Griles To Skip Jail, Work for Disney?
Lawyers Compare Him to Sandy Berger

Former Deputy Interior Secretary – and convicted felon - Steven Griles is seeking to avoid jail by working for Disney.

The ex-official, who pled guilty last March to obstructing a congressional investigation into scandal-tarred lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s activities, is arguing that he should not serve any prison time but instead be sentenced to three months of home confinement and 500 hours of community service for WOW, a program funded by The Walt Disney Company and recreational industry lobbyists.

In the memorandum, Griles’s lawyers also make several other claims about his case:

- Though Griles’ name was on 60,000 Jack-Abramoff-related emails, he “had not participated in those proceedings so they were not useful in helping him remember about his contacts with Mr. Abramoff.”

- Griles couldn’t remember those conversations with Abramoff because he was distracted by other pressing issues, such as “snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park.”

- His lawyers compare Griles to Sandy Berger, the former National Security Adviser busted for sneaking classified documents out of a secure building by hiding them in his socks, saying that “his conduct is somewhat analogous to Mr. Berger’s in its isolated and aberrant nature” and suggesting a similar sentencing agreement.

- Griles’ integrity was so unimpeachable that he repeatedly refused offers of free golf, free meals or lodging at a ski resort or a free lunch (once shoving $20 into a lawyer-friend’s purse because she was “a representative of the mining industry.” When the American Gas Association’s David Parker wanted to share a condominium on the Delaware shore, Griles refused.

- Griles’ lawyers get testy about his “personal and at times romantic relationship” with lobbyist Italia Federici, stating that “they were two single, consenting adults” and “this relationship was private and none of the Senate Committee’s business.”

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