Just in from

Raw Story

Bush Management and Budget Procurement
chief arrested after quitting John Byrne

David Safavian, who oversees $300 billion of annual federal purchasing as
director of the Office of Procurement Policy, has been arrested for three
criminal charges relating to obstruction of a federal investigation. He
resigned quietly last Friday.

RAW STORY previously reported that ex-gambling lobbyist Safavian had,
“quietly advanced the interests of former clients under the cloak of a
vocally anti-gambling Utah congressman” Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT). Safavian
was Cannon’s chief of staff.

The indictment refers to a 2002 trip arranged by Jack Abramoff, a
Washington power lobbyist who arranged a trip to Scotland that took powerful
House Rep. Bob Ney golfing. Abramoff was joined on the trip by former
Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed and David Safavian. According to the
charges, Safavian “allegedly aided a Washington, D.C., lobbyist in the
lobbyist’s attempts to acquire GSA-controlled property in and around
Washington, D.C.”

GSA refers to the General Services Administration, which oversees
employee purchasing and leasing of federal buildings.

Though indictments for criminal misdoings are not uncommon, the physical
arrest of an administration official is rare.

The Washington Post revealed last year that the tab for the jet that
carried the group to Scotland was paid by the Capital Athletic Foundation, a
sham charity run by Abramoff. Safavian said he had paid his own expenses,
and that the trip was purely personal.

Safavian was a longtime friend of Abramoff, having been schooled by
Abramoff lobbying at Preston Gates. There they worked together on the
Mississippi Choctaw tribal account, which brought the firm millions of
dollars. Abramoff now stands accused of bilking the Choctaws out of millions
of dollars, though Safavian has not been cited in any wrongdoing.

This should put even more of a deficit into Bush’s political capital. Go to

Raw Story to read the press release from the Department of Justice