Thread: Ex-Rep. Jefferson convicted of corruption

Ex-Rep. Jefferson convicted of corruption

From Paul Courson
CNN

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- Former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana was convicted Wednesday on 11 of the 16 corruption charges against him.

Former Rep. William Jefferson arrives at U.S. District Court with his wife, Andrea, on June 9.

A federal grand jury indicted the 62-year-old Democrat on June 4, 2007, on corruption charges, about two years after federal agents said they found $90,000 in his freezer. Authorities said the cash was part of a payment in marked bills from an FBI informant in a transaction captured on video.

Jefferson pleaded not guilty to the 16 counts, which include bribery, racketeering, fraud, obstruction of justice and conspiracy.

Jefferson was accused of using his congressional clout between 2001 and 2005 to solicit and receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes for himself and his family in exchange for promoting products and services in Africa, especially Nigeria, and elsewhere. Peter Carr, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said Jefferson could have faced a sentence of up to 235 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

The information on the cash, discovered in Jefferson's Washington home in August 2005, was revealed in an affidavit used to obtain a warrant to search Jefferson's office in May 2006.

Descriptions from the heavily edited affidavit and pictures of the alleged open freezer show bills wrapped in foil and tucked into frozen food containers, including a box for pie crusts and another for veggie burgers.

FBI agents told a judge the money was part of a $100,000 payment delivered by an informant in the bribery investigation, which led to guilty pleas by a Kentucky businessman and a former Jefferson aide.

Jefferson, who graduated from Harvard Law School, represented Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District, which includes most of the New Orleans area. He held office for 18 years, or nine terms, before he lost his House seat in the December 2008 election.

As a representative, he served on the House Ways and Means Committee's subcommittee on trade and on the Budget Committee, and he co-chaired the caucus on Africa Trade and Investment as well as the caucus on Nigeria.

Earlier, the federal judge in the trial told members of the jury that it might have been "misled" by his original instructions.

"I may have misspoken" as many as four times, said U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis, telling the jury "I want you to look at each of these corrections and decide if you were misled."

Ellis last week took more than two hours to instruct the jury, reading from prepared text. When a transcript was completed and made available Wednesday morning, Ellis said he had found at least four discrepancies.

Among the problems, Ellis suggested he mistakenly referred to the "defendant" instead of the "government" proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and another in which he referred to the "government's intent" in the alleged wrongdoing instead of the defendant's.

Ellis told prosecutors and Jefferson's defense team that he believed the jury would have correctly interpreted the reference, but that they should note the correction.

The jury reconvened with a corrected transcript of his instructions for its fifth day of deliberations.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/05/ ... gletoolbar

Dam, not I am going to have to hide my money somewhere else.