Lawyers make opening arguments in Safavian retrial

The retrial of the Bush administration's former top procurement official began on Tuesday, with prosecutors alleging that David Safavian repeatedly "lied, denied and misled" government investigators about his relationship and business dealings with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

But attorneys for Safavian argued in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the government's case is built largely on conjecture.

"These charges are not going to be supported by the evidence you are going to hear from [prosecutors]," defense attorney Dick Sauber said in his opening statement.

Safavian sat quietly at the defense table as his second trial got under way. Dressed in a dark black suit and blue tie, the former head of the Office of Management and Budget's procurement policy shop took frequent notes and occasionally turned and smiled to his family sitting in the front row.

In 2006, a jury found Safavian guilty of making false statements and obstructing justice. The charges related to his time at the General Services Administration, where he was chief of staff before he assumed the OMB position. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison but earlier this year, an appeals court overturned the conviction, ordering a retrial on three of the charges.

Prosecutors re-indicted Safavian in October, adding two new charges: lying on a financial disclosure form and providing false statements to the FBI.

Safavian, who rejected a government plea deal, was the only person targeted in the Abramoff probe who opted to go to trial. He is now in considerable debt and his defense attorneys are providing their services for free.

In his opening statement, prosecutor Nathanial Edmonds described Safavian as a willing conspirator in Abramoff's influence-peddling operation. Edmonds claimed that while at GSA, Safavian used his position to help pass along "insider information" to Abramoff about a pair of government properties the lobbyist was interested in purchasing.

"Mr. Safavian was a very important man at a very important agency," Edmonds said.

Abramoff reportedly wanted his Native American clients to have a leg up on bidding for a contract to redevelop the Old Post Office building in downtown Washington and turn it into a luxury hotel, prosecutors said. The lobbyist also was interested in transforming a property in White Oak, Md., into a religious school. Neither property was sold and both remain in GSA hands.

In the summer of 2002, Safavian and Abramoff, who had been friends for more than a decade, exchanged several e-mails about the two properties. In one missive shown to jurors on Tuesday, Safavian said he would "do some digging" about the properties.

Shortly thereafter, Safavian traveled with Abramoff, former Republican Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio and a handful of congressional staffers and lobbyists to Scotland and London for a weekend of golfing. Edmonds highlighted the more extravagant aspects of the now infamous junket, including the private jet, $500-per night hotels and rounds of golf at St. Andrews, a world famous course.

Prior to the trip, Safavian solicited the opinion of a GSA ethics officer about the appropriateness of accepting free travel from Abramoff. Safavian told the ethics officer that Abramoff "did not have business with GSA" and that he worked only on Capitol Hill.

The ethics officer wrote that Safavian could accept the trip for free. Nonetheless, before the trip began, Safavian wrote Abramoff a check for $3,100, a figure Abramoff allegedly suggested would cover Safavian's portion of the costs.

"Safavian was the only person who wanted to pay his fair share," Sauber said.

Prosecutors, however, argued that Safavian knew $3,100 would not cover his portion of the excursion, which ultimately cost a combined $150,000.

Edmonds added that Abramoff's "lobbying" of Safavian for the two GSA properties was tantamount to doing business with the agency. That information, he said, should have been passed along to the ethics officer before the trip.

"The evidence will confirm the simplicity of this case," Edmonds said. "It's about a public official lying about what's going on."

But the information Safavian shared with Abramoff was not secret, nor was it valuable, defense attorneys said. The post office was not up for bids and the White Oak land was highly contaminated and was not suitable for a school, they noted.

Safavian's attorneys maintained that Abramoff did not have business with the GSA because the lobbyist did not have a contract with the agency. Sauber plans to call government witnesses who will corroborate Safavian's interpretation of "doing business."

During the first trial, District Court Judge Paul Friedman did not allow a defense witness to testify on the subject. The appeals court cited the judge's ruling as one of the reasons for overturning the decision.

Legal jousting in the case began in earnest last week. Friedman, who is presiding over the retrial, threw out a motion by the defense to dismiss the two new counts on the grounds of malicious prosecution.

Friedman, however, did throw a lifeline to the defense, ordering prosecutors to turn over all exculpatory statements related to Safavian made by Abramoff to the FBI.

The defense made a similar request during the first trial but prosecutors claimed at the time that there were "very few paragraphs" in Abramoff's interview notes concerning Safavian. But, in a new book, the disgraced lobbyist is quoted as saying that, unlike other key officials he was attempting to influence, Safavian never accepted free gifts.

The defense hopes to use the FBI interview notes to contradict a prevailing theme that prosecutors used in the first trial: that Safavian traded favors such as meals and tickets to sporting events for help at GSA.

The trial is expected to last nine days. Safavian is expected to take the stand in his own defense next week. Abramoff, who did not testify at the first trial, could also take the stand.