Ethics Group Says Norquist’s ATR Laundered Abramoff Money

by Donna Jablonski, Mar 14, 2006

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed an Internal Revenue Service complaint charging Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)—the nonprofit brainchild of ultra-right-activist Grover Norquist—with money-laundering in connection with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and violating its tax-exempt status.

Norquist—the guy who wants to shrink government “to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub”—and his virulently anti-union group have spent the past two decades fighting the best interests of working families. They backed 1998 and 2005 attempts to silence workers’ voices in California politics with Propositions 226 and 75, respectively, supported President Bush’s 2004 attack on overtime pay and today are supporting legislation to block workers from joining unions when a majority signs authorization cards.

CREW’s complaint says Norquist used ATR, the ATR Foundation or both:

in a commercial manner to benefit a private party, rather than the general public, by allowing the organization(s) to be used as a pass-through to funnel money generated by Indian casino gambling to individuals or groups engaged in anti-gambling efforts. In this way, Mr. Norquist concealed the original source of the funds—gambling revenues—from, with the exception of Ralph Reed, the recipients of those funds. Moreover, in return for providing these money-laundering services, Mr. Norquist extracted a fee, thereby operating as a commercial enterprise.

The CREW complaint says Norquist sent $1.15 million from Indian casino clients of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff to anti-gambling groups, most of it ending up with Ralph Reed’s Century Strategies consulting firm. E-mails released by the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, as part of its Abramoff investigation, document the involvement of Norquist, Abramoff and Reed, according to the complaint.

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