Safavian is given 18 months in jail

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 L. 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, the former chief of staff for the General Services Administration, was sentenced on obstruction and concealment charges for lying to investigators about his relationship with Abramoff.

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

Prior to taking the job at the GSA, Safavian was the chief of staff for Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, in 2001-02. Last month, Cannon wrote a letter to Friedman on Safavian's behalf, in which he asked for leniency, citing his experience with Safavian as a "tirelessly" working public servant.

Cannon said Safavian was a helpful, hard-working individual, and that his desire to help others is likely what led him to become involved with Abramoff. Cannon pointed out that Safavian had already lost everything through the course of the investigation and trial, and that incarceration would "not do anyone any good."

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.