Safavian Indicted on Five Felony
Counts
Yahoo News/AP
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN
Associated Press Writer
October 5,2005
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's former chief procurement official was
indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury on charges of making false
statements and obstructing investigations into high-powered Republican lobbyist
Jack Abramoff.
The five felony counts in the indictment charge David H. Safavian with
obstructing Senate and executive branch investigations into whether he aided
Abramoff in efforts to acquire property controlled by the General Services
Administration around the nation's capital.
Both probes looked into an August 2002 golf outing that Safavian took to
Scotland with Abramoff, former Christian Coalition executive Ralph Reed, Rep.
Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, and others.
Safavian, a former lobbying associate of Abramoff, is the first person
beyond Abramoff himself to face charges arising out of the probe of the
lobbyist, who is a major Republican fundraiser with close ties to GOP leaders
in Congress.
The indictment covers May 16, 2002, until January 2004, when Safavian was
chief of staff at the General Services Administration, the government
housekeeping agency. From November 2004 until late last month when he resigned
three days before his arrest, he was the government's top procurement officer,
in the Office of Management and Budget.
The indictment said Safavian falsely told a GSA ethics officer, a GSA
inspector general's agent and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that Abramoff
had no business with GSA at the time the Scotland trip was being planned. It
said Safavian concealed that Abramoff did have business with GSA before the
trip and that Safavian was aiding him in dealing with GSA.
Barbara Van Gelder, Safavian's lawyer, said Safavian would plead not guilty.
"If this case did not involve Mr. Abramoff, the government would never have
indicted Mr. Safavian on these charges," she added. "We believe ... Mr.
Safavian will be acquitted of all charges."
Each count carries a potential top penalty of five years in prison and a
$250,000 fine.
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