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Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Sunday that Democrats who took money from Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff and who did something on behalf of those tribes have "a big problem." Dean made the statement apparently unaware that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has reportedly done exactly that. Under questioning by "Fox News Sunday's" Chris Wallace, Dean claimed that Democrats did no favors for Abramoff's Indian tribe clients: "Nobody got anything out of the Democrats from Jack Abramoff," the top Democrat insisted. "No Democrat delivered anything and there's no accusation and no investigation that any Democrat ever delivered...

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) sent a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton on March 5, 2002, asking her to veto an agreement between the state of Louisiana and the Jena tribe of Choctaw Indians that would have allowed the tribe to open a casino in Louisiana. The day after Reid sent the letter, according to the Associated Press, Louisiana’s Coushatta tribe, which already operated a casino, and which was a client of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, but which did not want competition from the Jena tribe, sent a $5,000 contribution to Reid’s tax-exempt Searchlight Leadership Fund. A second tribe...

WASHINGTON - Fallout from the Jack Abramoff scandal continued Friday as more lawmakers said they will donate to charity campaign contributions related to the disgraced lobbyist. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said they plan to donate to charity a total of nearly $30,000 in campaign contributions they received from tribes connected to Abramoff, who pleaded guilty this week to felony charges in a wide-ranging political corruption investigation. Cantwell will be donating nearly $18,000, and Santorum, about $11,000. Sen. Mark Pryor (news, bio, voting record), D-Ark., meanwhile, said he is returning $3,800 in contributions he received from former...

Rep. Charlie Rangel has taken more donations from American Indian tribes tied to sleazy lobbyist Jack Abramoff than almost any other Democrat in the House, finance reports show. Rangel has taken $27,000 from the Mississippi Choctaws and another $9,000 from the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in California since 1999. Both tribes are eager to cash in on casino gambling and are clients of the indicted Abramoff. The tribes funneled $27,000 to Rangel's leadership PAC — used to help elect other Democrats — and routed another $9,000 directly to the Harlem Democrat's re-election campaign. A study by the nonpartisan...

WASHINGTON - Three members of Congress have been linked to efforts by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a former General Services Administration official to secure leases of government property for Abramoff's clients, according to court filings by federal prosecutors on Friday. The filings in U.S. District Court do not allege any wrongdoing by the elected officials but list them in documents portraying David Safavian, a former GSA chief of staff, as an active adviser to Abramoff, giving the lobbyists tips on how to use members of Congress to navigate the agency's bureaucracy. Abramoff is cooperating with federal investigators in a wide-ranging...