Eid is bad news. While continuing to look for the article I mentioned in a previous thread, I tripped on at least TWO references to Eid being not only a lobbyist with Greenberg Taurig, but a SHAREHOLDER.

In other words, he had a highly vested interest in the outcomes of Native American issues he was representing while at Greenberg.

porcupine. pine ridge.interior.
Yes. i read up on that stuff at one point when I first saw the resume. I thought it was paulose’s, not Jackley.

This is an indian area where some serious â€voter fraud†accusations went on. there was a race in SD in 2002 where John Thune barely lost to (Johnson?)

There was a big contingency of lawyers from the republicans, including the RNLA – and there was a big BS story created by the Repubs) about â€voter fraud†– There was one woman who was actually convicted of signing someone elses name on a form to request absentee ballots – but the charges were later dismissed.

There was a newsreporter who was a good buddy of a lawyer working for thune’s campaign who manufactured a fake story about â€voter fraudâ€.

If you haven’t already read up on this. here is one place:
http://www.votelaw.com/blog/bl…..ograms.pdf
see â€case 13†â€investigating ’massive fraud’ on the reservationsâ€

I think the article says that as a result of all this sturm und drang which amounted to nothing – the SD legislature passed a bill which made it much harder to vote absentee – requiring notarization to do so. The idea is that this would disproportionately affect native americans.

So the bottom line is that by adding that line Jackley has proven to people who matter that he is very much on the â€right†side of Indian issues (when it comes to voting anyway)

Here’s something I’ve always wondered about, wrt Rhodes. SDCA is one of the bigger USA offices, with 120 AUSAs. Southern Alabama? Not so much. Plus, Rhodes lived in SD for a number of years. Did Rhodes knwo she almost got SD but instead got AL?

mainsailset 22:10 — read the last USA-related thread. I think you’ll be satisfied with the direction.

Me, again!
Am I just manifesting my little, bear brain, or is there something here that doesn’t meet the eye? I recall (and other wheelers can fill in the big gap I’m leaving) that there are Native Americans sitting on oil patches here and there, who haven’t been getting the full benefit of the royalties promised to them by the US Govt, for, oh, about a century. Wouldn’t it be hilarious, given that oil is involved, if the Cheneys, and the Bushes and the Mitchells and who knows who else, arranged to divert some of that green in the direction of their bank accounts? [Pass the tinfoil hat, please] We’re talking, not hundreds of Ks, not thousands of Ks, but millions of Ks that have gone, to use the language of the BIA, missing. No records. No payments. No compensation, whatsoever, save a token, here and there. Forgive me, for I know not what I think.

Wow. Troy Eid at GT in Denver in 2003. Just wow.

I took a look at his Senate lobbying disclosure forms, and two things stood out. One, he was definitely in with Abramoff’s gang, as the one lobbying disclosure form on record at SOPR lists his co-lobbyists as Ed Ayoob, Kevin Ring, Stephanie Leger, Pat Wilson, Neil Volz, Michael Smith – I mean, almost every except Abramoff himself.

Second, his client – Convergys Corp. Not happy with taking over state government:

Convergys Corp. says it landed a contract to provide human resources and payroll services to 46,000 government employees in Texas. State officials say the contract is worth up to $85 million over five years.

Cincinnati-based Convergys (NYSE: CVG) will perform the work for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, according to a news release. Convergys will open a new shared service center in Austin to serve the state employees, and the company expects the first phase of the transition to take about one year. The company says it will hire up to 150 employees for the new call center.

…

The company has started a similar program for the state of Florida. Convergys already employs about 5,000 people in Texas contact centers, and it was immediately clear if the company will be adding more to service the new contract. Cincinnati-based Convergys is a provider of outsourced billing, human resources and customer care services.

Convergys was looking to move into the Federal government, and who better to look to than Abramoff and GT.

This one’s a biggie, Marcy. I’m driving to from LV to LA today, so won’t have much time to do more research, but will hunker down tonight when I get to the hotel.

MB

One of the delays of timing had to do with CO, not USA. Eid was under consideration, then it was perceived as a conflict for his wife’s Supreme Court bid, then he resubmitted after she was appointed. So it may have just been kabuki on how to get them both named.

I can see the reason for the delay – but it is interesting that the WH chose not to nominate one of other two recommended attorneys. They clearly wanted Eid, and were willing to wait, even a year and a half.

One interesting note – I came across a Denver Post article on Eid’s nomination. In it, Eid made it sound like he and Abramoff’s paths didn’t cross:

Eid, a shareholder at the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, practices land use and environmental law, federal Indian law, American Indian tribal law, business negotiations and public law.

Jack Abramoff, the Washington lobbyist who recently pleaded guilty to bribery, mail fraud and other charges, previously worked at Greenberg Traurig.

Eid and Abramoff both worked in divisions that represented American Indian tribes. But Eid has said he joined Greenberg Traurig in 2003, about the time Abramoff was being fired.

Abramoff wasn’t fired until after the late February, 2004 WaPo expose, well after Eid’s joining the firm. Eid was picked for the Convergys project in early 2004 (the lobbying disclosure was dated 2/1/04), when Abramoff was very much still around. There is no doubt in my mind that Eid and Abramoff knew each other, as Abramoff’s crew did nothing without his knowledge and consent.

Remember Robert E. Coughlin II, deputy chief of staff for the DoJ criminal division resigned this week. He was good friends with Kevin Ring, co-lobbyist with Eid on Convergys. Ring also resigned from his lobbying firm, Barnes & Thornburg, two weeks ago. Ring was an aide for Doolittle for five years prior to joining GT and â€Team Abramoffâ€.

Yup, you and I are thinking along the same lines, particularly WRT Coughlin, MB.

But then Eid is just one more Republican who seems to have forgotten his friend Jack.

Waxman’s Abramoff collection shows Rudy billing for repeated discussions with White House about staffing in DOI in 2001 and Indian issues — but there’s no connection between this work and Norton’s exchange with Eid about an Indian tribe in 2003? Yah. Sure.

So I checked out the Mashpee lobbying records, and while most of Team Abramoff is listed, Eid is not. What’s more, in their mid- and end-year reports for 2003 and 2004, only the Senate and House are listed as lobbying targets – nothing for DoI. So Eid, 1) didn’t have himself listed as a lobbyist, despite contacting a government official regarding a current client, and 2) that government official’s agency was never reported as having been lobbied by his firm. Bad form all around, and, frankly, legally actionable.

No surprise, though, yes? Makes me wonder what Susan Eid was doing in terms of filings for her lobbying, too, but that’s an altogether different investigation.

Wonder where the reporter at Cape Cod got the scoop on the letter from Eid to Norton — was there a doc dump related to DOI and Norton someplace? I’m afraid I haven’t done any work in that area. Wonder what would happen if a copy of that letter or letters were faxed/emailed to the Judiciary Committees…

Ladies, I’m going to turn this into a dedicated post, with full attribution to you both (and feel free to cross-post it). I’d like to get some more attention to this now, and to turn it into something I can send on to some people.

Rayne, thanks so much for the heads up on the last thread, I hadn’t read it to the very end.
MBW, ’Down the Rabbit Hole’ series at Wampum I had bookmarked way back when and it’s still one of the best investigative pieces around. Bravo to you once again!

I think a commenter in an earlier thread on this topic mentioned that Paulose, the new Minnesota USA, is Indian. That is correct, but she is from the India next to Pakistan. She is not native American.

tedb — pretty sure I’ve seen news articles that make mention of Paulose as first Asian-American USA in MN. The powers that be would definitely not hire someone of Native American heritage for the role.