Notes From The Hill: Abramoff's Conviction

Recieved this from The Hill. Its a pretty straight foward article but a couple of conclsions, especially the main one, drawn by Hearn bother me. They are in bold:

Abramoff sentenced to five years, 10 months
By Josephine Hearn
Former GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to 70 months in prison today forfraud stemming from his attempted acquisition of a Florida casino boat chain in
2000.

Abramoff appeared before U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck in Miami to receive the
first of two expected federal sentences. He faces another sentencing later in Washington for bribing public officials.

Huck selected a sentence at the low end of a range of 70 to 87 months, which Abramoff agreed to in a plea deal with prosecutors.

The judge may have been swayed by more than 250 letters from Abramoff supporters, including one from longtime ally Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) pressing for leniency and citing Abramoff’s good works, strong religious faith and commitment to his family.

Abramoff pled guilty to the charges in January. He is not expected to serve his
time until after he finishes cooperating with the government, which could take years,
and at that point his sentence may be reduced depending on the quality of his assistance to prosecutors.

Somehow I doubt that a judge would be swayed by a person's strong faith and good works, when the actions that caused his conviction show neither. It gets me to wondering just WHO and HOW MANY mini-DeLay's did Abramoff serve up to federal prosecutors.