director for Americans for Tax Reform, said "This is political nonsense put out by the Democrats in an inappropriate attempt to influence the election." David Williams, a vice president of Citizens Against Government Waste, said it was "kind of suspicious that three weeks before an election, this comes out." I bet they don't like these revelations coming out before the election.
Of course, if they had their way these things would have never seen the light of day!Other groups with close association with Abramoff had their tax-exempt status questioned as well. It found that: The Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, co-founded by Italia Federici, Norquist and former interior secretary Gale Norton, received at least $250,000 from Abramoff clients to lobby the Interior Department. The National Center for Public Policy Research used money from Abramoff's clients to sponsor golf trips in 2000 and 2003 to Scotland for members of Congress.
Toward Tradition, a religion-centered group once chaired by Abramoff, took money for help with generating news articles for Abramoff and his clients.

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