Fight Over E-Mails in Probe of Lobbyist (Safavian/Abramoff)

[DoYouEverWonder]

May 5, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Trial by e-mail. That's the path the Justice Department wants to take in the case of the Bush administration's former top procurement official, David Safavian, who faces criminal charges because of his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Safavian is a sideshow to the Abramoff scandal in which the lobbyist spread his favors on Capitol Hill while defrauding Indian tribal clients involved in casino gambling out of tens of millions of dollars.

As a General Services Administration official, Safavian went on a weeklong trip to Scotland with Abramoff while the lobbyist sought Safavian's help in leasing or buying GSA-controlled property.

Exhibit A against Safavian is a package of hundreds of e-mails between him and Abramoff.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-lobbyist-probe,0,2797843.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

Looks like the Friday afternoon news dump is starting early.

[hootinholler]

1. Hmmm...

Abramoff wanted to buy one piece of property for a private school the lobbyist had founded and he wanted to lease for his tribal clients a downtown Washington landmark, the Old Post office.

The Fed's been trying to figure out what to do with that building. It's a great building BTW.

-Hoot