On Thursday, Pokerfuse published an article linking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV, pictured) to a seven-figure bribery scheme to push online poker legislation through Congress. As we all know by now, the Federal online poker push was a failure, but Pokerfuse and the Salt Lake City Tribunesourced a taped conversation between embattled online poker payment processor Jeremy Johnson and Utah Attorney General John Swallow. Two weeks ago, we brought you a separate article about another alleged bribery incident involving Johnson and Reid.

—

Daily fantasy sports is legal to wager on in most states in the USA. Check out DraftKings.comfor your shot at turning $1 into $100,000 today. Visit DraftKingstoday.

—

This time around, Johnson told Swallow, “I’ll tell you this. We had a meeting with Reid where he said – this was a private meeting – it was Reid, it was me, it was, you remember John Pappas? Remember him? Poker Players Alliance guy?” Also allegedly at the meeting was Full Tilt Poker CEO Ray Bitar. According to Johnson, Reid said at the meeting, “Look, I’ve polled my constituents. They don’t like online poker. Bottom line. It’s bad for jobs here in Las Vegas. But, I’m going to back what you guys are doing here. I’m going to introduce a bill for you.”

The reason Reid pushed for an online poker bill, according to Johnson, is because of a million dollar payment. He allegedly told Swallow at the meeting, which occurred at a doughnut shop in April 2012, “I believe Reid genuinely is on the take. I believe he’s getting money for deals all over hell ’cause he’s got so much influence. And I believe they’re onto him.”

PocketFives reached out to Pappas(pictured), whom Pokerfuse referenced but the Tribune did not, for comment. The PPA’s Executive Director told us, “The notion that I had a private meeting with Jeremy Johnson and Senator Reid is a complete falsehood. In fact, I have only met Mr. Johnson in-person once and briefly, when he attended a fundraiser with almost 100 people that our organization hosted for Senator Reid at the World Series of Poker.”

Pappas concluded, “It is disgraceful that the PPA’s name has been inserted in this supposed ‘news story’ by an editorial writer who has a history of being critical of our organization.” The writer in question is Haley Hintze.

Full Tilt’s Bitar and Howard Lederer were both on-hand at the 2010 meet-and-greet.

We should also point out that Reid’s office vehemently denied the bribery claims, telling the Salt Lake City news outlet, “The allegations of bribery by Mr. Johnson, a man with a background of fraud, deception, and corruption, are absurd and utterly false. Bribery is a crime for which Senator Reid has personally put people behind bars. Senator Reid will not have his integrity questioned by a man of Mr. Johnson’s low record and character, and his outrageous allegations will not go unanswered. Clearly, a desperate man is making things up.”

The previous allegations of bribery involving Reid stemmed from Johnson’s company Iworks. Reid was reportedly solicited to stop an FTC investigation into the company. An e-mail from Swallow to Johnson at the time allegedly referred to a payoff: “I spoke with Richard Rawle about the contact information for Harry Reid’s guy. Richard is traveling to LV tomorrow and will be able to contact this person, who he has a very good relationship with. He needs a brief narrative of what is going on and what you want to happen. I don’t know the cost, but it probably won’t be cheap.” The bribe was reportedly $600,000.

Want the latest poker headlines and interviews? Follow PocketFives on Twitterand Like PocketFives on Facebook. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed.