Posted on 06/28/2009 2:59:37 AM PDT by Libloather
William Jefferson's activities cast as "official acts" by witnesses in corruption trial
by Bruce Alpert, The Times-Picayune
Friday June 26, 2009, 9:20 PM
ALEXANDRIA, VA. -- Prosecutors called five witnesses Friday they hope convinced jurors that former Rep. William Jefferson engaged in "official acts" to promote a telecommunications project in return for payments and promised payments they describe as bribes.
The issue is critical to the government's corruption case against the New Orleans Democrat. Prosecutors contend Jefferson solicited payments and stock from iGate Inc., a telecommunications company, to the ANJ Group, a firm controlled by his wife, Andrea Jefferson, in return for his official help.
But Jefferson's lawyers contend that the payments alleged by the government to ANJ were to generate more investments for iGate and that the actions the government alleges the congressman took were unrelated to those efforts and, regardless, unrelated to his official duties as a congressman.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
NEW ORLEANS -- A federal judge refused Friday to throw out a bribery case against a former Louisiana congressman's brother, who claims his indictment was tainted by an alleged government leak to a newspaper reporter.
The Times-Picayune of New Orleans posted a story forecasting Mose Jefferson's indictment about an hour before the grand jury convened on April 2, 2008, to vote.
However, Vial Lemmon said the article didn't contain any information that wasn't already in the public domain.
Jefferson "has made no showing that the posting which contained information already in the public domain caused prejudice and bias in the grand jurors, or that the indictment returned was a result of essential unfairness caused by the posting," the judge wrote.
U.S. Attorney Jim Letten has denied that the government was the source of any leak to the newspaper.
Mose Jefferson, a brother of former Rep. William Jefferson, is charged with bribing a former New Orleans school board president for her support in awarding school contracts for a computer-based learning system he helped sell. Mose Jefferson is accused of illegally receiving more than $900,000 in commissions for the sale of that system to the New Orleans school board.
Mose Jefferson also awaits a trial in a separate racketeering conspiracy case. In that case, he allegedly conspired with a former Louisiana lawmaker and two of his relatives to pocket more than $600,000 in grant money earmarked for charitable and educational programs.
This is an excerpt.
http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl062609mljefferson.dc01c43.html?npc
Please make a connection to Chicago and zero .... please.
Ex-congressman's brother tasted political victory behind the scenes
by Gordon Russell, The Times-Picayune
Saturday May 30, 2009, 10:56 PM
At first glance, Mose Jefferson embodies an archetype of American politics: the man who makes a living, and a life, by attaching himself like a parasite to a famous and powerful relative fortunate enough to win office. The truth is more complicated. While his once-formidable stroke was derived from the political success of his younger brother, former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, the reverse was true as well.
For it was Mose Jefferson, 66, who cut his teeth on politics first, learning the tricks of the trade as a Democratic Party field lieutenant in one of Chicago's most storied -- some would say notorious -- political operations before returning to steer his brother's campaigns in New Orleans.
He learned the craft well. Detractors and admirers alike agree that from the xearly 1980s until Hurricane Katrina, Mose Jefferson was one of the city's premier political tacticians. The organization he ran, the Progressive Democrats, with William Jefferson as its standard-bearer, grew into one of the city's most potent forces.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2262476/posts
Thanks Libloather ... unfortunately, all this can do is justify whatever actions a patriot might attempt.
BTTT
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