Posted on 05/21/2006 2:06:06 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A congressman under investigation for bribery was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer. At one audiotaped meeting, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company's deal for work in Africa
OMG. One picture's worth...$100K!!!
Rush is going to just lose it with this one...
"William Jefferson, Democrat, Louisiana"...
Somebody better tell Nancy Pelosi that she has the wrong party when she talks about the "Republican Party's culture of corruption"
You need to shut up, Nancy!
That's the same line I fed my mother. It didn't work on her either.
Refresh my memory please. Isn't this the same upstanding gentleman that used rescue resources to try and pull personal belongings out of his house during the aftermath of Katrina?
Not as if it's a senator from NJ or anything. Not a Toricelli type???????????
BUSTED!
This bozo will be re-elected!!......and if convicted and after time spent in prison, runs for office again, he will win..........over ANY Republican!
That same day, Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson publicly tours the devastation with President Bush. And, while his constituents cling to life, the congressman quietly uses National Guard troops to check on his own home in a pricey part of New Orleans, so he can retrieve some personal belongings.
LT. COL. PETE SCHNEIDER, LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD: So, we provided the vehicles to give Congressman Jefferson a tour of his district, and, as part of that tour, he asked -- he asked to be taken to his residence.
GRIFFIN: Jefferson maintains he wanted an up-close look at the devastation in his district and only accepted the offer of an escort when National Guard officials urged it upon him for safety reasons.
With the help of a five-ton military truck and several military police officers, Jefferson visited his home, where floodwaters had reached the porch. Jefferson says his wife had urged him to retrieve personal items.
SCHNEIDER: We pulled into the residence. He departed the vehicle and went into his house and proceeded to take some things out.
GRIFFIN: The congressman acknowledges he emerged with a laptop, a large box, and at least two suitcases, after leaving the soldiers outside for nearly an hour. The soldiers waited so long, their truck got mired in the water. So, they sought help.
SCHNEIDER: The soldiers in the truck, in the first truck, noticed a Coast Guard helicopter coming by, and they flagged them down. The diver, essentially the rescuer, rappelled out of the helicopter onto the residence.
A good black Republican needs to be recruited to run for that seat NOW.
They have him on tape and a video. But he's a democrat so it is all okay. He won't resign. And probably won't even be convicted in Louisina. So much for the culture of corruption.
Good one!
Taking graft that no republican wants to take....
I think this shows the progress of the Black man. He has finally graduated from black crime (like drug-dealing and pimping) to a white-man's crime, like bribery and embezzlement. Jesse Jackson should be proud that blacks have finally learned to commit white collar crimes.
http://www.bayoubuzz.com
Letter from William Jefferson:
My attorneys tell me that it is not in my best interest to speak about the criminal investigation at this time. But I feel compelled to make a statement because I believe that my constituents are entitled to hear some response to the spate of recent publicity about me, and I have an obligation to think about your interests, as well.
Over the past nine months, my family and I have had to endure the hell of a federal criminal investigation. I have hoped that the government would come to understand that the actions under scrutiny were not illegal. Unfortunately, the government seems inclined to view the facts in the worst possible light, and to characterize events that could be explained, or are exculpatory, in ways that tend to incriminate. In the end, I fear, the ends of justice are not served by this approach.
I wish to say emphatically that in all of my actions here under scrutiny, that I never intended to dishonor my office, or you, the public, and I certainly did not sell my office.
Some of our friends have succumbed to the enormous pressure that the government has brought to bear, and in order to protect themselves, they have now characterized their relationship with me, or my family, in ways that fit neatly within the government´s mistaken legal theories. This saddens me greatly, since these were people whom my family and I respected and with whom we enjoyed warm, personal relationships. Our support for them grew out of these relationships, not out of any agreements to use my official position in exchange for some monetary benefit. Our friendship and loyalty have been betrayed, and we fear that the truth has been compromised in the process. We pray that God will forgive them.
It will be only through a tortuous process that my family and I will be able to re-establish the truth. In this, we ask for the patience, if not the support, of the public. Indeed, when I began serving in Congress, there were two Congressmen, who happened to be African American, then serving in Congress under indictment by Federal prosecutors - Rep. Harold Ford, Sr. of Tennessee and Rep. Floyd Flake of New York. It took each of them over six years to establish their innocence. But in the end, they and their family members were found not guilty. They stayed in Congress and continued to do their jobs with the support of their people, as I am now continuing to deliver for the people of the district that I have been privileged to represent for nearly 16 years.
More recently, Mississippi Supreme Court Judge Diaz had the unfortunate experience of having his former wife plead guilty to some charge and testify against him. Nonetheless, he was found not guilty by a jury of his peers.
I therefore have not come here to announce my resignation. Far from it: I have come to declare, among other things, my continued intention to serve.
No one wants to be indicted. I certainly do not and I certainly do not want anyone - a family member or close associate - to be indicted. But I am prepared to answer these charges formally when and if the time comes. Unfortunately, as we await that day, there have been selective leaks of what is supposed to be confidential information from unidentified "law enforcement sources." Therefore, I ask the government to refrain from this process of death by a thousand cuts that generates salacious headlines and bad press for my family and to make no further public disclosures until it decides to close the matter and leave my family alone or to indict me and give me a reasonable opportunity to prepare my defense.
I would take full responsibility for any crimes that I committed if that were the case. But I will not plead guilty to something I did not do, no matter how things are made to look and no matter the risks. My family has insisted that I take this position, even if it causes additional repercussions or discomfort for them. As a family, we trust God to see us through.
So today, I am not afraid, but rather, at peace. I apologize to you, the public, my constituents, for the predicament we are now enduring together. But when you elected me, you knew I would fight for the underdog, fight for the right. This is not always without risks.
Thank you and I pray for your patience, understanding, prayers and support.
I expect we will be hearing Rush saying, "William Jefferson, DEMOCRAT, Louisiana....."
Real, or fake but accurate?
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