White House Official Warned Abramoff

The Bush administration's former chief procurement official tipped off lobbyist Jack Abramoff that the government was about to suspend the federal contracts of an Abramoff client, newly filed court papers say.

David Safavian provided "sensitive and confidential information" about four subsidiaries of Tyco International to Abramoff regarding internal deliberations at the General Services Administration, say the court papers filed Friday in a criminal case against Safavian.

Abramoff has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud in a burgeoning bribery probe centered on Capitol Hill but also involving the Interior Department.

The White House is refusing to release photographs of President Bush and Abramoff or to reveal what contact Abramoff had with White House aides.

Acting on the information that Abramoff provided the company in November 2003, Tyco lawyer Timothy Flanigan, a former assistant attorney general in the Bush administration, contacted the general counsel to the GSA and asked for an opportunity to address the suspension.

In October, Flanigan withdrew his nomination to be Bush's deputy attorney general. His confirmation was delayed due to questions about his dealings with Abramoff when Abramoff was a Tyco lobbyist.

The government had planned to suspend Tyco because of alleged criminal conduct by former Tyco executives.

After advising Abramoff about the internal deliberations at GSA, Safavian suggested to Abramoff what arguments Tyco should make when it appealed the suspension decision, the court papers in Safavian's federal court case say.

Once tipped off by Abramoff, Tyco hired an outside law firm and successfully petitioned the government to lift the suspension and allow Tyco to continue to perform on government contracts.

The law firm outlined "the many steps that Tyco had taken, including to bring on a new board of directors, a new CEO and new corporate senior management," Tyco said in its statement.

Safavian faces trial on charges that he lied and obstructed investigations into whether he aided Abramoff in efforts to acquire GSA-controlled property around the nation's capital.

The government said in its court filing Friday that it intends to present the information regarding Tyco at Safavian's upcoming trial. Safavian has pleaded innocent and his lawyers have moved for dismissal of all charges.

Safavian is accused of concealing from federal investigators that Abramoff was seeking to do business with the GSA when Safavian joined the lobbyist on a golf trip to Scotland in 2002. At the time, Safavian was GSA's chief of staff. He became the Bush administration's chief procurement official in November 2004.

In its statement, Tyco said that the information from Abramoff had come in unsolicited, that the corporation did not use Abramoff's services to respond to GSA, and that the company did not contact Safavian directly.

The company said its outside counsel, George Terwilliger, was assured by Justice Department prosecutors that neither the company nor anyone at the company, including Flanigan, is accused, is suspected or is being investigated for any wrongdoing.

In May 2003, Abramoff, then employed by the Washington firm Greenberg Traurig, solicited Tyco for lobbying on a tax issue.

Prosecutors say Abramoff recommended that Tyco hire both him and a public relations and campaign consulting firm called GrassRoots Interactive, but hid from Tyco that GrassRoots Interactive was his business.

In May and June 2003, Tyco paid GrassRoots Interactive, directly and through Greenberg Traurig's bank account, about $1.8 million, of which about $1.6 million went to Abramoff and entities he controlled, prosecutors say.

Well....here's SOME info....I see that Preston-GATES Law firm is where he once worked too

David Hossein Safavian (suh-FAY'-vee-an) was chief of staff of the United States General Services Administration (GSA), the procurement arm of the U.S. federal government and in 2004, an employee of the Office of Management and Budget. He was arrested September 19, 2005, based on "a three-count criminal complaint filed at federal court in Washington, D.C. The complaint charges Safavian with making false statements to a GSA ethics officer and the GSA-OIG, along with obstruction of a GSA-OIG investigation." [1] Safavian is the first person arrested in the Jack Abramoff lobbying and corruption scandal.

Contents [hide]
1 Career
2 Indictment
3 Terrorist ties
4 Miscellaneous
5 External links

[edit]
Career
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 Davis (R) and William Schuette (R), and still later he worked for 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. [2]. 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.[3]

In January 2001, Safavian left Janus-Merritt to become chief of staff for Representatives Chris Cannon (R-UT). On May 16, 2002, he became chief of staff in the General Services Administration. In 2003 he was picked by President George W. Bush to oversee federal procurement policy at the Office of Management and Budget. [4] He is now age 38.

[edit]
Indictment
Safavian's indictment refers to an August 2002 golf trip to St. Andrews, Scotland involving Jack Abramoff, House Republicans Bob Ney and Tom DeLay, Grover Norquist, and former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed.

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

[edit]
Terrorist ties
Safavian has been accused of working as a lobbyist for Abdurahman Alamoudi, a fierce supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah.

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. [5]

[edit]
Miscellaneous
Safavian's wife Jennifer Safavian is chief counsel for oversight and investigations on the House Government Reform Committee. [6]

Here's Jennifer:

An MSU Alumni Profile:

David and Jennifer Safavian Apply Legal Knowledge to Public Service in Washington

BY LINDA NORLOCK

David Safavian Jennifer Safavian Mention the concept of a career in federal government, and some people picture Sam Seaborn and Josh Lyman engaging in witty repartee in the “West Wing.”

Washington really isn’t like that. Just ask the Safavians.

Alumni David and Jennifer Safavian, who have both worked in Washington since marrying in 1995, have applied their legal educations to careers in public service. David, ’93, recently left his position as chief of staff to a U.S. representative, for a political appointment to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA).

Jennifer, ’94, is counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce. She has been involved with a host of hearings investigating companies such as Enron, Global Crossing and Ford-Firestone.

Both face long days and a flurry of activities, and no one is writing a script for them. No, David says, it isn’t anything like “West Wing.”

David left his position with U.S. Representative Chris Cannon to become chief of staff of the GSA. The GSA obtains all real estate, telecommunications, supplies, protection and security resources for more than a million federal workers in federal offices around the world.

While working for Cannon, David served as the congressman’s political advisor and oversaw the legislative activities of the office. His role, he says, involved managing the minutiae of the legislative process—from assessing the wishes of constituents to managing press activities to devising communications strategy.

“You don’t have to be a lawyer to be successful at it,” he says, “but it’s one of the jobs where having your law degree is an enormous tool as to how you analyze problems.”

Before becoming chief of staff—a job that he calls the best in the world—David worked as a lobbyist. He was in charge of client development and management as a shareholder with Janus-Merritt Strategies.

The role of lobbyist has been a consistent theme in his career, and he enjoys it immensely.

“As a lobbyist, you always need to be thinking,” he says. “You spend your time moving legislation. It all comes down to being an advocate.”

In working for a member of Congress, David has been part of one of Capital Hill’s power bases. In her work for a House committee, Jennifer is part of another.

As investigative counsel for the energy and commerce committee, Jennifer is involved with discovery and investigative processes for the committee. Her work prepares committee members to conduct hearings and review prospective legislation. All legislation related to energy policy comes before the group.

“In working for a committee, you do not just focus on a district or one area of constituents,” she says. “You are focused on the issues, and you get a broader range of issues.”

With its range of jurisdiction—the committee oversees matters related to energy, telecommunication and health care—every day is different. “It’s not boring,” she says. “There is always something new happening.”

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the committee has focused on security of the country’s critical infrastructure. Jennifer has visited energy-related facilities across the country to gather information. Her work is aimed at ensuring that the private sector and the government can identify any vulnerabilities in the system and work to improve security.

Following graduation from law school, Jennifer worked in private practice. In July 1997, she accepted a job with the House Committee on Government Reform, and she participated in the investigation of campaign finance abuses. Before that, she says, she had not been bitten by the “politics bug.”

“The more you’re around here,” she says, “the more you get involved in it. You can’t help it. It’s exciting.”

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