Trial of former procurement chief begins (David Safavian, Abramoff link)

[The Straight Story]

Trial of former procurement chief begins

By Jenny Mandel and Kimberly Palmer
[e-mail]

The trial of David Safavian, former head of procurement policy at the Office of Management and Budget, began Monday with Justice Department lawyers arguing he lied and misled government officials regarding the nature of his relationship with disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and the defense responding that there were no improprieties in Safavian's professional conduct.

Safavian faces five counts of making false statements and obstructing investigations during his tenure as chief of staff at the General Services Administration. He held that position from May 2002 to January 2004, before joining OMB.

In the government's opening argument, lead prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg said Safavian lied to a GSA ethics officer when seeking permission to join Abramoff and others on a golf trip to Scotland in 2002. Over the past month, the government successfully fought to introduce as evidence a series of e-mails between Safavian and the lobbyist showing a steady stream of conversations regarding two GSA-controlled properties. But at the time of the trip, Safavian maintained that Abramoff had no business before the agency.

The ethics officer gave Safavian permission to go on the trip, and Safavian later wrote a check for $3,100 to the lobbyist, ostensibly to cover his portion of the cost. Zeidenberg claimed the trip actually cost $140,000, or about $17,500 per person.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=34172&dcn=todaysnews