Prosecutors Urged to Investigate RALPH REED's Covert Lobbying

Prosecutors Urged to Investigate Ralph Reed's Covert Lobbying
Reed Reportedly Received Millions to Lobby In Texas-But He Never Registered With State as Required

AUSTIN, Texas - December 1 - Texans for Public Justice, Common Cause Texas and Public Citizen today petitioned Travis County Attorney David Escamilla to investigate the Texas lobby activities of Ralph Reed.

According to state records, Reed did not register as a Texas lobbyist in 2001 or 2002, when he reportedly received $4.2 million to lobby Texas state officials to shut down two Indian casinos in Texas. Embattled gambling lobbyists Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon-working for a tribe that operated a competing casino in Louisiana-reportedly paid Reed to pressure Texas officials to close the Texas casinos. The watchdog groups contend that available evidence, including Reed's own electronic correspondence, indicates that Reed was engaged in lobbying activities that would have required him to register as a Texas lobbyist.

With Abramoff's aid, Reed helped convert the remains of televangelist Pat Robertson's 1988 presidential campaign into the fundamentalist Christian Coalition. Nine years later, Reed started his own lobby firm in Georgia called Century Strategies. A U.S. Senate probe into Abramoff's Indian gambling activities has documented that Abramoff hired Reed in 2001 to:

-Kill a 2001 Texas bill (HB 514) that sought to keep the El Paso-based Tigua tribe's Speaking Rock Casino open; and

-Ensure that then-Attorney General John Cornyn shut down Speaking Rock (in part by generating support for such a policy).

"Mr. Reed's own correspondence appears to indict him," said Suzy Woodford, director of Common Cause Texas. "At a minimum, Mr. Reed should return to Texas to disclose all communications that he had with state officials and to explain why he was not required to register like other lobbyists."

more at:
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/1201-03.htm

when they want his sorry ass in Texas.

These guys sure are keeping prosecutors busy.

wonder whether the services of that former Federal prosecutor, Elizabeth de la Vega, might not be called upon again.