Former Bush Official to Testify About Involvement with Abramoff

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has called on the former No. 2 official at the Interior Department to testify before a Senate panel investigating lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his involvement with Indian gambling tribes.

The official, J. Steven Griles, who served as deputy interior secretary from 2001 to the beginning of this year, was involved in efforts to help two of Abramoff’s clients — the Louisiana Coushatta tribe and the Saginaw Chippewa tribe of Michigan — fend off casino proposals from rival tribes and may have done so while engaged in employment negotiations with Abramoff, recent news reports have said. Griles has said through spokespeople that he did not play a major role in endeavors to aid the tribes.

The development marks the first time McCain has taken direct aim at the administration during the Indian Affairs Committee’s year-and-a-half-long investigation of Abramoff, his associate Michael Scanlon and their efforts to extract more than $80 million in lobbying and public-relations fees from Indian tribes.

Abramoff was indicted in Florida earlier this year on federal wire- and mail-fraud charges stemming from his acquisition of a casino-boat chain. He remains under investigation in the District of Columbia by a federal criminal task force.