WASHINGTON — A one-time Colorado political-activist who arranged lobbyist Jack Abramoff's entree into the Interior Department was sentenced Friday to two months in a halfway house and four years probation.

Italia Federici, who pleaded guilty in June to tax evasion and obstructing a Senate investigation, was spared prison only because she has become a key witness in the Justice Department's ongoing corruption investigation.

Federici, who was a fundraiser for former Interior Secretary Gayle Norton's 1996 campaign for Senate in Colorado, has admitted acting as a link between Abramoff and J. Steven Griles, the former deputy Interior Department secretary who for five years was her boyfriend. Griles provided Abramoff with advice and internal agency information, sometimes directly and sometimes through Federici.

Defense attorney Jonathan N. Rosen characterized Federici as an idealistic and sometimes naive woman who was manipulated by the two powerful men.

"Each man had his own agenda and each man used her for their own pleasure and gain," Rosen said.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle was skeptical. How, the judge asked, could Federici have not been suspicious? While Federici was serving as Abramoff's go-between, his Indian clients were largely funding her nonprofit organization, the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy.

Federici said she regarded Abramoff as an "angel" who believed in her group's mission and was able to fund it. Only later did she begin to realize she was being used.

"I figured it out 2 1/2 years late, but I figured it out and I extricated myself from the situation," she said.

As part of her plea deal, she acknowledged lying in testimony before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which in 2005 was investigating Abramoff's dealings with the Interior Department.

She also admitted not properly recording ATM withdrawals she made from the bank accounts of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, which she co-founded. She did not pay income tax from 2001 through 2003 and was ordered to pay $77,243 to the IRS.

Griles, the highest-ranking Bush administration official charged in the Abramoff scandal, is serving 10 months in prison. Abramoff is serving prison time for an unrelated fraudulent casino deal. His sentencing in the Capitol Hill influence peddling case has repeatedly been delayed so he can keep helping prosecutors.

Federal prosecutors, who recommended that Federici be placed under house arrest, have not said whom Federici is cooperating against. People close to the case have said Federici may be able to provide information about former Interior Secretary Norton, other Bush administration officials and members of Congress.

Swanny Note: HANG EM HIGH. This SLAP on the hands of these criminals is incredible. What HI Power was Abramoff.?? A Mobster? He wasn't elected. He was HIRED wasn't he? Abramoff an  ANGEL? UH , not in a childs dream. Would a Mobster be able to run Capt Tom Drake off and out of the Sun Cruz Lines...?Sure...Mobsters that hung with scary guys like Mohammad Atta would but..and Angel wouldn't.. 

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