No. 2 Justice candidate withdraws name

Fri, Oct. 07, 2005

MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Timothy E. Flanigan on Friday withdrew his nomination to
be deputy attorney general amid a delay in his confirmation because of
his dealings with indicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Flanigan, a senior lawyer for Tyco International Ltd., wrote to
President Bush that he was withdrawing because of "uncertainty
concerning the timing of my confirmation."

Meanwhile, the Bush administration's former chief procurement official
pleaded innocent Friday to charges that he made false statements and
obstructed investigations into Abramoff.

David H. Safavian entered the plea at a brief arraignment in U.S.
District Court in Washington.

Barbara Van Gelder, Safavian's lawyer, said prosecutors want to use her
client to advance their investigation of Abramoff. Safavian answered
investigators' questions until he was arrested last month, Van Gelder
said.

"To go from being a good administration employee to being arrested in a
weekend is an overwhelmingly distressing occurrence," Van Gelder said.
"He is justifiably bewildered by the whole process."

Flanigan was facing a second hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, requested by the panel's Democrats, that was expected to
focus on Abramoff's lobbying on behalf of Tyco. Lawmakers also have
raised questions about Flanigan's role, when he was deputy White House
counsel, in crafting administration policy allowing aggressive
interrogation techniques to be used on detainees in Afghanistan and
Iraq.

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said he was unpersuaded that Flanigan
stepped aside because of uncertainty over when he might get a vote on
his confirmation. "The administration is under fire on so many fronts
that I think they just didn't want to go through a hearing that would
associate the number two man at the Justice Department with Mr.
Abramoff," Durbin said.

Some Democrats also said they would prefer that Bush put a former
federal prosecutor in the deputy's spot because neither Flanigan,
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales nor Alice Fisher, the assistant
attorney general for the criminal division, has prosecutorial
experience.

Gonzales said he was disappointed about Flanigan's decision. Gonzales,
who was Flanigan's boss in the White House counsel's office, conceded
the wide-ranging federal investigation of Abramoff played a role in the
withdrawal, although he said there is nothing to suggest Flanigan did
anything wrong.

Flanigan was nominated in May to be the No. 2 official at the Justice
Department - Gonzales' top deputy. But the nomination has been held up
over questions about his connection to Abramoff.

Flanigan joined Tyco in 2002, after leaving the White House. He has
told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Abramoff, subject of a federal
investigation into his lobbying activities, began lobbying on behalf of
Tyco in the spring of 2003 and bragged about his ties to then-House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and Karl Rove, Bush's top political
aide.

"Members of this committee have asked a number of questions of Mr.
Flanigan about these incidents, but each set of responses leads to more
questions," Sen. Patrick Leahy, the panel's top Democrat, said in
requesting a second hearing on Flanigan's nomination. One had been
scheduled for Oct. 18.

Flanigan is not a target of the Abramoff investigation, a Justice
Department official said on condition of anonymity because the probe is
ongoing. Rather, Flanigan withdrew because he believes the Justice
Department needs the deputy's post filled quickly, the official said.