Cold Cash Jefferson gets 13 years in the slammer: “Public corruption is a cancer on the body politic”
Photoshop: Suitably Flip
Justice is served. The race hustlers will bray and moan, but disgraced Democrat Rep. William “Cold Cash” Jefferson had it coming. Thirteen years in prison for what the judge in the case called “the most extensive and pervasive pattern of corruption in the history of Congress:”
Former Rep. William Jefferson was sentenced today to 13 years in prison for his conviction on 11 counts of public corruption in a case in which he famously hid $90,000 in his freezer.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III delivered the sentence at a packed courtroom in the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va. Prosecutors had asked for 27 to 33 years in prison, while Jefferson’s lawyers said the prison term should be less than 10 years.
…Ellis has not yet ruled on whether Jefferson can remain free while he pursues his appeal, which will likely take months.
Ellis did say that Jefferson must forfeit $470,653.47 to the government that the jury determined was obtained illegally in the schemes alleged.
…Ellis said he found Jefferson’s conduct “a cancer on the body politic.”
…Jefferson was found guilty after an eight-week trial of soliciting bribes, depriving citizens of honest service, money laundering and using his congressional office as a racketeering enterprise. The case was best known for the $90,000 federal agents found hidden in the freezer of Jefferson’s home in Washington, D.C.
The five charges for which he was acquitted included single count of violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act — the charge most closely related to the $90,000 found in his freezer. The government said that Jefferson, who received the money from Virginia businesswoman Lori Mody, took the cash with the intentions to bribe to the then vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar. Mody was acting as a cooperating witness and secretly recording her conversations with Jefferson for the FBI.
During the trial, in which neither Jefferson nor Mody testified, Trout said that Jefferson had no intention of paying a bribe to Abubakar, but never said why the money was in the freezer.
Jefferson’s lawyers, who are owed more than $5.7 million by Jefferson, according to documents submitted in his and wife Andrea’s recent bankruptcy filing, have 10 business days to file an appeal.
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Trackbacks
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Categories: Corruption, William Jefferson
Power Line
» The Alarmists Do "Science": A Case Study
Power Line
» When In Doubt, DeleteMudville Gazette
» When the wind won't blowMudville Gazette
» Bad Weather (Part I)Legal Insurrection
» Hacked E-mails or Else!Pundit & Pundette
» About last night's voteJustOneMinute
» "Unequivocal"?
Good riddance.
This is a good thing. Hopefully, this will serve as a warning to other elected officials.
This is a good thing. Hopefully, this will serve as a warning to other elected officials.
Paging Charlie Rangel.
YOUR NEXT
Thank you, Jesus!
I continue to pray in the name of Jesus for all corruption to be exposed, prosecuted, convicted, and prevented.
Finally some good news.
*One down, 535 more to go, or so it seems.
*Even money on a Holder/P-BO pardon down the road!
Libs on ice.
Jefferson learned a lesson today. If you’re going to join the “corrupt bunch”, don’t go solo. The “elites” will burn you. Now, if you had “shared”, you would still be in office, and the investigation would have been buried. Rangel and the rest know how to play the game, Mr. Jefferson. You didn’t play by the rules.
How appropriate – he’s going to “the cooler.”
What political party does he belong to? There is no indication in the article. If he were a Republican, it would be mentioned in every paragraph, so I know he’s not in that one.
Oh dear, in New Orleans, they found an entire jury of RACISTS !!!!!
Uh, yeah…
Sentenced to 13 years on Friday the 13th — what a lucky day for us all. Now he owes his lawyers over $438,000 for every year they got for him. I hope they garnish every penny of his prison laundry paycheck. It would give them all what they deserve.
Hmmm, does this send a message to other congressmen that they can get away with taking bribes if they follow Jefferson’s example on this count and hide the money in their freezer?
For the jury not to convict on the freezer money charge means they must have believed Jefferson’s defense that he “was acting as a private business consultant in brokering the deals and his actions did not constitute bribery.” If they believed that, I’m surprised they convicted him on any of the charges. He must have been even more careless in his other illegal activities.
unfortunately he’ll probably keep any congressional pension he might be entitled to since our lame members failed to pass H.R.14: Congressional Integrity and Pension Forfeiture Act of 2007 which would have done the following:
Unofficially known as the ‘Duke Cunningham Act’, the Federal Pension Forfeiture Act is a piece of legislation introduced by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Ken Salazar (D-CO) that would cause a Congressman to lose his pension due to:
* Bribery of public officials or witnesses
* Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the United States
* Perjury while denying the commission of bribery or conspiracy
* Subornation of perjury committed in connection with false denial or false testimony of another individual
now why would that be?? hmmm protecting our own?? hah?? never happen…/sarc
“Public corruption is a cancer on the body politic”
The irony is that most of what the Federal, and now state, governments DO is use public funds for private ends – special interests and corrupt politicians. And all this owing to the New Deal and subsequent Supreme Courts for making this a staple of American life.
