Ouch, it really does look like Congressman William Jefferson has been found with his hands in the till. I hadn’t realized that the money found in his freezer was actually part of a set up:
A Democratic congressman, William Jefferson, whose freezer was
allegedly stuffed with $90,000 (£45,000) in cash, was charged yesterday
with bribery, money-laundering, racketeering and wire fraud. An FBI
raid on his home in 2005 had found the $90,000, divided into bundles of
$10,000, wrapped in aluminium foil inside frozen-food containers.
Agents said it had been part of a $100,000 bribe from an FBI informant.
How do they know the money came from the same place?
The FBI videotaped him in July 2005 allegedly receiving the $100,000
in a briefcase at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington, Virginia. It was
claimed that he told an FBI informant, who was wearing a wiretap, that
he needed to give a senior Nigerian politician $500,000 to help a
company win a contract in that country. The politician has denied any
involvement.
The FBI claims that the serial numbers on the notes in the freezer matched those that had been given to the informant.
There’s not all that much a defense lawyer can do with that really, is there?
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