By James M. Odato, Times Union
August 30, 2000
ALBANY -- Company didn't report money spent to aid institute's fight against
Native American projects
After a two-month investigation by the state lobbying commission, Trump Hotel & Casino Resorts and one of
its key lobbyists admitted Tuesday to colluding with a Rome "issues advocacy group" to pressure Gov.
George Pataki and legislators to hold back the expansion of Indian casinos in New York.
Lawyers for Trump and its lobbyist, Roger Stone Jr. of Ikon Public Affairs, said their clients indeed paid for
or assisted the Institute for Law and Society in a yearlong ad campaign. They acknowledged pumping at least $118,000
in unreported support into the campaign, which blasted Pataki and described the St. Regis Mohawk Indians as criminals.
The support for the institute was in addition to the $303,856 Trump reported to the Temporary State Commission
on Lobbying as lobbying expenses for the first six months of this year. The commission can levy substantial penalties:
up to $50,000 for filing a false report and $25,000 for failing to file one at all. But Trump attorney Edward Wallace
said his client plans to file an amended report and should not face a fine.
The lawyers revealed their clients' participation in the ad campaign to the commission and Trump turned over key
expenditure documents Tuesday.
The commission began its inquiry into the potential lobbying activities of Trump and Stone after a June 25 article
in the Times Union reported the extensive lobbying by Trump and Park Place Entertainment over a proposed casino
bill. Trump supported the bill, which would have made casino expansion more difficult in New York state, protecting
its gambling interests in New Jersey.
Wallace and Judd Burstein, Stone's lawyer, said they admitted their clients' roles in the institute's ad campaign
because the commission last week concluded that the advertising activities of the group constituted lobbying. As
a result, those associated with those activities are required to file disclosure forms to the lobbying commission.
Stone was "intimately involved" in designing the ads for the institute, something he had wanted to keep
private because "we had a good faith belief that it wasn't lobbying," Burstein said.
Wallace said Donald Trump, chairman of the company, reviewed and made notations on some ads.
One ad, with a tag line "Stop NY Gambling," stated that Pataki's friends, Republican "fat-cats"
and GOP campaign contributors would benefit from the proposed casino.
The institute also is behind a lawsuit against Pataki for granting a casino compact to the Mohawks.
Wallace said the costs paid by Trump still are being tallied and that research and polling done by Stone may add
even more dollars to the disclosure form. Polling encouraged people to voice their opinion against casinos to their
legislators.
Institute President Tom Hunter had no comment and wouldn't reveal whether his organization will file lobbying reports
with the state.
However, Trump and Stone will amend their prior reports that did not list expenses for helping the institute, their
lawyers said.
The lobbying by Trump and Stone supported a bill that would have given the Legislature the power to approve casino
compacts with Native Americans planning off-reservation casinos. The legislation was targeted at a casino proposed
by the Mohawks and their development company, Park Place Entertainment, for Monticello. The measure passed in the
Senate in June but was put aside by the Assembly.
Park Place chief counsel Clive Cummis had no response to Trump's activities but said the project is developing
well and that construction of the casino could begin in a year. He anticipates federal and state approval by next
fall.
"We have not talked to the governor, but we would think that an almost $1 billion development in a state would
be appealing to any governor," Cummis said.
The plan is to put up a temporary casino three months after the approvals, and finish the 125,000-square-foot permanent
gambling hall 15 months later. Plans, Cummis said, call for a $750 million investment over five years, during which
a 2,000-room hotel, a 300,000-square-foot convention hall, a 20,000-seat sports arena, a 4,000-car parking garage
and other amenities are built on the 1,450-acre Kutsher's Resort in Monticello.
Park Place proposes to give the Mohawks 70 percent of the proceeds, Cummis added.
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