Salon War Room: Bush Official to Abramoff: 'You've Got A Friend In Me'

[Hissyspit]

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/05/11/abramoff/index.html

Bush official to Abramoff: You've got a friend in me

Imagine, for a moment, that you're a top government official. Now imagine that you've just opened your morning paper to find a front-page story in which a lobbyist with whom you've had dealings is said to have milked more than $45 million out of his clients under what appear to be suspicious circumstances. What would you do? Ask for an explanation? Launch an investigation? Look for a way to distance yourself from the lobbyist?

Not if you're David Safavian. When Safavian read that report about Jack Abramoff on the morning of Feb. 22, 2004, he responded by sending the GOP lobbyist an e-mail message asking whether there was "anything" he could do "to help with damage control."

It was too late. Abramoff has pleaded guilty to federal charges of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials, and Safavian is himself now awaiting trial on charges that he lied to federal officials and investigators looking into his dealings with Abramoff. Meanwhile, Safavian's e-mail messages and Secret Service logs -- both released Wednesday in response to Freedom of Information Act requests -- are shedding new light on the links between Abramoff, Safavian and other Bush administration officials.

As the Los Angeles Times reports, e-mail messages released Wednesday by the Office of Management and Budget show that Abramoff was in "regular contact" with Safavian, "asking for favors and pouring out his heart" even as "lawmakers and the media began exposing details of his business dealings." As the public case against Abramoff grew ever more damning, Safavian wrote to the lobbyist to say, "You're in our thoughts."

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[boobooday]

1. "You're in our thoughts."

And our shredder . . .

:puke: