Abramoff Won’t Show for Safavian Trial?

I really hope this isn’t true.

In three weeks, David Safavian’s trial will begin. This was supposed to be Jack Abramoff’s big court debut, since Safavian’s on the hook for allegedly lying about his relationship with Abramoff to ethics investigators at the General Services Administration, where Safavian was chief of staff.

This wasn’t going to be the big show. But it would have provided Abramoff the opportunity to rehearse for later trials — say, Bob Ney’s or Tom DeLay’s. Taking cross examination isn’t easy, and he could have used the practice.

But it looks like prosecutors might try to let Abramoff’s emails do the talking for him:

If the government can get the e-mails declared admissible as evidence for next month’s trial, prosecutors might not have to call admitted felon Abramoff as a witness against Safavian.

The government does not want to put Abramoff on the witness stand, Safavian’s lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder, said of the prosecution’s e-mail gambit…

Prosecutors may want to save Abramoff for bigger criminal cases down the road, for example against members of Congress.