Yesterday a “broken” Jack Abramoff appeared in court to plead for a lenient sentence for his role in bribing Washington leaders with expensive gifts in exchange for political favors. Although family, friends, and other supporters filed more than 350 letters in a bid to get Abramoff out of prison early, Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle handed down a four-year prison sentence, which Abramoff will serve concurrently with a prior sentence for a total of approximately six years.

Earlier this week, Abramoff sent a letter to Judge Huvelle in which he expressed his contrition for his past actions:

“It is hard to see the exact moment that I went over the line but, looking backwards, it is amazing for me to see how far I strayed and how I did not see it at the time. So much of what happens in Washington stretches the envelope, skirts the spirit of the rules, and lives in the loopholes. But even by those standards, I blundered farther than even those excesses would allow.”

As I have sat alone in prison, realizing what my actions have done to permanently injure people, especially my family, I see that my crimes all had the same cause–my short-sighted and selfish view that the ends could justify the means. I am not a bad man (although to read all the news articles one would think I was Osama bin Laden), but I did many bad things.”

While Judge Huvelle acknowledged Abramoff’s cooperation with the investigation and the outpouring of support for him, she said he was guilty of “very serious” crimes, and her 48-month sentence was “necessary to act on respect for the law.”