Posted on 06/20/2006 8:05:10 AM PDT by SmithL
A jury found former Bush administration official David Safavian guilty Tuesday of covering up his dealings with Republican influence-peddler Jack Abramoff.
Safavian was convicted on four of five felony counts of lying and obstruction. He had resigned from his White House post last year as the federal government's chief procurement officer.
The trial consumed eight days of testimony about Safavian's assistance to Abramoff regarding government-owned real estate and a weeklong golfing excursion the lobbyist organized to the famed St. Andrews golf course in Scotland and London. Safavian went on the trans-Atlantic trip while he was chief of staff at the General Services Administration, and other participants were Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, two Ney aides and Christian Coalition founder Ralph Reed.
The verdict came on the fifth day of jury deliberations.
Safavian sat impassively as the judge read the verdict and showed no expression when the judge announced the guilty verdicts on each of four counts. Sentencing was scheduled for Oct. 12.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
The sooner the deadwood is cleared out, the sooner we can get to business.
These kind of trials set me on fire; either he committed a crime or he didn't... If he did, convict him of the crime, not for alledgely lying to the government. He claims he made his statements in good faith; they said he didn't and the jury believes the feds. The chilling effect this will create will prevent real crimes from being solved since the clear lesson is NEVER EVER TALK TO ANY FEDERAL INVESTIGATOR OR COP for any reason since if any facts are misstated they can turn on you.
Martha Stuart redux. There is always a crime, even if there isn't one. Prosecutor's careers demand it.
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