Trial of former procurement chief begins

The trial of David Safavian, former head of procurement policy at the Office of Management and Budget, began Monday with Justice Department lawyers arguing he lied and misled government officials regarding the nature of his relationship with disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and the defense responding that there were no improprieties in Safavian's professional conduct.

Safavian faces five counts of making false statements and obstructing investigations during his tenure as chief of staff at the General Services Administration. He held that position from May 2002 to January 2004, before joining OMB.

In the government's opening argument, lead prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg said Safavian lied to a GSA ethics officer when seeking permission to join Abramoff and others on a golf trip to Scotland in 2002. Over the past month, the government successfully fought to introduce as evidence a series of e-mails between Safavian and the lobbyist showing a steady stream of conversations regarding two GSA-controlled properties. But at the time of the trip, Safavian maintained that Abramoff had no business before the agency.

The ethics officer gave Safavian permission to go on the trip, and Safavian later wrote a check for $3,100 to the lobbyist, ostensibly to cover his portion of the cost. Zeidenberg claimed the trip actually cost $140,000, or about $17,500 per person.

Quoting liberally from e-mails between Safavian and Abramoff, Zeidenberg laid out the case that a personal friendship between the two, who had previously worked together at a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm, smoothed the way for Abramoff to seek and obtain assistance in his efforts to further the interest of clients in leasing the Old Post Office building in downtown Washington and a portion of a 600-acre property in White Oak, Md.

Some of the messages from the lobbyist -- those the prosecution described as the most incriminating -- were sent to Safavian's personal e-mail account, avoiding capture by the GSA computer system.

In the defense's opening statement, Barbara Van Gelder, Safavian's lawyer, said he is being unfairly targeted for his friendship with Abramoff. Noting that Safavian was always open about their association and the golf trip, she said, "This is a case of friendship, not falsities."

"David Safavian never lied" when he told the ethics office that Abramoff had no business before GSA, she said, because the discussion of GSA-controlled properties between the two men did not meet the definition of doing business. There was "no bid, no buy, no lease, no deal, no business," the lawyer told jurors.

At the time, in 2002, "nobody knew Jack Abramoff was a crook," she added. The e-mail messages, athletic outings and dinners shared by the two were evidence of a friendship, not the "sinister" evidence of improper influence that the government will try to show, she said.

Following opening arguments, the government presented its first two witnesses.

Stephen Perry, who as GSA administrator from 2001 through 2005 was Safavian's supervisor, testified that he was unaware of Safavian's involvement with the two properties through Abramoff. Perry said that at the time he didn't know Abramoff was a lobbyist, only that he owned an upscale Washington restaurant where the administrator sometimes dined.

Perry described Safavian as a conscientious worker. He said Safavian had asked at one point for support in a bid for the position of GSA administrator. Perry did not tell the court his response.

Anthony Costa, the present deputy commissioner of GSA's public buildings service, testified on activity in 2002 surrounding the Old Post Office and White Oak properties.

As head of GSA's national capital region at the time, Costa had been closely involved in developing an agency strategy for handling the two properties. The Old Post Office was under consideration for redevelopment and leasing to a private occupant, while a portion of the large White Oak property was to be developed as a new campus for the Food and Drug Administration.

Costa was involved in meetings and the preparation of public materials for both properties, partly in response to inquiries from Congress, for the Old Post Office and from a school with which Abramoff and his wife were associated, for White Oak. He said he was unaware of Safavian's involvement with either of those two properties outside of his role as agency chief of staff.