David Safavian

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David Hossein Safavian (born August 4, 1967) is a former chief of staff of the United States General Services Administration (GSA) and convicted criminal in the Jack Abramoff lobbying and corruption scandal.

In 2004, he was an employee of the Office of Management and Budget. He was arrested and charged with crimes in connection with the Abramoff corruption scandal. He was convicted and, on October 27, 2006, sentenced to 18 months in prison.

[edit] Career prior to GSA

An Iranian American from Detroit, Michigan, Safavian graduated fifth in his class at Detroit College of Law. In Michigan, he served as an aide to Michigan House Representatives Robert W. Davis (R) and Bill Schuette (R), and still later he worked for the lobbying firm of Janus-Merritt Strategies.

Safavian was a longtime friend of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In the mid-1990s, the two worked at the Washington-based lobbying firm of Preston Gates & Ellis. There they brought in millions to the firm while working on the Mississippi Choctaw tribal account. The pair were members of a team, reports CNN, “that was lobbying to keep the Northern Mariana Islands [a US territory] free from certain US labor and immigration laws.”

In 1997, Safavian and Grover Norquist founded a lobbying firm, the Merritt Group, which was renamed Janus-Merritt Strategies (and is sometimes referred to as "Janus Merritt" or simply "Janus"). The tenor of the firm was fiercely ideological. "We represent clients who really do have an interest in a smaller federal government," Safavian told Legal Times in a 1997 interview. "We're all very ideologically driven, and have a bias in favor of free markets." He went on: "We're not letting people who offer us money change our principles."

The firm's clients included businesses like BP America, the U.S. division of British Petroleum. There were foreign companies like the Corporacion Venezolana de Cementos and Grupo Financiero Banorte. There were gaming interests, including Indian tribes: the Saginaw Chippewa - a client the firm shared with Jack Abramoff, the Viejas band of Kumeyaay Indians, and the National Indian Gaming Association.^[1] Safavian also registered as a lobbyist for the government of Pakistan, the government of Gabon, and Pascal Lissouba, the corrupt former president of the Republic of the Congo.

In 1999, Safavian founded the Internet Consumer Choice Coalition, a nonprofit whose sole purpose was to fight a bill authored by Republican Arizona senator Jon Kyl that would have made online gambling a federal crime. Coalition members included the American Civil Liberties Union, the Association of Concerned Taxpayers, Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Interactive Services Association, the Small Business Survival Committee, and the United States Internet Council. Some coalition members--the Interactive Services Association, for one--were also clients of Safavian's. Another, Americans for Tax Reform, was Norquist's activist group.^[1] An Oct. 12, 2006 Senate Finance Committee report^[2] concludes most of these organizations abused their tax exempt status.

In January 2001, Safavian left Janus-Merritt to become Chief of Staff for Representative Chris Cannon.

[edit] Federal executive branch positions

In early 2002, Safavian began looking for a new job. On February 4, 2002, he sent lobbyist Jack Abramoff his resume, receiving a very positive reponse five days later. In mid-April, Safavian interviewed at Greenberg Traurig, the firm that employed Abramoff. Soon after that he got an offer for a job at the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). On April 30, he wrote to Abramoff: "my gut is telling me to take the GSA job before joining up with you and your band of merry men."^[3]

On May 16, 2002, GSA Administrator Stephen A. Perry named Safavian as Senior Advisor and Acting Deputy Chief of Staff at the GSA. He took the place of Angela Styles, an advisor known for challenging Congressional pressure to award contracts. "The most serious challenge to Styles came from Rep. Tom Davis (R.-Va.), the chairman of the House Government Reform Committee."^[4] Two months later, Safavian was named Chief of Staff of the GSA to replace Brian Allan Jackson, who was leaving the agency to pursue an MBA from Harvard Business School.

On November 4th, 2003, President George W. Bush announced Safavian's nomination to be the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President.^[5], where he set purchasing policy for the entire government.^[6]

[edit] Indictment, trial, & conviction

From left to right, Neil Volz (former Ney aide, then Team Abramoff member), Ralph Reed, Paul Vinovich (Ney aide), Rep. Bob Ney, William Heaton (Ney aide), David Safavian (convicted), Michael Williams (member of Team Abramoff), Alex Abramoff and Jack Abramoff. They're standing in front of the chartered plane that Abramoff booked to Scotland.

A picture at St. Andrews, the famed Scottish golf course. From left to right: convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, golf organizer Jason Murdoch, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, convicted former Bush administration official David Safavian and Congressman Bob Ney

David Safavian was indicted October 5, 2005. He was accused of making false statements and obstructing investigations into his dealings with Jack Abramoff while he was chief of staff for the General Services Administration. His trial started May 25, 2006. Guilty verdicts on four of five felony counts of lying and obstruction were returned June 20.^[7]

Safavian's indictment referred, among other things, to an August 2002 golf trip to St. Andrews, Scotland involving Jack Abramoff, House Republican Bob Ney and Ney's chief of staff and former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed.

In short, the allegations were that: (a) it was illegal to accept that trip (because Abramoff had dealings with GSA at the time), (b) Safavian lied about the trip, and provided false documentation, thereby obstructing both Senate and executive branch investigations into the matter; and (c) that he concealed his efforts to help Abramoff acquire control of two federally managed properties in the Washington area for Eshkol Academy and a tribal client.

