Richard Tafoya
Oct 27th, 2006, 07:49 PM
Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/27/AR2006102700486.html
David H. Safavian, a former top official in the Bush administration's General Services Administration, was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for lying and concealing unethical dealings with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman called Safavian's dealings with the lobbyist "an abuse of the public trust" in a capital city that has become "more and more corrupt" with greedy lobbyists and politicians on the take.
A weeping Safavian, standing before him, told Friedman that he knows now he should never have given Abramoff inside information about GSA properties that the lobbyist wanted to acquire. But he said that at the time, "I didn't see anything wrong in helping Jack. . . . I thought as long as I wasn't providing procurement information, I was okay."
The 18-month jail sentence represented close to the middle ground between the 30 to 36 months sought by government prosecutors and the defense's proposal for alternative sentencing that would avoid any prison time at all. Friedman wrestled with the question in a hearing that lasted much of the day, struggling to mete out justice to man who he said had "pulled himself up by his bootstraps" and who had been "a very good person to a lot of people."
"Did he believe in public service? I guess he did," said the judge. "But he also wanted someday to join Mr. Abramoff in that lucrative lobbying business."
Friedman said he found some of Safavian's statements from the witness stand at trial "incredible," including Safavian's claim that he believed his payment of $3,100 would cover the cost of a luxury golfing excursion to Scotland with Abramoff. But he decided against a request from prosecutors that he find Safavian's guilty of perjury for his court testimony.
Safavian, 38, a former chief of staff at the GSA, was convicted in June of concealing facts about the 2002 golf trip as well as the help he gave to his longtime friend Abramoff in trying to acquiring two properties controlled by the GSA -- one of them the Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania Avenue.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/27/AR2006102700486.html
David H. Safavian, a former top official in the Bush administration's General Services Administration, was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for lying and concealing unethical dealings with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman called Safavian's dealings with the lobbyist "an abuse of the public trust" in a capital city that has become "more and more corrupt" with greedy lobbyists and politicians on the take.
A weeping Safavian, standing before him, told Friedman that he knows now he should never have given Abramoff inside information about GSA properties that the lobbyist wanted to acquire. But he said that at the time, "I didn't see anything wrong in helping Jack. . . . I thought as long as I wasn't providing procurement information, I was okay."
The 18-month jail sentence represented close to the middle ground between the 30 to 36 months sought by government prosecutors and the defense's proposal for alternative sentencing that would avoid any prison time at all. Friedman wrestled with the question in a hearing that lasted much of the day, struggling to mete out justice to man who he said had "pulled himself up by his bootstraps" and who had been "a very good person to a lot of people."
"Did he believe in public service? I guess he did," said the judge. "But he also wanted someday to join Mr. Abramoff in that lucrative lobbying business."
Friedman said he found some of Safavian's statements from the witness stand at trial "incredible," including Safavian's claim that he believed his payment of $3,100 would cover the cost of a luxury golfing excursion to Scotland with Abramoff. But he decided against a request from prosecutors that he find Safavian's guilty of perjury for his court testimony.
Safavian, 38, a former chief of staff at the GSA, was convicted in June of concealing facts about the 2002 golf trip as well as the help he gave to his longtime friend Abramoff in trying to acquiring two properties controlled by the GSA -- one of them the Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania Avenue.