From America for Sale: (pdf)
In December 2000, DeLay aides Tony Rudy and Thomas Pyle helped GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff get access to newly-nominated Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Abramoff represented several Indian tribes interested in lobbying the Secretary. This assistance occurred just a few months after Abramoff and his clients donated money to DeLay, gave him use of a skybox, and took him on a lavish golfing trip to Scotland in the summer of 2000. Soon after the email exchanges offering help, Tony Rudy left DeLay's office to work for Abramoff.
Besides using his Congressional contacts, Abramoff and his Indian tribe clients gained access to Interior Secretary Gale Norton by donating a quarter-million dollars to the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA), an "environmental" group Norton co-founded in the late 1990s with conservative activist Grover Norquist. The group's current president, Italia Federici, who describes Norton as a mentor and worked on Norton's failed Senate run, acted as a go-between for Abramoff and the Department of the Interior, even though CREA's mission does not include Indian affairs advocacy. The result of the lobbying and contributions was that Abramoff and his client, the chairman of the Coushatta tribe, sat with Secretary Norton at a CREA-sponsored fundraising event in September, 2001.
Another avenue for Abramoff to get access to the Interior Department was J. Steven Griles, Deputy Secretary at the Department of the Interior. From 2001 to 2005, Griles used his position as the number-two person in the Department to try and prevent the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians from building their casino. According to Michael Rossetti, former counsel to Secretary Gale Norton, Griles repeatedly tried to get into meetings in which Norton reviewed the Jena proposal, and even tried to show Norton a binder full of materials arguing against the proposal—a binder that, when questioned, Griles admitted came from Abramoff. One of the main channels of communication between Abramoff and Griles was Griles' friend at CREA, Italia Federici. While Federici and Abramoff regularly contacted Griles about the Jena casino and other various Indian matters, Abramoff's clients contributed heavily to CREA. Abramoff even offered Griles a job lobbying at Abramoff's firm of Greenberg Traurig.