The indictment acknowledged that prior to departure, David Safavian wrote a check for $3,100, which is the identical amount listed on Rep. Bob Ney's (R-OH) Congressional travel papers for the trip (note: Congressional travel is not constrained by a dollar limitation). Executive branch ethics rules do not require agency officials to ask permission to take personal travel on personal time, so long as the federal official is paying his own way for the cost of the trip. Prosecutors, however, said the trip of nine participants cost more than $130,000. ^[8]

Evidence introduced at trial showed that in July 2002, Safavian sent an e-mail to the GSA's ethics office asking if it would be permissible to go on a paid golf trip with Abramoff to Scotland. In his email to the GSA attorney, Safavian states that he has already decided that he will be covering all other associated travel cost (i.e. meals, lodging, and greens fees). In his request, Safavian described Abramoff as "a lawyer and lobbyist, but one that has no business before GSA (he does all his work on Capitol Hill)." The ethics office approved the trip the next day on the grounds that "neither Mr. Abramoff nor his firm does business with or is seeking to do business with GSA."

The government contended that emails at the time clearly showed that Safavian "was helping to provide Abramoff with information about the best way to obtain the two parcels of federal land, which were controlled by the GSA", and that this constituted doing business, or "seeking to do business" with the GSA. In her opening statement to the jury, Barbara Van Gelder, Safavian's lawyer, insisted that "David Safavian was not in Jack Abramoff's pocket, but he was a friend and he answered his questions." ^[9]

Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, returned campaign donations that they received from Safavian.

On June 20, 2006, Safavian was found guilty by a jury in federal court on four of five felony charges. He was found guilty of lying to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, lying to a GSA ethics official, lying to the GSA's Office of Inspector General, and obstructing the work of the GSA inspector general. Safavian was cleared of obstructing the committee's investigation.^[9]

On July 13, 2006, Safavian asked for a new trial on the grounds that the emails used in the trial constituted hearsay. Justice Department officials have until July 31 to respond to the motions. A hearing was planned for August 24, 2006.^[10]

On October 27, 2006, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman sentenced Safavian to 18 months in prison.^[11][12]

[edit] Lobbying for Alamoudi

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Safavian has been accused of working as a lobbyist for Abdurahman Alamoudi.

At his Senate confirmation hearing in April 2004, Safavian said that "To my knowledge, neither I nor Janus-Merritt did any work for Mr. Alamoudi." "I do not know why Mr. Alamoudi was erroneously listed in the client's lobby disclosure forms." More, "I do not believe Janus-Merritt received any funds from Mr. Alamoudi."

But, according to Senate disclosure reports on file, this was incorrect. For years Janus-Merritt registered as a lobbyist for Alamoudi. And then, on December 17, 2001, after Safavian had left the firm, Janus-Merritt resubmitted its disclosure forms. This time the name of Alamoudi had been replaced by the name of Dr. Jamal al Barzinji. Why the firm changed its registration is unknown.

For his part, Safavian told the Senate, al Barzinji, not Alamoudi, was his client. "Dr. Jamal al Barzinji," he said, "should have been listed as the client retaining the firm for work related to Malaysian political prisoner Anwar Ibrahim." In fact, Barzinji had been listed as a contact, not a client, on all the disclosure forms.

The replacement name is also problematical. On March 20, 2002, Barzinji's home was raided by a federal task force investigating terrorist finances. A federal affidavit identifies Barzinji as the ringleader of a group suspected of aiding terrorists.^[1]

[edit] Miscellaneous

David Safavian is married to Jennifer McLaughlin, and they have a daughter, Kathleen.^[13] Jennifer Safavian is one of twelve counsels for oversight and investigations on the House Government Reform Committee.^[14]

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Continetti, Matthew (10/10 2005). "Scandal Season". The Weekly Standard 11 (4). Retrieved on 2006-06-21.
2. ^ http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:7ukQbS4t1zMJ:www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/3626/1/3%3FTopicID%3D
3. ^ http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000405.php
4. ^ http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/05/04_401.html
5. ^ http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/11/20031103-16.html
6. ^ Bush Official Arrested in Corruption Probe
7. ^ Safavian Found Guilty of Lying, Obstruction, Peter Yost, Associated Press
8. ^ [http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/abramoff20.html Safavian found guilty in Abramoff scandal
9. ^ ^{a b} Trial reporting:
   • http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/05/25/safavian/index.html
   • Former Ney Aide Details How Abramoff Treated 'Champions, Susan Schmidt, Washington Post, May 31, 2006
   • Safavian Is Found Guilty in Lobbyist Trial, Associated Press, June 20, 2006
10. ^ Michaela May. "Convicted former procurement chief requests new trial", CongressDaily, July 13, 2006.
11. ^ Madway, Gabriel. "Ex-GSA Chief of Staff Safavian gets 18-month sentence", MarketWatch, 2006-10-27. Retrieved on 2006-10-27.
12. ^ Susan Schmidt. "Official in Abramoff Case Sentenced to 18 Months", Washington Post, October 28, 2006, p. A03.
13. ^ http://www.nndb.com/people/056/000111720/
14. ^ http://www.oic-starr.gov/p000306.htm