Ex-Bush official convicted of lying

Relationship with lobbyist Abramoff at issue

By Jesse J. Holland ASSOCIATED PRESS | Saturday, December 20, 2008

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After deciding not to testify or call any defense witnesses, a former Bush administration official was convicted for a second time Friday for lying about his relationship with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

David Safavian, the government's former chief procurement officer, was found guilty of one count of obstruction and three counts of making false statements to investigators. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Safavian and his lawyers did not react when U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman read the verdict from the jury, which had been deliberating since Wednesday. He had been found guilty on similar charges in 2006, but the conviction was overturned on appeal.

Judge Friedman did not immediately set a sentencing date.

Safavian refused to comment after the verdict, but defense lawyer Lawrence Robbins said they were "naturally disappointed."

"We look forward to vindication in future proceedings," Mr. Robbins said.

Safavian is the only defendant in the Abramoff corruption case, which rocked Washington politics, to fight the charges against him at trial. Others charged have pleaded guilty in bargains with prosecutors, including Abramoff himself, former Rep. Bob Ney, Ohio Republican, former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles and several Capitol Hill aides.

Safavian did not testify and his lawyers did not call any defense witnesses in their fight against charges that he tried to hide his relationship with Abramoff while working as chief of staff at the General Services Administration, the federal government's landlord and housekeeping agency.

Prosecutors argued that Abramoff showered Safavian with trips and other perks while badgering him for information about two pieces of GSA-controlled property the lobbyist wanted - the historic Old Post Office in downtown Washington and the government's White Oak property in the Maryland suburbs.

Abramoff wanted the White Oak property for a Jewish school he established and wanted to give an Indian-tribe client a leg up on obtaining the contract to redevelop the Old Post Office as a luxury hotel.

Prosecutors showed that Safavian's advice began right after he went to work at GSA and was intensely pursued in the weeks before Safavian went on a weeklong golfing expedition to Scotland in August 2002. But when asked by investigators about Abramoff, Safavian said Abramoff had "no business before GSA."

Safavian maintained he simply gave generally available information to an old friend who was inquiring about government property that the GSA had not even decided what to do with yet.

Prosecutors also charged that a $3,100 check Safavian provided to Abramoff did not fully pay his share of the Scotland golf junket that included a chartered jet, $400- and $500-a-night hotel rooms, $400 rounds of golf at the famed St. Andrews golf course and $100 rounds of drinks.

Safavian said Abramoff repeatedly told him his share of the trip was $3,100, which he paid.

The jury convicted him on an obstruction charge, as well as three counts of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms and to investigators from the GSA and FBI. He was acquitted on a charge of making a false statement to Senate investigators.

Before the charges surfaced, Safavian was promoted to chief federal procurement officer in the Bush White House.

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