Former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles has been given a very sweet deal in the Abramoff investigation. Griles will be allowed to plead guilty to one count of obstruction. In exchange for the plea, federal prosecutors will seek no more than a 10-month prison sentence for Griles — the minimum they could seek under sentencing guidelines — but they will agree to let him serve half that in home confinement, according to one person involved in the case. Griles will not be asked to provide any testimoney in return. According to the AP story.
Griles lives in Virginia with Sue Ellen Wooldridge, who until January was an assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's environmental division.
The AP reported in February that Wooldridge, as the nation's environmental prosecutor, bought a $980,000 vacation home last year with Griles and Donald R. Duncan, the top Washington lobbyist for ConocoPhillips. Nine months later, she signed an agreement giving the company more time to clean up air pollution at some of its refineries.
The Justice Department planned to file papers proposing the plea deal with Griles. He was scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle in a Washington at 11 a.m. ET Friday. Huvelle will decide Friday whether to accept or reject the plea, but her decision on sentencing is likely to come two to three months later.
In government papers, Griles acknowledges he obstructed the Senate committee's investigation into Abramoff and his associates' dealings with Indian casino clients. Griles admits he testified falsely four times to the committee on Nov. 2, 2005, and once to the panel's investigators two weeks earlier.
Yep, that's our "Just Us" Department in action. By the way Giles principal claim to fame was as a well known lobbyist for polluters. Until this scandal his girlfriend was the Just Us Department's top environmental prosecutor. Talk about sleeping with the enemy.
