STATEMENT BY U.S. SENATOR BYRON DORGAN ON INACCURATE NEWS STORY

Monday, November 28, 2005

(BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA) --- U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) released the following statement Monday, in response to an inaccurate news story. Text follows:

TEXT OF STATEMENT BY U.S. SENATOR BYRON DORGAN (D-ND)

November 28, 2005

Last Friday there was a sensational, but inaccurate front page news story that demands a response.

The story suggested that Jack Abramoff, a high profile Washington Republican lobbyist -- a man I’ve never met -- had arranged for campaign contributions to be made to me in exchange for my signing a letter to Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee to extend a program that his clients supported.

That’s completely and demonstrably false.

Senator John McCain and I are investigating Mr. Abramoff and his partner Michael Scanlon (who recently pleaded guilty) of bilking Indian tribes out of tens of millions of dollars. And we have uncovered a disgusting tale of greed and outright fraud. It’s not surprising that from the sleazy world of those who defrauded the Indian tribes, we have seen bogus charges against those of us who are doing the investigating. But our investigation will continue.

The weekend headline story suggested I signed a letter in support of the “Cost Share Indian School Construction Program” as a favor to Abramoff, a man I had never met, in exchange for political contributions. The letter the reporter referred to was dated February 2002.

In fact I had always supported that program. For example in August of 2001, six months earlier, I had already pledged my strong support for this program in a letter to the Chairman of the Wahpeton-Sisseton Indian Tribe (letter attached). The Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota had also applied for school funding through that program in 2001. And I supported their efforts.

So, if the written evidence shows that I supported the program the year before the letter this reporter used to justify his story, my support for this program clearly cannot be connected to this lobbyist, his client’s interest in the Cost Share program, or campaign donations.

The story also alleges that an employee of mine contacted the Interior Department to advance the program presumably on behalf of Abramoff. Not true. That person worked for the Chairman of the Interior Subcommittee, not me, and he contacted them to express reservations, not support.

I’ve seen these types of inaccurate claims before and the Washington Post, where they were last printed, retracted them when they learned the truth.

The fact is, I have never received a campaign contribution from Mr. Abramoff, but I have received reelection support from Indian tribes long before Mr. Abramoff got involved with Indian tribes. They supported me because I have worked hard in the Senate to address the crisis that exists in education, housing and health care on Indian reservations.

Indian schools are in serious need of repair and rebuilding, and the Cost Share program allows tribes to get earlier funding if they agreed to pay 50% of the costs from Tribal funds. The Bush Administration wanted to shut the program down. I disagreed. The program saves the federal government money and gets results. That makes sense to me.

I should note that we succeeded in getting funding from this program for the Three Affiliated Tribes BIA School in North Dakota this year.

I’m not surprised that some will try to spin a web of deception to smear and discredit those of us who are investigating the wrongdoing of Abramoff and others in this scandal. But I’m not going to let it stand.

The suggestion in the story that I may have supported that school construction program because of Jack Abramoff, or because of campaign contributions from Indian tribes is clearly and despicably wrong.

The investigation that Senator John McCain and I have been conducting shows that Abramoff and Scanlon with the help of some others created an almost unbelievable scheme to defraud Indian Tribes. We are determined to continue that investigation to its conclusion.

North Dakotans who would like to view all of the documents and watch the hearings Senator McCain and I have conducted during this investigation can access all of that information at www.Indian.Senate.Gov.

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