Former Bush aide sentenced in Abramoff case

WASHINGTON — A federal judge sentenced a former Bush administration official to 18 months in prison in the Jack Abramoff lobbying case Friday, after delivering a 30-minute eulogy for good government in Washington.

"There was a time when people came to Washington because they thought government could be helpful to people," said U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman. "People came to Washington asking not what government could do for them and their friends but what they could do for the public."

David Safavian, 39, the former chief of staff for the General Services Administration (GSA), was sentenced on obstruction and concealment charges for lying to investigators about his relationship with Abramoff.

Safavian wept as he asked for leniency, but Friedman said the former bureaucrat had become part of Washington's culture of corruption, in which members of Congress listen to campaign donors and lobbyists while farming out to staff members the job of writing laws.

Abramoff, the once-powerful lobbyist, shook Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House when he pleaded guilty to corruption in January and began cooperating with an FBI investigation.

The case, which has become an election-year liability for Republicans, snared its first congressman this month when Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, pleaded guilty to taking expensive gifts and trips from Abramoff in return for official favors.

Friedman said he believed Safavian was a good person and could not understand why he got involved with Abramoff.

"Maybe it's hard to resist. Maybe it's hanging out with the big boys," Friedman said. "I'm not sure."

Safavian, who also worked in the White House budget office, gave Abramoff details about GSA projects and offered advice on dealing with the agency. He also accepted a cut-rate golf trip to Scotland aboard a private jet.

Safavian apologized Friday for giving the appearance of impropriety but said it was not fraudulent. He said the lobbyist used and manipulated him and he never intended to hurt anyone.

"Yes, Jack Abramoff was a friend, but he wasn't my co-conspirator and I wasn't his," Safavian said. "There was no conspiracy to defraud anyone, least of all the taxpayers."

That wasn't what Friedman wanted to hear. He said Safavian has taken no responsibility for his lies.

"Get up here and tell me, 'I agree I concealed. I agree I obstructed justice,' " Friedman said. "I don't believe he's done that."

Safavian argued for no jail time but prosecutors asked for a three-year sentence, saying Safavian lied on the stand. Friedman called Safavian's testimony that he didn't know the value of the Scotland trip and barely read an ethics opinion "incredible" and "hard to believe" but said it wasn't perjury.

Safavian was a lobbyist and congressional aide until 2002, when he joined the GSA, which oversees the purchase and leasing of billions of dollars in federal property around the country. He later became the government's top procurement officer at the Office of Management and Budget.

He was convicted in June of concealing facts about the 2002 golf trip and the help he gave to Abramoff in trying to acquire two GSA-controlled properties.

The jury found him guilty of lying to the GSA inspector general and obstructing an inquiry by that office, as well as lying to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and to a GSA ethics officer.

The Abramoff investigation continues, and prosecutors have said there are other targets.

Two former aides to Tom DeLay, R-Texas, the former House majority leader, have also pleaded guilty, as has Ney's former chief of staff.

Additionally, Roger Stillwell, a former Interior Department official, pleaded guilty in August to a misdemeanor charge for not reporting tickets he received from Abramoff.

Safavian's lawyers said their client will appeal the conviction.

Material from The Washington Post is included in this report.