David Safavian

David Hossein Safavian (born August 4, 1967) is a Republican lawyer and former Chief of Staff in the United States General Services Administration (GSA). He is a figure in the Jack Abramoff lobbying and corruption scandal.

In 2004, he was an employee of the Office of Management and Budget when he was arrested and charged with crimes in connection with the Abramoff corruption scandal. He was convicted on October 27, 2006, and sentenced to 18 months in prison. However, on June 17, 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously reversed Safavian's convictions, and ordered a new trial. On December 19, 2008, at his retrial, he was again convicted of perjury.

An Iranian-American from Grosse Ile, Michigan, Safavian graduated fifth in his class at Detroit College of Law. He also studied at Loyola University Maryland, Georgetown University Law Center, Michigan State University College of Law, and Saint Louis University. In Michigan, he served as an aide to Congressmen Robert William Davis (R-MI) and Bill Schuette (R-MI), and still later he worked for the lobbying firm of Janus-Merritt Strategies.

Safavian was a longtime friend of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In the mid-1990s, the two worked at the Washington-based lobbying firm of Preston Gates & Ellis. There they brought in millions to the firm while working on the Mississippi Choctaw tribal account. The pair were members of a team, reports CNN, “that was lobbying to keep the Northern Mariana Islands [a US territory] free from certain US labor and immigration laws.”

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