WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Yet another U.S. lawmaker has returned campaign donations from an indicted lobbyist, despite earlier reports he would not.
Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said he would return the $150,000 that Jack Abramoff had donated to his coffers, The Washington Post reports.
A spokesman said early last week Burns would keep the money.
Abramoff is being investigated for allegedly taking $82 million from Indian tribe clients and using the money illegally. He has also been indicted in an unrelated Florida case.
Another prominent senator, Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said Monday he returned $67,000 donated from Abramoff's Indian tribe clients.
That makes 25 lawmakers and two Republican Party committees to do so.
Both Burns and Dorgan sit on the appropriations committee that oversees Interior Department agencies that handle Indian affairs.
Burns is the chairman; Dorgan the ranking Democratic member.
They said they didn't do anything wrong in 2004 when they transferred a $3 million grant intended for impoverished Indian schools to a rich Indian tribe.
That tribe was being represented by Abramoff at the time.
