Word: scotlanders
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...Volz weren't the only trip members who were doing favors for Abramoff around the time of the Scotland trip. Two days before Abramoff sent Safavian the schedule for the junket, he asked him for some help in finding a location for a Jewish orthodox school he was looking to build in Maryland for his children to attend. Abramoff wanted to get land from the government, and Safavian, as chief of staff for the General Services Administration, the agency that controls government property, advised him that he should get Congress to order GSA to sell or lease the land...
...added the comment, "It's now becoming physically painful," an apparent reference to Reed's distaste at the prospect of sidling up to Ballabon. Abramoff responded with an allusion to the Scottish golf trip he and Reed were to make the following month: "Hey, let's bring Jeff to Scotland and hit balls into him!" Reed, who had traveled to Scotland with Abramoff the year before, wrote back, "Let's hang him upside down from a crane over the 18th at the Old Course and use him to line up our drives...
...powerful people in trouble over the last year, one junket that he arranged is proving particularly damaging. In August 2002, Abramoff flew Reed, Safavian, Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio, and Ney's former chief of staff, Neil Volz, on a rented Gulfstream II jet to St. Andrews, Scotland, for five days of golf, food and merriment. In the last few weeks, court action and new e-mails have tainted all four guests on the trip...
...other colleagues alleging Ney participated in a bribery scheme whereby the Congressman performed official acts in exchange for gifts. First on the list of "things of value," the Justice Department said in the criminal information document it released as part of the Volz plea agreement this week, was the Scotland trip...
...attempt to lift the Tigua casino ban, the effort to get explicit Congressional action on Abramoff's behalf failed. But as far as Safavian is concerned the damage was done. Four days later he wrote a letter to an ethics officer at GSA asking permission to go on the Scotland trip and said airfare would be paid for by a "lobbyist" who "has no business before GSA." The Justice department cited this as evidence of obstruction and making false statements on Safavian's part when it indicted him last year. Safavian goes on trial May 22. Safavian's lawyer...