Now that he's facing the reality of his comeuppance, he and his wife
beg for mercy. Too bad he didn't consider the circumstances when he
was lying his face off to protect Jack Abramoff.


A former top White House official was sentenced Friday to a year and a
day in federal prison for obstructing justice and lying to officials
and investigators about a lavish golf trip to Scotland and his ties to
disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

It was the second time that David H. Safavian, a former chief of staff
at the General Services Administration, was sentenced by U.S. District
Judge Paul L. Friedman on a conviction stemming from a federal probe
of Abramoff's illicit lobbying activities. In 2006, Friedman sentenced
Safavian to 18 months in prison, but the underlying conviction was
thrown out last year by an appeals court.

Prosecutors elected to retry Safavian. In December, the 42-year-old
was convicted on charges of lying to a GSA ethics officer, obstructing
a GSA investigation into the 2002 golf trip and lying on financial
disclosure forms about its costs. He was also convicted of making
false statements to an FBI agent.

He was acquitted of lying to a Senate committee.

Safavian and his wife, Jennifer, begged Friedman for leniency during a
hearing Friday in the District's federal court, saying their family
had suffered enough without having to endure a prison sentence. They
are bankrupt, Safavian will lose his law license and he will be barred
from ever contracting with the government, they said.

Jennifer Safavian said she was pregnant with their second child. They
said they were worried about how their 6-year-old daughter would cope
if her father was sent to prison. Safavian conceded that he had made
mistakes and used poor judgment but said that he did not think he had
broken any laws. "I beg you to take into account how what I have to go
through will impact my family," he told the judge.

Prosecutors urged Friedman to impose prison time, saying Safavian had
"lied repeatedly" to officials and investigators from 2002 through
2005.

"All of these lies were premeditated and designed to keep his
unethical relationship with Jack Abramoff from becoming public," they
wrote in court papers. His actions, prosecutors added, "are
particularly damaging because they effectively undermine the trust the
public should have in its government and high-level officials."

Friedman said he agreed that a prison term was appropriate and that "a
light bulb should have gone on" in Safavian's mind that his dealings
with Abramoff were questionable. The judge said he would allow
Safavian to wait until after his child is born to enter prison.

The Justice Department's case centered on Safavian's ties to Abramoff,
the once-powerful Republican lobbyist who is imprisoned for fraud.
Abramoff and more than a dozen others have pleaded guilty in the
scandal. The lengthy trial of one of his lobbying associates, Kevin
Ring, ended in a mistrial Thursday after jurors deadlocked on eight
corruption charges.

Abramoff and Safavian worked together at a law firm in the 1990s.
After Safavian took a top GSA job in 2002, Abramoff began asking him
whether his clients could lease the Old Post Office in downtown
Washington. Abramoff also requested help in leasing or purchasing a
portion of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in White Oak for a Jewish
school he supported.

The GSA was trying to find ways to develop the properties. While
helping Abramoff find ways to lease the properties, Safavian took the
August 2002 golf trip with Abramoff and seven others to Scotland.
Safavian's share for the trip, which included posh hotels and a
private jet flight, came closer to $17,453 than the $3,100 check he
gave Abramoff, prosecutors said.

The jury found that Safavian lied to a GSA ethics officer whom he
consulted about the propriety of taking the trip. He told the ethics
officer that Abramoff did all his work on Capitol Hill. Safavian did
not mention he was helping Abramoff in his quest for the GSA
properties.

In 2003, after receiving a tip, the GSA's inspector general opened an
investigation into the golf trip.

But the probe was dropped after Safavian told investigators that he
had reimbursed Abramoff for his share of the costs and that the
lobbyist had no business before the GSA. He also lied in 2005 to an
FBI agent investigating the Abramoff lobbying scandal, the jury found.
Safavian left the high-ranking GSA job in 2004 to become administrator
of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in the Office of
Management and Budget at the White House. He was arrested in 2005.