WASHINGTON - A federal court jury began deliberations Tuesday morning on whether former Bush administration official David Safavian concealed from ethics officials and investigators that he assisted Republican influence-peddler Jack Abramoff's efforts to obtain two government properties.
Although Safavian's trial was the first to emerge from the Abramoff scandal, the disgraced lobbyist and former business partner of Safavian was never called to testify, a point Safavian's defense attorney emphasized to the jury in closing arguments Monday.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman sent the case to the jury of 10 women and two men Tuesday morning after briefly reminding them of his key instructions from the day before.
The defense characterized the trial as a clear case of prosecutorial excess, but the government depicted Safavian as an ethically challenged public servant trying serve two masters.
As the General Services Administration's chief of staff, Safavian "was appointed by the president to serve the people of the United States, but he chose instead to serve Jack Abramoff," Justice Department lawyer Nathaniel Edmonds told the jury.
Prosecutors seized on dozens of e-mails in which Abramoff and Safavian exchanged information about two pieces of GSA-controlled property that Abramoff wanted for himself or his lobbying clients. Many of the e-mails were written around the time that Safavian accepted a weeklong trans-Atlantic golfing jaunt from Abramoff.
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