In later e-mails Safavian begins to caution Abramoff to not forward information to others or to make it appear that information was coming from him or the GSA. "Please don't forward this e-mail onward. Rather if you can let me know via phone, or put it into a separate email as though it came from you, that would be more appropriate," Safavian wrote to Abramoff.

The e-mails also show more of the relationship between Safavian and Abramoff, including 36 mentions of golf as well as racquetball games, lunch at Abramoff's restaurant Signatures and dinner meetings. One e-mail shows Abramoff inviting Safavian to attend a Redskins football game.

Abramoff had reached such a level of comfort with Safavian that at one point, he asked him whether he could help him find a drug dealer's confiscated stretch limousine for use at Abramoff's downtown D.C. restaurant. "I was thinking of the druggies bounty," Abramoff wrote. "Let me call a friend at the Marshal's Service. They handle drug seizures," Safavian replied.

The relationship of the two men goes back to at least 1995 when both worked at the Washington office of Preston Gates & Ellis, a Seattle-based lobbying firm. In an e-mail dated December 2000, Safavian expresses his admiration for Abramoff as a lobbyist. "Given how busy you must be, I will clear my decks for a few minutes of your time. After all, you are the most watched lobbyist of the new generation. I can only hope to follow suit someday (keyboard strokes to indicate a winking smiling face)."

Last month, Abramoff was sentenced to six years in federal prison as part of a plea deal reached. He remains free while helping prosecutors with a bribery investigation involving members of Congress.

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