Judge just return from a trip to Mars?
Wow. 13 years. I’m seriously, genuinely surprised.
Congressman William Jefferson, Democrat, Louisiana – as Rush would call him.
Which I do believe was the inspiration for the Obama Administration’s Cash for Kitchen Appliances program that should do much for the economies of Korea and Germany-the big makers of kitchen appliances.
As the Cash for Clunkers did so much for Germany and Japan Cold Cash Jefferson wanted to help others and this is how we treat him. Was the man a crook for merely being forward looking?
Such a judgmental judge and jury-tsk tsk.
I wish I could say it is a “liberal” thing… but I can’t. sigh
“the most extensive and pervasive pattern of corruption in the history of Congress…”
With 237 millionaires in Congress, he should have added “so far,” at the least.
Some good news for a change.
And paging Chris Dodd, Barnie’s Frank, Dusty Harry Reid, Pelosi…just to name a few more.
I’m sure the list is longer than we care to know, both sides of the aisle. When you go into DC with no money and come out with millions there must be a formula.
At long last!
My dwindling faith in our justice system has just perked up a bit. Still have got a long, long way to go. Hard to believe a judge and jury could collaborate and get it right.
I don’t care whether they have a D or a R after their name, a crook is a crook. The sooner we vote these incumbents out, the sooner we can go after them.
I can just see the racial repercussions now. Jackson and Sharpton will go ballistic and the black cauaus will blame the evil white men of every crime since the beginning of time. This will be a real goat rope. And in the end Obama will pardon him and give him a job in the White House.
The Federal prison calculator at http://www.federal-prison.org/index.php
under “Home & Sentence Calculator”
indicates he could serve about 4160 days out of the 4775 days of the 13 year sentence, with halfway house eligibility after 3978 days. That’s a bit under 11 years in the slammer – not enough in my opinion. The judge should have gone with the prosecutor’s recommendation. These jerks in Congress should be held to higher standards, not lower.
Maybe it’s a white guy’s turn. Paging Chris Dodd.
Not so fast. The Obama administration still needs to perform thorough background checks on the jury. Relatives need to be interviewed along with neighbors, high school teachers, childhood friends, associates at work. They need to be asked loaded questions like, “Has he ever said something bad about a sports team? Yes? Okay were there black players on the team? Yes? Okay, obviously he has racist views. Jury Misconduct, MISTRIAL.” The Obama Administration will also need to conduct jury reviews of any donations to Republican candidates. I assume Democrat Rep. William “Cold Cash” Jefferson’s lawyers will find a loophole to bill the American Conservative Taxpayer for their $5.7 million services. Were these rat attorneys using a surplus Progressive Jackpot slot machine for billing? Maybe a rigged Romanian taxi meter running over the last few years?
Good grief – public service…
I think we’ve all learned a valuable lesson. Keep the bribe money in your Congressional Office, where it’s safe from those pesky investigators.
Barney Frank is amazing too – a brothel in the basement, he didn’t know. His boyfriend looting Freddie and or Fannie, he didn’t know. Right there for the drug bust, he didn’t know.
“Jefferson’s lawyers, who are owed more than $5.7 million by Jefferson,”
Guess he will have to dip into the off-shore account to pay his bills.
***
Good job. O.K.–now serving #2. CUE UP CHARLIE RANGEL!
***
John Bibb
***
One corrupt politician down, about 100 more to go . . .
Let us not forget, Jefferson’s most serious crime, not addressed by the court, is that he commandeered a National Guard helicopter and Humvee at the height of Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts to remove unknown items from his New Orleans house. Who knows how many lives were lost because of this.
This headline made my day. This arrogant and hubristic fool will have a wonderful time in his 8×8 cell. **** him. A message has been sent I hope.
Right now, he’s a free man.
Keep us updated, Michelle, please.
Tell us when he’s really in jail.
Would this be considered a “white collar” crime?
He shouldn’t worry. I sure Attorney General Eric Holder is already hard at work on his Presidental pardon.