Most Falling-Down-Funny Excerpt: "Yet even if Jefferson is guilty, and even if the actions of the FBI come to be deemed acceptable - why not, since we appear to be collectively bent on trashing most of our constitutional protections these days - the question asked above still stands. If Jefferson took bribes, he did so to help a Virginia business install phone and Internet lines in Africa. This is a far, far cry from the kind of frontal attacks upon our intelligence branches that corrupt Republicans like Cunningham and his friends have profited from."
Incidentally: I take it no one's ever bothered informing The Great Lefty Scrivener that only illiterate louts end their sentences with prepositions. :)
#9; of some interest, I think. :)
The leading recipient of [privately funded] trips in the Louisiana delegation is U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans. Jefferson’s office racked up about $81,800 worth of trips both home and abroad.
Jefferson himself took six trips, among them excursions to Las Vegas, Qatar and Egypt. On most trips, Jefferson took his wife, Andrea, and he took his two daughters on a speaking engagement to Miami, according to congressional travel disclosure records.
Jefferson defended the travel, saying that the trips were either diplomatic or trade missions. He sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, which writes the nation’s tax laws, and the trade subcommittee.
Jefferson said he would support banning some trips.
"It’s probably good to ban trips to play golf, but to go help the Middle East?" he said.
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The warrants also indicate that federal investigators are particularly interested in the connections between Jefferson and a small technology company, iGate Inc. in Louisville, Ky., the source said. The company was one sponsor of a weeklong, $16,312 trip Jefferson made to Africa last year, records show.
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The lawyers said they think federal officials dodged the district level because one of Jefferson's daughters, Jelani Jefferson, is a clerk for U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon.