Burns said money would be returned to original donors

WASHINGTON D.C. (LEE) -- Sen. Conrad Burns vowed last month to return most of $146,700 in campaign contributions connected with confessed felon Jack Abramoff to its original donors, but most of the money went to the Montana Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council, whose lobbyist is a former Burns staffer.

A Burns campaign official said legal questions kept Burns from using his re-election funds to return to Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Michigan Indian tribes, all former clients of Abramoff, the money they originally contributed to a different Burns account, which no longer exists.

But at least one tribe originally wrote its check to Burns' principal re-election account before the contribution ended up in the now-defunct account.

Burns decided to give the $101,000 in question to charity and donated it to the Montana Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council. Stan Ullman, who was Burns' legislative assistant and worked in his Washington office for four years, is registered as that group's only lobbyist.

Burns also gave the group $10,000 he had received directly from Abramoff and an associate. When announcing in December that he would return that money, Burns said he had "instructed my staff to work with the Montana Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council to identify an appropriate Native American charitable entity to which the contributions received directly from Mr. Abramoff and his associates may be donated."

Instead, that money also went directly to the Montana Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council. Burns Campaign Chairman Mark Baker said the senator decided to "rely on (the council's) judgment to how best to use those resources" and that Ullman had nothing to do with the decisions.

"The senator thought it was important to go to the Native American community in Montana, obviously they're represented by the Montana Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council," Baker said.

Baker said the Abramoff-related money included 25 contributions totaling $146,700 that were given to three different Burns campaign accounts. One of those was called a non-federal account and was closed when McCain Feingold campaign finance reforms outlawed "soft money" accounts.

"After reviewing FEC law and regulations it was uncertain to us whether we could actually refund contributions from Conrad's re-election committee to folks that gave to that non-federal account," Baker said. "As a result, not to have any doubt about the legal certainty, those contributions were put into the lump category of the charitable contribution that was made."

An FEC spokesman confirmed that there may be a legal question over whether Burns could use his re-election campaign account to reimburse contributors to that earlier account. For a definitive answer, Burns would have had to ask the commission for an advisory opinion, which are issued in less than 60 days, the spokesman said.

In his Dec. 15 statement, Burns had said: "I intend to return all campaign contributions associated with Mr. Abramoff, his associates and his clients ... With the exception of contributions received directly from Mr. Abramoff and his associates, each contribution will be returned to its original donor."

One Louisiana tribe had originally written a $25,000 check to Burns' campaign account, but the money ended up in Burns' soft money account and so will not be returned.

The Louisiana Coushatta Tribe wrote a check on March 6, 2002, for $25,000 to Friends of Conrad Burns, the senators' principal campaign committee, according to Jimmy Faircloth, a lawyer for the tribe.

That check was voided on March 15, and the tribe made a new $25,000 check payable to Burns' soft money account, Faircloth said.

Burns did not return the $25,000 to the tribe, but did return $6,000 it had contributed to his other campaign accounts.

Faircloth said the tribe made all the contributions solely at Abramoff's request and did not have any contact with Burns. The Tigua tribe of El Paso, Texas, received from Burns the $2,000 they had given to his campaign committee at Abramoff's request. But the tribe will not be getting back the $20,000 it gave to Burns' other campaign account.

Carlos Hisa, the tribe's lieutenant governor, disagreed with the decision, saying all money returned should go to the tribes.

"If he's going to return any money, it should come back to the original donors," Hisa said. "He should give it back to the original people, it doesn't make sense to give it back to anyone else except the original donors."