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ETHICS: DOJ says Griles deserves jail for actions in Abramoff case

Dan Berman, Greenwire senior reporter

The connections between former Interior Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff were more extensive than disclosed and worthy of a prison sentence, the Justice Department stated in court papers filed Friday.

For about three years, Griles was Abramoff's contact in the Interior Department for everything from blocking tribal gaming permit applications to moving a film production truck blocking the lobbyist's restaurant in downtown Washington, DOJ wrote in its sentencing recommendation.

Meanwhile, the head of the American Recreation Coalition said the motorized recreation group made no monetary or future employment promises to Griles in connection with his unusual request to serve community service with an ARC-run nonprofit group associated with Interior and corporations including the Walt Disney Co. The requests asked for half the community service to be with Wonderful Outdoor World, or WOW, in the position of national counselor and strategic planning coordinator. In that post, Griles would raise money, develop new public and private partnerships and conduct outreach to the government and media (Greenwire, June 15).

Griles would have no contact with Interior if he works as an executive with WOW, said Derrick Crandall, executive director of the American Recreation Coalition.

Judge Ellen Huvelle of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will sentence Griles on June 26 on the felony charge. The maximum penalty is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, but DOJ is asking for a 10-month split sentence, including jail time and a $25,000 fine.

The only reason the request is limited is because there is no evidence Griles took any money from Abramoff, DOJ wrote.

In March, Griles pleaded guilty to withholding information from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in 2005 about his meeting Abramoff through Italia Federici, president of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy. Griles was dating Federici at the time.

"Griles' utter disregard for the law and Congress' power of inquiry was not isolated to one moment of weakness," the DOJ filing states. "Griles made the conscious choice to take the calculated risk to lie to, and withhold material information from, the Senate committee in furtherance of his personal agenda -- saving his lucrative lobbying practice from the taint of the Abramoff corruption scandal."

After Griles left Interior in early 2005, he joined a lobbying firm renamed Lundquist, Nethercutt & Griles LLC. He has since left the firm, now called Bluewater Strategies.

Griles' actions prevented the Indian Affairs Committee from discovering the true extent of Abramoff's activities related to the Interior Department and Griles' relationship with the disgraced lobbyist, DOJ added. And unlike Abramoff and Federici, Griles is not cooperating with DOJ's ongoing criminal investigation.

How it worked

"My relationship with Mr. Abramoff was the same as with other lobbyists," Griles told the Indian Affairs Committee on Nov. 2, 2005. "Nothing more, nothing less."

But beginning with a March 1, 2001, meeting between Griles and Abramoff at Washington's Hay-Adams Hotel, through 2003, Griles provided Abramoff with advice and internal Interior information and took official action favorable to Abramoff and his clients, according to the Justice Department.

During that time, Abramoff and his tribal clients donated $500,000 to the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, the organization co-founded by Federici and former Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

"It stands to reason that Abramoff did so in an effort to maintain his access to defendant Griles," DOJ wrote.

In addition, Griles and Abramoff engaged in "serious" negotiations to have Griles join Greenberg Traurig over several months in 2003, not the one-time dinner Griles told the Interior ethics office and Senate committee about.

Griles also twice contacted Abramoff about having Greenberg Traurig hire two of Griles' female acquaintances -- a former legislative director to a senator and an attorney from West Virginia.

The deputy secretary's assistance focused on Bureau of Indian Affairs policy matters dealing with Abramoff's tribal clients, such as ensuring President Bush did not endorse a candidate in a tribal governor's race and attempting to kill a tribal gaming application from the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians.

In spring 2003, Griles intervened when a senior BIA official attempted to reject a school cost share grant to the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan, an Abramoff client. Griles summoned the author "and took her to the proverbial woodshed about the tone and content of the draft letter, making it clear that he wanted the funds to be distributed to the Saginaw Tribe," DOJ wrote. A "toned down" letter was then sent to Congress from an Interior assistant secretary.

On energy policy, Griles and Federici attended a meeting of Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force in order to get a copy of the final report and commission a CREA public opinion poll, which was charged to one of Abramoff's tribal clients.

Griles' assistance also extended to moving cars in front of Abramoff's Signatures restaurant. In September 2003, Disney's Touchstone Pictures was filming "National Treasure" at the U.S. Navy Memorial on Pennsylvania Ave., next to Signatures, blocking the valet parking stand.

The film crew had a valid permit, but Abramoff phoned Griles, who called the special assistant to the National Park Service director to intervene. An NPS official went to Signatures and directed the film crew to move away from the valet stand.

In e-mails produced during the Senate and DOJ investigation, Abramoff told associates that Federici has "juice" at Interior and with Griles, referring to Federici at one point as a "critical" link for the tribal lobbying practice.

At the Senate hearing, Griles testified he could not explain Abramoff's statements. "I can't reconcile what Mr. Abramoff put in e-mails to anyone," Griles said. "There was no special relationship with Mr. Abramoff and my office. It never did exist" (Greenwire, Nov. 3, 2005).

Federici pleaded guilty for tax evasion and lying to the Indian Affairs Committee earlier this month (Greenwire, June 8).

No promises for WOW offer, group says

Meanwhile, the executive director of the American Recreation Coalition said the group made no promises to Griles in connection with his request to serve community service with the ARC-run nonprofit group Wonderful Outdoor World.

Griles is seeking three months of home confinement, 500 hours of community service and a "reasonable" $15,000 fine when he is sentenced next week. Half the community service would be with WOW in the position of national counselor and strategic planning coordinator.

"He's been a supporter of what we've been doing," said Derrick Crandall, executive director of the American Recreation Coalition. "That's really why he approached us and asked if you'd be willing to let me help grow the program."

ARC and WOW made no monetary or future employment promises to Griles. "There's no consideration that Steve would become the executive director or be involved with WOW on a long-term basis," Crandall said.

"While he may have made some mistakes ... we're always willing to help people get back on the right side of life," Crandall added.

If Huvelle accepts Griles' request, he would raise money, develop new public and private partnerships and conduct outreach to the government and media. WOW is seeking to expand its programming options beyond the six cited where it currently operates with a "WOW on the road" program. "It allows us to be like the circus, which allows us to come in, stay for a week and move on," Crandall said.

Griles would also have no contact with the Interior Department, which was not consulted in making the WOW offer.

"I wouldn't ever put the current leadership of the Department of Interior in the position of having to deal with Steve on WOW or with the department on anything else," Crandall said. "If wouldn't be fair to the department or Dirk Kempthorne, but I really believe Steve can be a help to us."

Interior spokesman Chris Paolino said the agency has no comment on the WOW offer. Disney has not returned calls for comment.

In his request for leniency, Griles asked Huvelle to consider his "public service" at Interior and the state of Virginia, commitment to volunteering, "and his reputation for integrity and honesty." Prison time may also deter others from testifying before Congress and cooperating with the legislative branch, Griles argues, noting fears of being embarrassed or ambushed under the media glare.

Griles also included a cache of 91 letters of support from Norton, two Reagan-era Interior secretaries, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R), Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-Wyo.), coal industry executives and possible Wyoming Senate nominee Tom Sansonetti (R).

Griles has through tomorrow to reply to DOJ's sentencing recommendation.
 

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