David Safavian is an American former lawyer who worked as a congressional aide, lobbyist, and later as a political appointee in the George W. Bush administration. A Republican, he served as Chief of Staff of the United States General Services Administration (GSA). He is a figure in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, having worked with the lobbyist on the Mississippi Band of Choctaw account. After serving with Abramoff as a lobbyist, in 1997 Safavian co-founded lobbying firm Janus-Merritt Strategies with Republican activist Grover Norquist.
In 2004, Safavian was serving as Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, Office of Management and Budget, when he was arrested and charged with crimes in connection with the Abramoff corruption scandal. He was convicted on four of five charges on October 27, 2006, and sentenced to 18 months in prison. However, on June 17, 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously reversed Safavian's convictions based on trial errors, and ordered a new trial. On December 19, 2008, at his retrial, Safavian was convicted again of 18 USC 1001. He was sentenced to a year in prison. Safavian lost his license to practice law as a result of the conviction but was readmitted to the DC Bar in 2017 upon petition. He was pardoned by President Donald Trump on February 18, 2020. [1]
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Safavian is the son of Micheal Safavian, a US citizen of Persian heritage who served in the United States Army as a surgeon. His mother, Karen Safavian, was born in Wyandotte, Michigan and worked for the Ford Motor Company. David Safavian grew up in Grosse Ile, Michigan. A practicing Catholic, he attended Gabriel Richard Catholic High School.
In 1997, Safavian and Grover Norquist founded a lobbying firm, the Merritt Group, which they renamed as Janus-Merritt Strategies (it is sometimes referred to as "Janus Merritt" or simply "Janus"). The firm promoted Republican ideology. "We represent clients who really do have an interest in a smaller federal government," Safavian told Legal Times in a 1997 interview. "We're all very ideologically driven, and have a bias in favor of free markets." He continued: "We're not letting people who offer us money change our principles." [2]
The firm's clients included businesses such as BP America, the U.S. division of British Petroleum. They also had foreign clients, such as the Corporacion Venezolana de Cementos and Grupo Financiero Banorte. They represented the National Indian Gaming Commission and Indian tribes working on gaming, such as the Saginaw Chippewa, a client the firm shared with Jack Abramoff, and the Viejas band of Kumeyaay Indians. [2]
In 1999, Safavian founded the Internet Consumer Choice Coalition, a non-profit organized to oppose a bill to make online gambling a federal crime; the bill was drafted by Republican Arizona US Senator Jon Kyl. Coalition members included the American Civil Liberties Union, the Association of Concerned Taxpayers, Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Interactive Services Association, the Small Business Survival Committee, and the United States Internet Council. Some coalition members—the Interactive Services Association, for one—were also independent clients of Safavian. Americans for Tax Reform, another member, was the activist group led by Norquist. [2] An October 12, 2006, Senate Finance Committee report concluded that most of these organizations abused their tax-exempt status through participation in such lobbying through the Coalition. [3]
Leading up to the 2000 election, Janus-Merritt Strategies, a lobbying firm of which Safavian was a partner, did coalition work with Arab and Muslim groups, in hope of generating political support for Republicans. Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi, a Muslim activist, was erroneously listed as a client of the firm in disclosure forms. (al-Amoudi was subsequently arrested for conspiring with the Libyan government.) Questioned on this in 2004 as part of his confirmation hearing in the Senate, Safavian pointed out that the listing of al-Amoudi was in error and was corrected in 2001, nearly three years prior. Janus-Merritt's client was actually Jamal al Barzinji, whose name had replaced al-Amoudi's on disclosure forms in 2001. [2] [4]
Safavian first moved to Washington, DC in 1989. He interned for Michigan Congressman Robert W. Davis (R-MI). His first paid position was as a legislative correspondent with Congressman Bill Schuette (R-MI). When Schuette lost the 1990 race for U.S. Senate against incumbent Carl Levin, Safavian entered law school. He graduated three years later, fifth in his class. After finishing law school, he accepted a position as law clerk to the Honorable Paul J. Komives, a United States Magistrate Judge in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Upon completion of his clerkship, Safavian went to work for the international law and lobbying firm, Preston, Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Mead as a tax lobbyist. He was supervised by Jack Abramoff. Safavian left the firm to open up Janus-Merritt Strategies in 1996. In 2000, he was hired as the chief of staff to Congressman Chris Cannon (R-UT). In 2002, Safavian joined the Bush Administration as a political appointee at the General Services Administration. On November 4, 2003, President George W. Bush announced Safavian's nomination as Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President. [5] He had the responsibility to set purchasing policy for the entire government. [6]
