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Former Interior Department Official Will Go to Jail for Obstructing Abramoff Investigation

June 26, 2007 6:13 PM

Formerinterior_mn J. Steven Griles, the former deputy secretary at the Interior Department, has been sentenced to 10 months in prison and must pay a $30,000 fine after pleading guilty to obstructing a congressional inquiry into disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

"In pleading guilty, Griles admitted that he knowingly and willfully lied and concealed material information from senators and Senate investigators about the unique relationship that he had with Abramoff immediately prior to and during his tenure as DOI Deputy Secretary," according to a Department of Justice statement.

Abramoff and lobbyist Michael Scanlon have pleaded guilty to bilking two Indian tribes out of millions of dollars for their lobbying work.

The links between Griles and Abramoff focus on Italia Federici, the president of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA).  Abramoff had directed his tribal clients to donate as much as $250,000 to CREA to help the Interior Department with several projects and studies. It is unclear if those projects ever existed.

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee issued a report on their investigation and noted, "Abramoff apparently had his clients contribute to CREA, described by CREA president Italia Federici as a 'mom and pop' operation, because he believed that Federici would help him possibly influence tribal issues pending at the Department of the Interior."

While not mentioned by name in the criminal charge against Griles, Federici has been identified as "person A," according to law enforcement officials.

According to the information,"As a result of defendant James Steven Griles' personal and romantic relationship with Person A, Person A's introduction of Abramoff to defendant Griles gave Abramoff more credibility as a lobbyist than Abramoff ordinarily would have had with the defendant and facilitated the building of a professional relationship between Abramoff and the defendant that ordinarily would have taken years to develop."

Federici also pleaded guilty this month to obstructing the investigation and tax evasion and faces a maximum of five years in jail. She is scheduled to be sentenced in November.

"The Senate Committee focused on the following areas of inquiry, among others, concerning defendant James Steven Griles' tenure as DOI Deputy Secretary: the level of access Abramoff had to defendant Griles; the nature and extent of the defendant's relationship and dealings with Abramoff," the criminal information against Griles noted.

According to a court document, during his Nov. 2, 2005 testimony at a public hearing held before members of the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Griles "knowingly and intentionally made a series of materially false and fictitious declarations to, and withheld material information from, Senators and Senate investigators in response to questions about the true nature and extent of defendant Griles' relationship with Person A."

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June 26, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (11)

User Comments

And another crooked Bush appointee bites the dust....

Posted by: Ryan | Jun 26, 2007 7:14:55 PM

Why would any Native American trust a white Republican?

Posted by: TWard, Terry | Jun 26, 2007 8:22:16 PM

I'm a Left Coast liberal. I've enjoyed Bush and the cirrus of conservatives who promised to bring values back in to government. Bush as been a distraction from Hilary and Senator Feinstein. Corruption is bipartition. Did Feinstein use her position in the senate to benefit her husband? I think this question needs to be looked in to or liberal will look as hypocritical as conservatives. Hilary will be a pox upon democrats. She's little more than a leftest Anne Coulter with allot more maturity and class. Yes, Bush as been great. Secretly, this liberal knows that the democrats are taking aim at their big toe. I'm betting the democrats will be, shortly shooting themselves in the foot again.

Posted by: Mike Johnson | Jun 26, 2007 9:35:45 PM

Oh, yes, you're a liberal. And I'm a giraffe.

Posted by: CincyBabe | Jun 27, 2007 10:14:00 AM

What, exactly, is the difference between a liberal and a conservative? Really? Without being sarcastic or snipey, what are the major differences?

Posted by: Jazz | Jun 27, 2007 4:05:03 PM

Sounds like Mike Johnson is a Left Back-Biter Libeler than what he pretends to be. However, the farce of electioneering going on for years is criminal. Those elected officials Senators, etc who take their Gov't paychecks and then spend more time stumping than humping the work they were paid to do should be shut down as quickly as welfare cheaters and other grifters.

Posted by: Phili R White | Jun 28, 2007 9:27:54 AM

Jazz the truth is a true liberal and a true conservative have very little difference. The liberal wants more socail services, while the conservative wants less. Both want fiscal government and laws to keep corruption down. Most liberals as well as conservatives are honest and caring people. The problem is the ultra right and left wing. The left wing is call radical and the right wing is reactionary. Both are dangours however, most people will agree that the ultra right wing are more dangours becasue they beleive they are doing it for god. They do not need facts to move on a beilef this cause problems as you can imagine. The left wing will usually look more toward facts and the middle of the road and liberals can pull them closer. But the problem is that the middle (liberals and conservatives) spend most of their time trying to keep the two sides from killing everyone.

Posted by: ant | Jun 28, 2007 9:29:07 AM

the terms "liberal" and "conservative" have been "evolved" over the years. Liberalism used to mean that a person lived by a "live and let live" attitude. Now "liberals" are socialists who believe that government is in place to feed us, clothe us, give us medical care, and protect us from everything. Conservative used to mean a strict adherence to Constitutional government (a liberal instrument) and a conservation of those principles that limit governments influence in our lives. Conservative now means forcing everyone to adhere to moral constructs defined by conservatives, themselves. Conservatives place the State above the individual, as do "liberals", and believe that a fascist system controlled by corporations, disregarding Constitutional principles, is the right and proper form of government. People should try to realize that the founders were the greatest LIBERALS of all time. They believed that a person should be able to do anything they please as long as they harmed no other. They also believed that people could not be forced to do anything they don't want to do. "Liberalism" and "Conservativism", as they are, today, must eventually lead to tyranny.

Posted by: joey | Jun 28, 2007 10:25:41 AM

Thanks! I really did not know how these two "groups" percieve themselves and each other, in either political or social terms...

It just seems that the two groups like (or feel they have a need) to just go at each other with childish and superficial rhetoric and namecalling, like there's no overlapping of more important, deeper human characteristics that they may have in common...

If that's what American politics and society is at this point, it's similar to the Sneetches (Dr. Suess - look it up)...pretty funny, Americans...

Posted by: Jazz | Jun 28, 2007 2:23:18 PM

ANOTHER ONE TO BE PARDONED.

Posted by: R. Dutton | Jul 6, 2007 4:57:45 PM

Hey joey we already live in police state. all it would take yo make slaves of all Americans is for all firearms to be banned and King George to declare Martial Law to " protect" us all.

Posted by: claude westervelt | Jul 8, 2007 11:42:13 AM

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