A top Bush Administration official, David Hossein Safavian, who has ties to Tom Delay's criminal buddy, Jack Abramoff, was arrested yesterday; drawing the line of corruption closer to a complete circle around Republicans in the White House and Congress.
"David Hossein Safavian, the Bush administration’s top federal procurement officer in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), was arrested yesterday based on a three-count criminal complaint filed in federal court, according to a Justice Department statement.
The government alleges that Safavian, as chief of staff at the General Services Administration (GSA), helped an unnamed lobbyist acquire GSA-controlled property in and around Washington, D.C.
Sources say the lobbyist is likely Jack Abramoff, who has been indicted by a grand jury in Florida. Safavian and Abramoff worked together at Preston, Gates and the two traveled with Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and others on a golf trip to Scotland in 2002.
Safavian allegedly told a GSA ethics officer and GSA’s inspector general that the lobbyist had no business with GSA before the August 2002 golf trip, the Justice Department statement said.
A spokesperson for Abramoff declined to comment.
Government Executive magazine reported that Safavian resigned last Friday as the head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy at OMB".
The Hill
