One down, hundreds to go: Safavian guilty

The jury came back after five days with guilty verdicts on four out of five counts (one day of deliberations per count):

WASHINGTON - A jury found former Bush administration official David Safavian guilty Tuesday of covering up his dealings with Republican influence-peddler Jack Abramoff.

Safavian was convicted on four of five felony counts of lying and obstruction. He had resigned from his White House post last year as the federal government's chief procurement officer.

The trial consumed eight days of testimony about Safavian's assistance to Abramoff regarding government-owned real estate and a weeklong golfing excursion the lobbyist organized to the famed St. Andrews golf course in Scotland and London. Safavian went on the trans-Atlantic trip while he was chief of staff at the General Services Administration, and other participants were Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, two Ney aides and Christian Coalition founder Ralph Reed.