Ex-Interior Official Asks For Leniency

Lawyers for former deputy interior secretary J. Steven Griles have asked a federal judge to turn aside the government's recommendation of jail time for their client in favor of three months of home detention when he is sentenced next week on a felony charge of obstructing the Senate's investigation of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Prosecutors, who have recommended a split sentence of five months in jail and five months of home detention, filed a lengthy memo supporting that view with Judge Ellen S. Huvelle last week. Griles pleaded guilty in March to lying to the Senate about the nature of his relationship with the now-convicted lobbyist. Griles was introduced to Abramoff by a girlfriend who ran an advocacy group financed by Abramoff's Indian tribal clients and who acted as a go-between for their lobbying concerns.

Griles's attorneys told the court that he did not conceal his interactions with Abramoff, disputing the Justice Department's contention that his obstruction prevented the Senate from discovering "the secret, unique, sustained and unfettered access Abramoff had" to him. They disputed as "inaccurate inferences" government assertions that Griles avidly pushed Abramoff's lobbying requests as he urged the lobbyist to hire his friends and bankroll a friend's plan for a charity.

Griles is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday.