Via WaPo: FBI Says Jefferson Was Filmed Taking Cash. Here are the charming details:
Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), the target of a 14-month public corruption probe, was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from a Northern Virginia investor who was wearing an FBI wire, according to a search warrant affidavit released yesterday.A few days later, on Aug. 3, 2024, FBI agents raided Jefferson’s home in Northeast Washington and found $90,000 of the cash in the freezer, in $10,000 increments wrapped in aluminum foil and stuffed inside frozen-food containers, the document said.
Lovely.
This will do nothing the help the prevailing negative view of the Congress. It also damaged the Democrat’s ability to paint the corruption problems in Washington as being limited to the Republicans.
Indeed, stories like this one (and the Cunningham scandal) are far easier to understand than the arcana that is the Abramoff situation.
Read nothing partisan into my commentary-I find it to be quite sad when an elected official, especially a member of Congress, is found to be corrupt.
Further, every one of these stories reinforces the notion in the minds of the public that all politicians are corrupt-and that is unfortunate.
And, as Ed Morrissey notes, this is the guy who used the National Guard to retrieve stuff from his home during the Katrina rescue effort. Ed quotes the following ABC News story on that situation.
If they connect that side-trip to the bribes, which shouldn’t be hard to do, God help the man before a jury.
Hearing Jefferson say “what happened is perfectly legal” on a TV sound bite added to the sadness. Newt Gingrich saying the FBI raid on Jefferson’s office is an abuse of the separation of powers is just evidence that Newt doesn’t need to be anywhere near the white house.
Comment by bryan — Monday, May 22, 2024 @ 11:25 am
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