Text 17649, 89 rader
Skriven 2006-01-30 12:12:50 av BOB SAKOWSKI (1:123/140)
Ärende: Corruption Central
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Bush aide passed sensitive information to Abramoff
By Staff and Wire Reports
Jan 30, 2006, 07:53

A Bush administration official gave sensitive inside information to
disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, warning him the government was about to
suspend the federal contracts to one of his clientsclient, newly filed
court papers say.

David Safavian, a former top procurement officer, provided "sensitive and
confidential information" about four subsidiaries of Tyco International to
Abramoff regarding internal deliberations at the General Services
Administration, say the court papers filed Friday in a criminal case
against Safavian.

Abramoff has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud in a
burgeoning bribery probe centered on Capitol Hill but also involving the
Interior Department.

The White House is refusing to release photographs of President Bush and
Abramoff or to reveal what contact Abramoff had with White House aides.

Acting on the information that Abramoff provided the company in November
2003, Tyco lawyer Timothy Flanigan, a former assistant attorney general in
the Bush administration, contacted the general counsel to the GSA and asked
for an opportunity to address the suspension.

The company revealed Flanigan's role in a statement.

In October, Flanigan withdrew his nomination to be Bush's deputy attorney
general. His confirmation was delayed due to questions about his dealings
with Abramoff when Abramoff was a Tyco lobbyist.

The government had planned to suspend Tyco because of alleged criminal
conduct by former Tyco executives.

After advising Abramoff about the internal deliberations at GSA, Safavian
suggested to Abramoff what arguments Tyco should make when it appealed the
suspension decision, the court papers in Safavian's federal court case say.

Once tipped off by Abramoff, Tyco hired an outside law firm and
successfully petitioned the government to lift the suspension and allow
Tyco to continue to perform on government contracts.

The law firm outlined "the many steps that Tyco had taken, including to
bring on a new board of directors, a new CEO and new corporate senior
management," Tyco said in its statement.

Safavian faces trial on charges that he lied and obstructed investigations
into whether he aided Abramoff in efforts to acquire GSA-controlled
property around the nation's capital.

The government said in its court filing Friday that it intends to present
the information regarding Tyco at Safavian's upcoming trial. Safavian has
pleaded innocent and his lawyers have moved for dismissal of all charges.

Safavian is accused of concealing from federal investigators that Abramoff
was seeking to do business with the GSA when Safavian joined the lobbyist
on a golf trip to Scotland in 2002. At the time, Safavian was GSA's chief
of staff. He became the Bush administration's chief procurement official in
November 2004.

In its statement, Tyco said that the information from Abramoff had come in
unsolicited, that the corporation did not use Abramoff's services to
respond to GSA, and that the company did not contact Safavian directly.

The company said its outside counsel, George Terwilliger, was assured by
Justice Department prosecutors that neither the company nor anyone at the
company, including Flanigan, is accused, is suspected or is being
investigated for any wrongdoing.

In May 2003, Abramoff, then employed by the Washington firm Greenberg
Traurig, solicited Tyco for lobbying on a tax issue.

Prosecutors say Abramoff recommended that Tyco hire both him and a public
relations and campaign consulting firm called GrassRoots Interactive, but
hid from Tyco that GrassRoots Interactive was his business.

In May and June 2003, Tyco paid GrassRoots Interactive, directly and
through Greenberg Traurig's bank account, about $1.8 million, of which
about $1.6 million went to Abramoff and entities he controlled, prosecutors
say
[end]

Corruption Central, aka the Bush maladministration


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