The AP's Mark Sherman has the story.

A former Bush administration official was arrested Monday on charges he made false statements and obstructed a federal investigation into his dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to court documents and government officials.

David Safavian, then-chief of staff of the General Services Administration and a former Abramoff lobbying associate, concealed from federal investigators that Abramoff was seeking to do business with GSA when Safavian joined him on a golf trip to Scotland in 2002, according to an FBI affidavit and the officials.

At the time, FBI agent Jeffrey A. Reising said in the affidavit, a lobbyist — identified separately as Abramoff — had enlisted Safavian's help in trying to gain control of 40 acres of land at the Federal Research Center at White Oak in Silver Spring, Md., for a not-for-profit organization.

For his part, Safavian edited a letter the lobbyist was preparing to send to GSA, and arranged and attended a meeting involving a GSA official, the lobbyist's wife and others to discuss leasing the property, the affidavit said.

Safavian took a job in the Office of Management and Budget last year. He resigned that post, effective Friday, OMB spokesman Alex Conant said.

I'm not entirely certain that leaving a job three days prior due to an impending arrest qualifies one as a "former Bush administration official," but let's leave this point aside for a moment and instead turn to the more pressing point.

Safavian -- a former employee of Abramoffs, as Josh Marshall notes -- was employed in the Bush administration in a fairly powerful position when the alleged crime took place. So can the adminstration continue to justifiably claim that is had no connection to the embattled lobbyist?