Interior Official Plays Dumb on Abramoff Relationship

Here’s another potential casualty from today’s McCain report on the Abramoff scandal: J. Steven Griles, the former number two at the Department of Interior. And before I jump in here, let’s just keep in mind that it is a felony to lie to Senate investigators.

Griles has been on the hook for quite awhile. To all of his tribal clients, Abramoff touted Griles as his inside man at Interior — and the two were close enough that Abramoff at one point became convinced that Griles would be coming to work with Abramoff at Greenberg Traurig. In September, 2003, Abramoff wrote in an email to his team members, “I met with [Griles] tonight. He is ready to leave Interior and will most likely be coming to join us … I expect that he will be with us in 90-120 days.”

For whatever reason, Griles never cashed out and joined Abramoff (he’s a partner in his own lobbying firm now). But Griles has denied up and down that Abramoff had any special access while he was at Interior. In interviews with Senate investigators and testimony, Griles said that he had very little to do with Abramoff. He had maybe a couple conversations — but nothing more.

But consider this.

According to the testimony of Department of Interior lawyer Michael Rossetti, Griles was strangely concerned about the fate of one Abramoff client. Agitated, even; he “turned purple.” And he couldn’t explain why he was so very interested (page 347):

Rossetti testified that Griles’ attendance at a meeting regarding Abramoff’s clients came up again. At that time, Rossetti asked Griles, “[w]hy is this issue so important to you?” According to Rossetti, Griles simply replied, “I just want to be at the meeting.” On a third occasion, Rossetti asked Griles, “[w]hat’s your deal? What do I need to know? Are there any outside voices that I need to know about?” At that point, according to Rossetti, Griles “turned purple” and immediately left. Ultimately, Rossetti said, Griles told him that he did not have to be at that meeting and did not attend.

The committee somberly notes that it is “troubled” by the inconsistencies between Griles’ testimony and others’. I wonder if the Justice Department will be troubled too?