Safavian was indicted October 5, 2005. He was accused of making false statements and obstructing investigations into his dealings with Jack Abramoff while serving as chief of staff for the General Services Administration. His trial started May 25, 2006. He was convicted on four of five felony counts of lying and obstruction on June 20. [7] Because Safavian's defense was unfairly limited, the court overturned all four convictions. Double jeopardy was applied to at least one charge and an additional specification. This left only three of the original five charges for which the prosecution could retry Safavian. [8] [9]
Safavian was retried and convicted of making false statements under 18 USC 1001. On October 16, 2009 he was sentenced to a year in prison for making false statements about his association with Jack Abramoff by U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman. Friedman deferred the prison reporting date to allow Safavian to be with his pregnant wife when she delivered their child. [10]
Upon leaving prison, Safavian used his experience to lecture at graduate business schools on ethics and criminal justice. He gave lectures at Colgate, Georgetown, George Washington University, George Mason University, Johns Hopkins University, Loyola University Maryland, Villanova, and Virginia Tech. In 2014, Safavian was hired as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies, where he taught ethics in the graduate level real estate program for two years. He had his D.C. Bar License restored in 2017 after a number of his former students wrote to the DC Bar on his behalf.
On February 18, 2020 President Donald J. Trump granted Safavian a Presidential Pardon along with several others. [11]
Safavian has become active in advocacy for improving the criminal justice system. His focus has been on increasing accountability for the system's results, improving the re-entry process, and fostering public safety. Washingtonian Magazine named him one of the most impactful advocates for Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties in Washington, DC, in both 2023 and 2024.
Safavian has a bachelors degree in political science from Saint Louis University (1988), a Juris Doctor degree (magna cum laude) from Michigan State University College of Law(Detroit College of Law) (1993), a Masters of Law in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center (1994), and a Masters of Business Administration from Loyola University Maryland (2014). He has had more than 60 op-eds published in newspapers around the country on topics ranging from crime policy to healthcare and politics.
Bernard Bailey Kerik is an American consultant and former police officer who was the 40th Commissioner of the New York Police Department from 2000 to 2001. As a convicted felon, he obtained a presidential pardon from President Donald Trump in 2020 for his numerous federal convictions for tax fraud, ethics violations, and criminal false statements.
James Steven Griles is an American former government official and lobbyist who served as the 3rd United States Deputy Secretary of the Interior from July 12, 2001 until his resignation on December 7, 2004. Griles held the second-ranking position at the United States Department of the Interior, ranking below only the Secretary of the Interior, at the time Gale Norton.
Robert William Ney is an American former politician who represented Ohio's 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 until his resignation on November 3, 2006, after he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and making false statements in relation to the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal. Before he pleaded guilty, Ney was identified in the guilty pleas of Jack Abramoff, former Tom DeLay deputy chief of staff Tony Rudy, former DeLay press secretary Michael Scanlon and former Ney chief of staff Neil Volz for receiving lavish gifts in exchange for political favors.
Amy Moritz Ridenour was president of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a Washington, DC conservative think tank. Ridenour held this post from the organization's founding in 1982 until her death. She wrote a syndicated op-ed column from 1997 and was a frequent radio and television guest.
Ralph Eugene Reed Jr. is an American political consultant and lobbyist, best known as the first executive director of the Christian Coalition during the early 1990s. He sought the Republican nomination for the office of Lieutenant Governor of Georgia but lost the primary election on July 18, 2006, to state Senator Casey Cagle. Reed started the Faith and Freedom Coalition in June 2009. Reed and his wife JoAnne Young were married in 1987 and have four children. He is a member of the Council for National Policy.
Jack Allan Abramoff is an American lobbyist, businessman, film producer, and writer. He was at the center of an extensive corruption investigation led by Earl Devaney that resulted in his conviction and 21 other people either pleading guilty or being found guilty, including White House officials J. Steven Griles and David Safavian, U.S. Representative Bob Ney, and nine other lobbyists and congressional aides.
Michael Scanlon is a former communications director for Rep. Tom DeLay, lobbyist, and public relations executive who has pleaded guilty to corruption charges related to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. He is currently assisting in the investigation of his former partners Abramoff, Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed by separate state and federal grand jury investigations related to the defrauding of American Indian tribes and corruption of public officials.
The Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal was a United States political scandal exposed in 2005; it related to fraud perpetrated by political lobbyists Jack Abramoff, Ralph E. Reed Jr., Grover Norquist and Michael Scanlon on Native American tribes who were seeking to develop casino gambling on their reservations. The lobbyists charged the tribes an estimated $85 million in fees. Abramoff and Scanlon grossly overbilled their clients, secretly splitting the multi-million dollar profits. In one case, they secretly orchestrated lobbying against their own clients in order to force them to pay for lobbying services.
The monetary influence of Jack Abramoff ran deep in Washington, as Jack Abramoff spent millions of dollars to influence and entertain both Republican and Democratic politicians. Abramoff had a reputation for largesse considered exceptional even by Washington standards. In addition to offering many Republican members of Congress expensive free meals at his restaurant, Signatures, Abramoff maintained four skyboxes at major sports arenas for political entertaining at a cost of over $1 million a year. Abramoff hosted many fundraisers at these skyboxes including events for Republican politicians publicly opposed to gambling, such as John Doolittle. Abramoff gave over $260,000 in personal contributions to Republican candidates, politicians, and organizations, and funded numerous trips for politicians and staffers and gave none to Democrats.
"Team Abramoff" is the team of lobbyists assembled by Jack Abramoff when he worked at Greenberg Traurig, primarily of former aides to prominent Congressional politicians. Their work is embroiled in the Jack Abramoff scandals.
The Internet Gambling Prohibition Act (IGPA) was a 1999 bill in the US Senate to ban Internet gambling.
Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA) was a Republican environmental organization founded in 1998 by Gale Norton, who in 2001 became George W. Bush's U.S. Secretary of the Interior. CREA "evolved from a group" Italia Federici and Norton founded in 1997 "with tax activist Grover Norquist to push for Republican environmental goals." The organization's steering committee included lobbyists for the petroleum, mining, and auto manufacturing industries. The organization's president, Italia Federici, pleaded guilty in 2007 to obstructing the U.S. Senate investigation into the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal and for siphoning CREA funds for personal use. Abramoff donated more than $400,000 to her charity, after which time she began using her connections with J. Steven Griles, to influence him to make decisions beneficial to Abramoff's tribal benefactors. Later in 2007, CREA's vice president, Jared Carpenter, pleaded guilty of tax evasion for also diverting CREA funds for personal use.
Kevin A. Ring is a former American attorney and congressional staffer; he served Republicans in both the House and the Senate, including U.S. Representative John T. Doolittle (R-CA). He also served as a counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee's Constitution, Federalism and Property Rights Subcommittee.
Lobbying in the United States is paid activity in which special interest groups hire well-connected professional advocates, often lawyers, to argue for specific legislation in decision-making bodies such as the United States Congress. It is often perceived negatively by journalists and the American public; critics consider it to be a form of bribery, influence peddling, and/or extortion. Lobbying is subject to complex rules which, if not followed, can lead to penalties including jail. Lobbying has been interpreted by court rulings as free speech protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Since the 1970s, the numbers of lobbyists and the size of lobbying budgets has grown and become the focus of criticism of American governance.
The Jack Abramoff CNMI scandal involved the efforts of Jack Abramoff, other lobbyists, and government officials to change or prevent, or both, Congressional action regarding the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and businesses on Saipan, its capital, commercial center, and one of its three principal islands.
Robert E. Coughlin, II, is an American lawyer and former government official who served as the Deputy Chief of Staff, Criminal Division, of the United States Department of Justice and was a senior figure in the Jack Abramoff Probe.
The investigations in Jack Abramoff led to several plea agreements by those involved, including Congressman Bob Ney (R-OH). Abramoff himself also pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges, including tax fraud and bribing public officials. Abramoff's activities also became an issue that many Democratic candidates raised in the November 2006 House and Senate elections, as the challengers painted the incumbent Republican Congress as corrupted by Abramoff and his powerful allies. On March 29, 2006, Abramoff was sentenced to five years and ten months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of more than $21 million.
Todd Boulanger is an American lobbyist. He was senior vice president of Cassidy & Associates and was a figure in the Jack Abramoff scandal.
The Pakistan lobby in the United States are the professional lobbyists paid directly by the government of Pakistan to lobby the public and government of the United States on behalf of Pakistani interests and/or on behalf of Pakistani American rights and interests.