by Frank James updated at 5:05 pm CDT
Something told us when we learned last year that $90,000 in cash that had passed through the hands of a federal informant was found in the freezer of Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) it was likely only a matter of time before he was indicted. Today was the day.
Jefferson was indicted today by a federal grand jury on 16 charges related to alleged official corruption. He has the distinction of being the first federal official ever to be indicted for allegedly breaking the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
As a reporter noted at this afternoon’s Justice Department press conference, the 95-page indictment makes it appear that Jefferson spent much of the time he was paid to represent the people of his New Orleans congressional district instead allegedly using his elected office to try to enrich himself and his family. If the allegations are proven, it would seem a terrible waste of Jefferson’s Harvard University law degree.
“The schemes charged are complex, but the essence of this case is simple: Mr. Jefferson corruptly traded on his good office, and on the Congress where he served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, to enrich himself and his family through a pervasive pattern of fraud, bribery and corruption that spanned many years and two continents,” said Chuck Rosenberg, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia at today’s press conference.
The two continents would be North America and Africa. Jefferson was accused of seeking what amounted to kickbakcs in Nigeria and elsewhere on the African continent.
Jefferson faces 235 years in a federal prison if he loses his criminal case. He wouldn’t get that of course. But even a fraction of that time would likely be a life sentence for the 60-year-old Jefferson.
Even the most complicated criminal cases often have a simple, comprehensible element that serve as a hook to grab a layperson’s interest. The cash found in $10,000 increments, wrapped in foil and stored in food containers in Jefferson’s freezer serves that function in the congressman’s story.
In what was an otherwise very serious press conference (this after all was a human tragedy we were witnessing) the cash brought some levity.
Jefferson’s criminal defense lawyer, Robert Trout, issued a statement claiming his client’s innocence:
More Top Picks Planters Indoors
“Congressman Jefferson is innocent. He plans to fight this indictment and clear his name.
“The Department of Justice has inspected every aspect of Mr. Jefferson’s public and private life. Federal agents searched his home and his automobile, and for the first time in the history of the United States, they raided a Congressional office. They poured over his bank records and his family members’ bank records. They questioned his friends. They secretly tape recorded him, they contrived to trap him in a government sting, and they lured him from Washington D.C. to Virginia so that they could secretly videotape him there. But even after they turned over every rock, they did not allege in this indictment that the former Member of the powerful House Ways and Means committee promised anybody any legislation. There is no suggestion that he promised anyone any appropriations. There were no earmarks. There were no government contracts.
“While the prosecution has been steadily sharing information with the public over the past two years, and while the Department of Justice has thrown together a lengthy and creative indictment, the government has yet to prove any charges in court. Congressman Jefferson maintains his innocence and he urges the public to suspend judgment until the facts have been established.
“Also, it is extremely troubling that the Department of Justice would rush to issue this indictment before the Court of Appeals has even issued its ruling on the legality of the unprecedented search of the Congressman’s office. The Department of Justice claimed that they needed those papers. This action suggests that the statement was not true, and the violation of the Constitution was not justified.”
Republicans, constantly charged by Democrats last year with establishing a “culture of corruption” when they ran things and a few GOP members were indicted and convicted, now saw an opportunity to skewer the Democrats since the shoe was finally on the other foot.
Boehner basically wants Jefferson kicked off his remaining committee (he lost his spot last year on the House Ways and Means Committee) and ultimately ousted from the House completely if the charges are “true.” He called for the House Ethics Committee to take up the Jefferson matter.
Here’s the statement from Boehner’s office:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) announced today he will force a vote in the House of Representatives to refer the 94-page indictment of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) to the House Ethics Committee. The resolution will instruct the Ethics panel to review the serious allegations and evidence against Jefferson and report within 30 days on whether he should be expelled from the House for conduct that brings dishonor to the institution, jump-starting a stalled Ethics Committee process against Jefferson that was started during the 109th Congress but shut down by Democratic leaders in January 2007 when they took control of the House.
Boehner’s resolution will also remove Jefferson from the House Small Business Committee and officially block Democratic leaders’ effort to appoint the controversial lawmaker to the House Homeland Security Committee, which would have given him access to highly sensitive top secret information. Boehner issued the following statement:
“If the charges against Congressman Jefferson are true, he should be expelled from the House of Representatives, or he should resign to spare his constituents and colleagues any further indignity. If my Democratic colleagues are serious about holding all lawmakers to the highest standards of ethical conduct, they will support the Republican effort to remove Congressman Jefferson from his seat on the Small Business Committee and to refer the matter of his indictment on bribery, racketeering, and money-laundering charges to the House Ethics Committee for quick resolution. The American people rightfully expect the highest ethical standards from their elected leaders, and I urge Democrats to join our effort to force the Ethics Committee to do its work in the wake of Congressman Jefferson’s indictment.”
NOTE: The example of Rep. Jefferson is just the latest example of House Democrats retreating for their promises on ethics reform. Inaction by Democratic leaders has left the House Ethics Committee ill-prepared to handle the matter appropriately according to the following excerpts from a May 24, 2007, report in the Capitol Hill publication Roll Call (“No Sign of Life in Jefferson Ethics Probe,” Roll Call, May 24, 2007):
O “More than a year after the House ethics committee voted to launch an investigation into the activities of embattled Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), the panel appears to have stalled in that effort and it is unclear if it has pursued the matter at all since Democrats took control of the chamber in January.”
O “Another indicator is that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has yet to name for this Congress the Democrats’ 10-member “ethics pool” – the group of Members pre-selected by their respective party leaders to serve on investigative subcommittees as they are needed.”
#####
The House Democrats’s leadership took a careful stance, not wanting to upset one of its most important blocs, the Congressional Black Caucus which complained last year that the party’s leadership seemed all-too-quick to throw the African-American Jefferson overboard (the CBC couldn’t find a precedent of another congressman being forced out of his committee assignment before an indictment.)
But the House leadership also didn’t want to appear to embrace alleged corruption in Democratic ranks. Thus the following carefully calibrated statement from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.):
WASHINGTON – House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer released the following statement today regarding the federal indictment of Rep. William Jefferson (LA):
“Democrats have shown by enacting tough rules changes and recently passing ethics reform legislation that we are committed to preserving the people’s trust in the House.
More Top Picks Best Appliance Dollies
“As is the law in our nation, Mr. Jefferson is innocent until proven guilty.
“However, the charges leveled against Congressman Jefferson today are extremely serious. If these charges are found to be true, they would not only constitute a major criminal violation but also be a grave breach of House ethical standards.”