Source:
Associated PressAbramoff Figure Spared Prison SentenceFriday December 14, 2007 6:01 PM
By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - An environmental advocate who provided
Jack Abramoff's entree into the Interior Department was
sentenced Friday to two months in a halfway house and four
years probation.
Italia Federici, who pleaded guilty in June to tax evasion
and obstructing a Senate investigation, was spared prison
only because she has become a key witness in the Justice
Department's ongoing corruption investigation.
Federici has admitted acting as a link between Abramoff and
Griles J. Steven Griles, the former deputy Interior Department
secretary who for five years was her boyfriend. Griles provided
Abramoff with advice and internal agency information, sometimes
directly and sometimes through Federici.
Defense attorney Jonathan N. Rosen characterized Federici as
an idealistic and sometimes naive woman who was manipulated
by the two powerful men.
“Each man had his own agenda and each man used her for their
own pleasure and gain,” Rosen said.
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