Safavian denies collusion with Abramoff [View All]

"WASHINGTON - Former Bush administration official David Safavian testified Monday that he wouldn't have taken a golfing trip to Scotland arranged in 2002 by Republican influence peddler Jack Abramoff "if I had known what I know now."


Testifying in his own defense in U.S. District Court, Safavian added, however, that "it took a Senate investigation to get out the information I didn't have at the time" about Abramoff's intentions and plans for projects with GSA properties.

Safavian, the former chief of staff at the General Services Administration and chief federal procurement officer in the White House, had said earlier that he decided to testify in his own defense because he was tired of "taking grenades" for 10 months and wanted "to explain my side.""

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"Safavian did express regret over two e-mails he sent Abramoff about GSA's plan to redevelop the Old Post Office in Washington, a project Abramoff hoped to help an Indian tribe client obtain.

"It was not a brilliant move" to forward and internal government e-mail describing another official's opposition to GSA's plan, and it was probably inappropriate to send another e-mail to Abramoff saying "we're gonna have to roll this idiot," Safavian testified. He blamed those errors on his inexperience in the executive branch."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060605/ap_on_go_ot/lobbyist_probe_2



I guess that if you don't know you are breaking the law, it's ok to break the law. It's hard to believe this guy got so far up the ladder by being so ignorant.