Ex-Interior Official Gets More Jail Time

Published: Jun 27, 2007

WASHINGTON - A federal judge chastised the Interior Department's former No. 2 official and doubled his proposed prison term to 10 months Tuesday for lying to senators in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and making excuses about it in court.

J. Steven Griles was the department's deputy secretary and is the highest administration official sentenced in the probe. He pleaded guilty to obstructing a congressional investigation. Tuesday, his attorneys tried to deflect blame for his faulty testimony.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle was not pleased.

"Even now you continue to minimize and try to excuse your conduct," she told Griles before doubling the five-month prison term he and prosecutors had agreed on.

Griles admitted to lying to Senate investigators about his relationship with Abramoff, the central figure in a corruption investigation that has led to convictions of a former congressman, legislative aides, lobbyists and officials in the Bush administration.

Second in rank only to then-Secretary Gale Norton, Griles effectively was Interior's chief operating officer from 2001 through 2005 and its top representative on Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force.

Prosecutor Armando Bonilla described Griles as Abramoff's "guy at the Interior." The agency was critical for Abramoff, whose clients included Indian tribes.