“Something clearly happened to pollute the process, which should be problematic for an administration that promised to drain the swamp.”

“We are grateful there’s an IG investigation into this issue because since last fall, none of the department’s actions have passed the smell test,” said Andrew Doba, a spokesman for MMCT Venture, the company the tribes formed to own and operate the new casino. MGM lobbyists and the two Nevada Republicans held a handful of meetings and conversations with Associate Deputy Secretary James Cason in the months and days before he edited Interior’s letter holding up the tribes’ plans.Ī spokesman for the tribes’ casino project said they were caught off guard by Interior’s about-face and are glad to see the department’s internal watchdog probing the matter. Bush-era Interior Secretary Gale Norton and firms with ties to the Trump administration, while enlisting the assistance of friendly lawmakers such as Sen. Spent heavily on lobbyists, including George W. To fight off the potential competition, MGM But they show that the career staffers were circulating what they labeled “approval” letters just 48 hours before their political bosses reversed course and refused to either OK or reject the tribes’ application - a nondecision that left the Indians’ East Windsor project in legal limbo. The documents, released under the Freedom of Information Act, don’t reveal the contents of the internal deliberations by the staff of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Office of Indian Gaming.

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