President Bush’s former deputy secretary of the interior, Steven Griles, has pleaded guilty to lying about his relationship with Republican Jack Abramoff. Griles is the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the Abramoff lobbying scandal. Abramoff’s clients paid more than $500,000 to a nonprofit environmental group run by Griles’ girlfriend, Italia Federici, who was a former aide to then-Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton. Griles could have faced up to a five-year prison term, but federal prosecutors said they will only recommend a 10-month sentence. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors are recommending Jack Abramoff’s prison sentence be reduced. He is scheduled for release in 2011, but prosecutors are pushing for an earlier release because he is cooperating with investigators.