Griles pleads guilty...gets sweetheart sentence

[Oilwellian]

Former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles will plead guilty to one count of obstruction of justice in the Jack Abramoff corruption investigation, The Associated Press has learned.

Griles, an oil and gas lobbyist who became an architect of President Bush's energy policies while at the Interior Department between July 2001 and July 2005, is the highest ranking Bush administration official implicated in the Washington lobbying scandal.

The former No. 2 official at the Interior Department has agreed to a felony plea admitting that he lied five times to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and its investigators about his relationship with Abramoff, people involved in the case told the AP....

And it sounds like a very good deal for Griles:

Prosecutors dropped earlier allegations that Griles did anything improper to help Abramoff or gained anything of value from the former Republican lobbyist, the AP was told. The agreement does not require Griles to help investigators with their grand jury probe....

In exchange for the plea, federal prosecutors will seek no more than a 10-month prison sentence for Griles — the minimum they could seek under sentencing guidelines — but they will agree to let him serve half that in home confinement, according to one person involved in the case.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002854.php

[cali]

1. This really pisses me off.

I watched that disgusting piece of slime testify last year. It was shocking.

[gatorboy]

2. Are they talking about U.S. Attorneys here?

[Oilwellian]

3. Good question...the article did include this little nugget

Griles lives in Virginia with Sue Ellen Wooldridge, who until January was an assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's environmental division.

The AP reported in February that Wooldridge, as the nation's environmental prosecutor, bought a $980,000 vacation home last year with Griles and Donald R. Duncan, the top Washington lobbyist for ConocoPhillips. Nine months later, she signed an agreement giving the company more time to clean up air pollution at some of its refineries.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-23-interior-abramoff_N.htm?csp=34

[annabanana]

4. "agreement does not require Griles to help investigators " with OBSTRUCTION

CHARGE?

I am very confused. I thought the point of an obstruction charge of an underling is to GET information.