http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000811.php
June 3, 2006
Safavian Trial: Cross-Exam Brings Audible Snickering
By Justin Rood
I was down at the district court yesterday afternoon to watch federal
prosecutors begin their cross-examination of David Safavian.
The gallery was packed with spectators.
Justice Department interns, clerks for other judges in the courthouse,
and lawyers squeezed onto the hard wooden benches to see how the
prosecutors would treat Safavian.
They got a good show.
There were audible snickers from the gallery -- I'm not making this up
-- at some of Safavian's answers.
Some of the former White House official's answers seemed simply too
disingenuous to believe.
For instance, when the prosecutor, Peter Zeidenberg, asked why
Safavian thought Jack Abramoff had invited Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) on the
weeklong luxury golf trip to Scotland and England, Safavian said, "I
thought Mr. Ney was on the trip to meet with Scottish Parliament."
(Minutes earlier, the prosecutor and Safavian had this exchange: "You
were [in Scotland] on Sunday. Did you play golf?" "Yes." "And you
played Monday, correct?" "Yes." "And you played Tuesday, correct?"
"Yes." "And Wednesday, correct?" "Yes." "And Thursday?" Safavian
couldn't remember Thursday.)
Two of the most reliable snickerers sat next to me, two very
well-dressed gentlemen who denied they were lawyers but seemed to know
the ins and outs of the case like experts.
Every zinger from the prosecutor got a quiet laugh and a sly smile
from one to the other.
At Safavian's more disingenuous answers, the men put their heads
together and muttered damning trivia on the case, the way two young
baseball fans might gleefully compare pitching ERAs or on-base
percentages.
Safavian had spent the earlier part of the day answering questions
from his lawyer, Barbara van Gelder, in which he explained that if he
was guilty of anything, it was of trusting too much -- when Jack
Abramoff told him that his visit to Scotland and England cost a mere
$3100, he accepted the figure unquestioningly.
Why, then, would he have lied to ethics officials and investigators
about how much the trip cost?
(In fact, the trip cost many thousands more per person. Abramoff's
chartered jet alone cost $92,000.)
The tittering (I admit, I participated) began early on in the
cross-examination.
Under relentless questioning, Safavian would not budge from his
assertion that he expected the greens fees at St. Andrews -- perhaps
the most renowned golf course in the world -- would not have been
substantially more than the $135 charged by a top-quality course in
eastern Maryland.
"When you learned the [St. Andrews] caddies got tipped $100," the
prosecutor asked, did that make Safavian wonder if the greens fees
there were more than $135?
Safavian paused. "I didn't think about it then," he replied, "but
that's a valid point."
The prosecutor paused and asked -- with restrained but nonetheless
theatrical incredulity:
"That disparity just occurred to you this moment?"
Safavian conceded that yes, perhaps it did.
Tittering ensued.
The chuckle monster appeared in the gallery moments later, when
Safavian would not agree with the prosecutor that his caddy tips were
usually paid for by the lobbyists on the trip.
So the prosecutor asked Safavian if the other individuals on the trip
had paid for his caddy tips.
"Did the congressman pay your caddy fees?"
"Not that I recall."
Did Mr. Vinovich, a Ney staffer, pay them? (No.) What about Mr.
Heaton, another Ney staffer? (No.)
"So it's fair to say that if someone picked up your caddy's fees, it
was someone from [Abramoff lobbying firm] Greenberg Traurig?"
Yes, Safavian finally conceded.
More quiet titters.
The prosecution had a photo-filled brochure of the hotel at which
Abramoff, Ney, Safavian and the others stayed while playing golf in
Scotland, which it introduced into evidence.
Zeidenberg put the first photograph on a projector, which displayed
the picture -- a luxurious dining room with many windows which
appeared to look out on the green -- on screens before the jurors and
the gallery.
The prosecutor asked Safavian if the picture looked like the dining
room of the hotel he stayed at. Sure, Safavian said, adding, "It looks
like a typical hotel dining room."
"Mr. Safavian," the prosecutor said, "in your experience, that is a
typical hotel dining room?" (Titters.)
A few moments later, the prosecutor flipped to another picture in the
brochure, this one showing a very nice swimming pool.
"Is that a typical hotel pool?" he asked. (Safavian said he never went
to the pool.)
And so the afternoon went: the prosecutor asked Safavian incredulously
about the details of his dealings with Abramoff -- Did you really
believe that? Why did you never question that?
Did you ever suspect that -- and Safavian sticking to his sucker
story, to the amusement of many observers.
The prosecution didn't complete his cross-examination of Safavian, so
we can expect another show on Monday.
____________________________________________________
Ya hadda be there.
Harry
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