Congressman Jefferson Indicted on Corruption Charges

At last, Washington has produced a political scandal that even the American voter can understand. Congressman William Jefferson (D-LA) is under indictment on 16 alleged violations with prison terms totaling as much as 235 years. It has nothing to do with leaking of information to the press, arguing over what the meaning of “is” is, nor firing bureaucrats for political reasons. Instead, the congressman faces jail because he allegedly “corruptly traded on his good office and on the Congress.” That would explain the $90,000 in marked bills found in his freezer at home.

Mr. Jefferson is the first sitting congressman to face charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a rather naïve piece of legislation that prohibits corporate bribery outside the US. Apparently, America’s corporations are so good at what they do that they don’t need to bribe foreign officials to win contracts the way some other countries do (Editor’s note: read the preceding in a sarcastic tone for greatest effect), but the temptation is so great that they need to be prohibited from paying up.

Boiled down to its basics, the indictment claims Mr. Jefferson solicited bribes from 11 different companies for himself and for family members and that he bribed “Nigerian Official A,” whom most believe to be Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar. Two of the congressman’s lackeys have already cut deals with the Feds. Brett Pfeffer, a former congressional aide, is doing 8 years for soliciting bribes for the congressman (such loyalty), and telecommunications executive Vernon Jackson of Kentucky is doing 7 years after a guilty plea to paying between $400,000 and $1 million in bribes to Jefferson for the Nigeria deals. Both will cooperate against their former pal.

The real problem for the congressman will be FBI videotape that court records suggest show him taking $100,000 in cash from an Agency informant. About $90,000 of that turned up in his freezer when the Feds raided the place. Although there are some constitutional issues because Congress thinks the Justice Department crossed the legislative/executive boundary with the raid, it’s pretty open and shut if the money can be admitted in court as evidence.

Of course, this whole thing didn’t keep the good people of Louisiana (Mr. Jefferson’s district includes parts of New Orleans) from re-electing him in November. And there’s no sign of him resigning his office. Indeed, if he’s convicted, he is under no obligation to resign, although the House of Representatives could vote to expel him. Still, they might want to go easy on him – after all, this scandal took fewer than four paragraphs to explain. In Washington these days, that’s something of an accomplishment.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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