Requests" recommending donations to campaigns or groups for 50 lawmakers. Alongside Reid's name, Abramoff wrote, "5,000 (Searchlight Leadership Fund) Senate Majority Whip." Reid was Democratic whip at the time. About the same time, Reid sent a letter to the Interior Department helpful to the tribe, records show. His March 5, 2002, letter pressed the agency to reject a casino proposed by a potential rival to the Coushattas, the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) also signed the letter. Future Abramoff coworker Edward Ayoob before he knew Abramoff worked for Reid from June 1997 to March 2002 variously as legislative counsel, tax counsel, appropriations manager, foreign affairs adviser and chief aide on judicial nominations, according to a biography on his employer's Web site. Ayoob in 2002 was hired as a lobbyist by Greenberg Traurig LLP, where his work included teaming with Abramoff and other lobbyists on client matters. According to the Greenberg Traurig website, Greenberg Traurig has over 1400 lobbyists. Abramoff left Greenberg Traurig in March 2004 after the Senate and the FBI began investigating his activities while Ayoob left Greenberg Traurig in spring 2005. Ayoob is now a senior lobbyist at Barnes & Thornburg LLP. Reid downplayed Ayoob's role, saying Ayoob was a legislative assistant on his staff and not an adviser. Ayoob and Reid met "from time to time" after Ayoob became a lobbyist, according to a Reid spokesperson. She said she did not know when they last spoke or how Reid would characterize their relationship today. The Washington Post has reported that the aide later helped throw a fundraiser for Reid at Abramoff's firm that raised money from several of Abramoff's lobbying partners. U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) Senator Byron Dorgan, the senior Democrat on the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, had received at least $79,300 from associates and clients who later hired Abramoff to work for them. After several news articles appeared detailing the tribal donations, Dorgan wrote a news release replying to several claims he said were erroneous, including the allegation he received money directly from Abramoff. In the release, Dorgan said, "The fact is I have never met Abramoff and have never received a campaign contribution from him. If he was directing any of his clients to make a political contribution to me, it was done without my knowledge." Dorgan says, in the release, that his activities in support of several tribal