NATIONAL BRIEFING / WASHINGTON, D.C.
The former top procurement official in George W. Bush’s administration was sentenced to a year in prison for lying about his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman told David Safavian that he must be punished for obstructing justice and making false statements to investigators who were looking into the Abramoff scandal.
Safavian and his wife, Jennifer, each pleaded tearfully to the judge not to send the former Bush White House official to prison.
Safavian, 42, said he never intended to break the law, while acknowledging that “I am the poster child” for staying in “the gray areas of ethics.”
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