David Safavian
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.
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.
[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.
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.
When Schuette lost the 1990 race for U.S. Senate against incumbent Carl Levin, Safavian entered law school.
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 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.
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.
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.
