Posted on 10/14/2007 7:54:45 AM PDT by khnyny
The bribery charges against Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), who was videotaped accepting $100,000 in cash, should be dismissed because such an act is technically closer to influence-peddling, defense argued yesterday in an Alexandria courtroom.
Jefferson's attorneys made no admission that he engaged in improper conduct, but one, Amy Jackson, argued that even if the government's allegations are true, they do not constitute bribery under federal law.
"We think using influence is not a bribe," Jackson told U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in seeking to have some of the charges dismissed.
Prosecutors scoffed at the argument, and Ellis seemed skeptical. He offered several hypothetical situations that he likened to the conduct alleged in Jefferson's case and questioned whether such situations do not amount to bribery.
Jackson maintained that federal law defines bribery as receiving payment for an official act. Congress spells out influence-peddling as improper in its ethics rules but neglects to do so specifically under the bribery statute, she said.
If Jefferson had taken money in exchange for sponsoring legislation or voting a particular way on a specific bill, it would have constituted a bribe, Jackson said. But she contended that the misdeeds prosecutors allege -- helping to broker business deals in Africa in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments -- fall outside that definition.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
he definitely gave meaning to ‘cold cash’!
Where is it, anyway?
Feds probably confiscated it?
" Look, I had $90 large ones in my freezer because, as a compassionate Democrat, I was helping out a distinguished foreign dignitary."
"What happened was I got an email from Nigerian General Kachinga Cheatchusuckah who had a problem."
"Now, once Gen Cheatchusuckah transfers Idi Amin's secret Ugandan gold
reserves from the Swiss bank vault to a refrigerated truck I leased..........."
LOL. “Nigerian General Kachinga Cheatchusuckah”. That’s funny.
BTW, to answer another poster’s question about the cash: Jefferson accepted $100 grand, but the Feds only found $90,000 of the money. The other $10,000 is still missing.
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