Swing State Project

The Washington Post reported in early March that Burns had diverted a $3 million grant meant for impoverished Indian schools to the Saginaw Chippewas in Michigan, one of the richest tribes in the nation.

The tribe was a client of GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is under investigation by the FBI and Congress for allegedly buying legislative favors with campaign contributions and bribing Congressional aides.

Senator Burns needs to give back the dirty money.

Montana Democratic Party Executive Director Brad Martin said Monday Burns' acknowledgement of Abramoff's actions should be justification enough to return the money.

"That alone should give him pause about whether that money should spend another minute in his bank account," he said.

But that money is no longer around to give back, Burns' spokesman J.P. Donovan said.

"It's all spent," he said.

Whoops, Burns spend the dirty money. Too bad, because now Burns needs a ton of money to pay big-shot lawyers for his legal defense:

Also on Monday, the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported that Burns had hired GOP lawyer Cleta Mitchell to oversee his legal defense as questions were raised about his connections to Abramoff.

Donovan said Mitchell was brought in as an outside observer to deal with some of the ethics allegations made against him. She is not part of any legal defense, he insisted.

Martin was a bit more skeptical.

"You don't hire someone like Cleta Mitchell if you got a press problem," he said.