Next For Reno: Should Casino Probe Include Clinton?

Decision Whether To Expand Investigation Due Monday

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Dec. 14) -- Attorney General Janet Reno must decide Monday whether to expand an investigation into what role campaign donations to the Democratic Party might have played in the Interior Department's decision to turn down a proposed Indian casino.

In October, an investigation was begun into the actions of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in the casino controversy. Monday, Reno is to decide whether a preliminary investigation is warranted into President Bill Clinton's possible role.

Those investigations could lead to the appointment of an independent counsel.

In November 1994, three bands of Chippewa Indians asked the Interior Department -- the parent agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) -- for permission to build a casino on the site of a failing dog track in Hudson, Wisconsin.

Babbitt rejected a permit for the casino in July 1995, even though a regional BIA office had recommended approval.

Three other nearby tribes that operate gambling enterprises -- the St. Croix Chippewa and Oneida of Wisconsin and the Shakopee Mdewankanton Sioux of Minnesota -- opposed the Hudson casino. After Babbitt's rejection, they gave about $270,000 to the Democratic Party.

Babbitt says casino rejected due to opposition

Babbitt has denied that the contributions played any role in his decision. Rather, his position has been that the casino, which would have been located off of tribal land, was rejected because of local opposition.

But Paul Eckstein, a lawyer and onetime Babbitt confidant who represented the three Chippewa bands that sought the permit, told a Senate committee in October that Babbitt mentioned the contributions when Eckstein met with him to lobby on the Chippewa's behalf.

Babbitt told the same committee that he had "no recollection" of that conversation.

Questions also have arisen as to what role the White House and Democratic Party officials might have had in the casino decision:

• Internal documents show White House staffers contacted the Interior Department at least three times while the decision was pending. The White House says those calls were merely to check on the status of the decision, not to influence what Babbitt was going to do.

• Congressional investigators say that while the decision was pending, a lobbyist working for the tribes opposed to the casino -- a former senior official at the Democratic National Committee -- met with Clinton and White House aide Bruce Lindsey during a meeting with political supporters in Minneapolis.

• The day before the decision was made to block the casino, Clinton attended a fund-raiser that netted $420,000. The event was hosted by a lobbyist associated with the tribes opposed to the casino.

• Former DNC chairman Don Fowler admits calling then-Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes about the casino application, and Ickes says he told Fowler he would "check on it." But Ickes says he never contacted the Interior Department.

• Babbitt, too, says he was not contacted by Ickes about the casino. But Babbitt told a Senate committee in October that he might have led Eckstein, the opposition lobbyist, to believe that Ickes asked him to make a decision on the casino permit.

Babbitt said he was trying to get Eckstein out of his office and termed his comment about Ickes "just an awkward effort to terminate an uncomfortable meeting on a personally sympathetic note."

Interior official backs Babbitt's account

Babbitt's contention that the casino application was turned down on its merits is backed up by the former director of Indian gaming at the Interior Department, George Skibine.

"We were not made aware of any activities of the three tribes or their lobbyist or the Democratic National Committee on behalf of them or the White House," he said. "I had absolutely no knowledge of White House involvement."

But George Newago, the tribal chairman of the Red Cliff Chippewa band, which applied for the casino permit, remains convinced that the behind-the-scenes influence of political cash explains Babbitt's decision.

"Our application on its merits should have been approved -- not influenced by somebody's money," Newago said.

CNN Justice Department Correspondent Pierre Thomas contributed to this report.

In Other News:

Weekend Dec. 13 & 14, 1997

• Next For Reno: Should Casino Probe Include Clinton?
• Republicans Vow To Punish Clinton If He Appoints Lee
• Clinton Calls For Medicare Crackdown