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Safavian Guilty in Abramoff Scandal
A jury found David Safavian, former chief of staff at the General Services Administration, guilty on four counts of lying and obstructing justice. On October 12, the judge will pass sentence, which could be up to 20 years. This is the first, but most likely not the last, trial held in connection with Jack Abramoff’s influence peddling activities in Washington.
The GSA is the property management agency for Uncle Sam. Mr. Safavian helped Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to federal crimes, with inside information. According to the Associated Press,
Prosecutors said Abramoff wanted to buy or lease part of the GSA's White Oak property in the Maryland suburbs for use by a Jewish school he had established. They also said he wanted to give an Indian tribe client a leg up on obtaining the contract to redevelop the Old Post Office in as a luxury hotel, near two restaurants Abramoff owned.
Volz [Neil Volz, a convicted partner of Abramoff’'s and ex-chief of staff to Congressman Ney] testified the Abramoff team referred to Safavian as one of their ‘champions’ inside government, who could give them insider information they couldn't get elsewhere. He said Safavian was the mastermind of some of the strategy for developing congressional pressure or action to sway GSA . . .
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 the weeklong golfing expedition to Scotland in August 2002. Abramoff had arranged the trip for members of Congress and invited Safavian to come along when one of them dropped out.
By the time the bills for that Scottish golfing trip were totaled up, the damage was $130,000 among the 9 travelers. Mr. Safavian said the $3,100 check he gave to Mr. Abramoff covered his share. Perhaps, he was that naïve and down right stupid. Still, naïve and stupid in government service can be criminal.
This scandal will continue to bleed through the mid-term elections, and the culture of corruption attack on the GOP, although blunted by the rotten behavior of Congressman Jefferson (D-LA), will figure heavily in the campaign. The problem is going to be explaining it in a sound bite that the average voter can understand. The lying and obstructing justice counts are serious, but they don’t resonate the way a count of “bribery’ would have. Not much of this mud is sticking yet.
© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.
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