Prosecutors Lay Out Case Against Rep. William Jefferson (D., La.)

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Washington Post

Prosecutors Lay Out Case Against Jefferson
By Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 29, 2007; Page A03

Before searching Rep. William J. Jefferson's New Orleans home in August 2005, FBI agents confronted him with a video that showed him accepting $100,000 from a government informant, according to a prosecution document filed yesterday in federal court in Alexandria. Afterward, the Louisiana Democrat sank back into a couch in his living room and "with total dejection remarked 'what a waste,'" according to the government account, which did not elaborate on his comment.

Jefferson then "questioned how his reputation could survive" and expressed concern whether the search warrant affidavit could be permanently sealed to keep the information from being made public, according to the document.

Meanwhile, on the same day, FBI agents found $90,000 of the $100,000 in marked bills in Jefferson's freezer at his Capitol Hill home. The government alleged that Jefferson took the money from a Virginia businesswoman who was working as an informant, to bribe a Nigerian official in a business deal.

The pretrial document provides a glimpse into the public corruption investigation's early months. It was among 14 answers filed yesterday by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Alexandria in response to motions filed this month by Jefferson's lawyers.

Jefferson, 60, the former co-chairman of the congressional caucus on Nigeria and African trade faces a 16-count indictment that includes allegations that he used his position to solicit hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes for himself and his family, falsely reported trips to Africa as official business, sought to bribe a former Nigerian vice president and promoted U.S. financing for a sugar factory in Nigeria whose owners paid fees to a Jefferson family company in Louisiana....

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/28/AR2007092801948.html?hpid=moreheadlines

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. This was just the prosecutors' case ... wait 'till the other

congress critters see what the FBI is laying out to ensnare them. Solicitation from a congressman! The mock horror!!!

[tblue]

2. Yeah, he really effed up and he'll pay for it, but his crimes pale next to what the GOP has done

Them and their war profiteering buddies

[aquart]

7. Pretty much the same really.

They steal with both hands. He stole with both hands.

[midnight]

3. Is this the plan ,that a Republican attorney , said she over heard

and raised concerns about over his incarceration?

[Frances]

10. I think you are referring to an entirely different case

[bluestateguy]

4. I really wish he would just go away

A congressman under indictment really cant do much for his district, and his district needs help right now.


It's a safe Democratic seat anyway.

[aquart]

5. Getting taken by an informant. That's just dumb.

Hard not to want some of that Nigeria action. I do understand. Corruption everywhere and everybody getting some. (Except the Nigerian people.) But I ain't condoning a dime of it.

Nuh uh. Getting caught on tape. Fool.

[kirby]

6. What did he do wrong?

I get emails everyday asking me to help out some deposed relative from Nigeria. It says I will receive a large sum or money if I can front them some fees.

;)

[go west young man]

9. I think he got it backwards.

He's supposed to give them all "his" money.;-)

[aquart]

12. You do that, ducky.

[candymarl]

8. Good

If he's dirty then get rid of him. No looking the other way whether a (D) or (R) is behind the name.

[jody]

11. Jefferson is innocent until proven guilty. If guilty he must do hard time. His crime is more

egregious because he would have betrayed the trust the public placed in him.