Prosecutors say William Jefferson D-La used CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) position in scheme

Prosecutors say Jefferson used CBC position in scheme
By Susan Crabtree
November 20, 2007

Federal prosecutors are accusing Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) of using his position as chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation to further an additional bribery scheme that was not previously disclosed.

Prosecutors allege Jefferson wrote to a NASA administrator on Congressional Black Caucus Foundation letterhead to ask that it consider doing business with a U.S. rocket technology company.

In a seven-page document filed last week in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, prosecutors said Jefferson recommended that NASA give “close consideration” to the company, which allegedly agreed to pay a Jefferson family business a commission on sales and transactions in West Africa and Central Africa relating to satellite ventures.

Jefferson also appeared to link his support for NASA’s budget to the rocket business. In the July 14 letter to NASA, written nearly three weeks before an FBI raid on his home and office, Jefferson wrote of the challenge “of providing the necessary budget resources to NASA, in an era of tight budgets,” according to the prosecutors’ legal document. In the next sentence, the prosecutors wrote, he encouraged NASA to consider the rocket technology company.

The government also alleged that Jefferson asked a lobbyist of an “established” oil services company to pay a family member $10,000 a month in return for his help expanding its business in West Africa. The company did not agree to pay Jefferson’s family member.

Prosecutors are not planning to charge Jefferson for the additional alleged bribery schemes but said they will present evidence about them during Jefferson’s January trial in order to show a pattern of behavior.

Throughout the government’s case against Jefferson, who was indicted in June on racketeering and bribery charges, members of the Congressional Black Caucus have come to his defense, particularly when now-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) led the charge to remove him from the House Ways and Means Committee last year.

While Jefferson acknowledges that he made “mistakes along the way,” he is fighting the charges.

http://www.senate.gov/index.htm

This is another article about ol’ Dollar Bill. His whole family is a bunch of crooks.

“Anyone who happened up pick up a Progressive Democrats ballot in their way to the polls Saturday might want to keep it, for posterity’s sake.

This fall’s election season could mark the beginning of the end for the once-mighty political organization, founded and ruled with an iron fist by embattled U.S. Rep. William Jefferson.

Just check out the group’s track record since August 2005, which started with the stunning raid of Jefferson’s homes in Washington and New Orleans, and ended with the hurricane that forever reshuffled the city’s politics.

Former aide Renee Gill-Pratt, ousted from the City Council.

Sister Betty Jefferson, reelected as 4th District Assessor, but relegated to lame duck status by the voters’ decision to merge the city’s seven assessor offices.

Ally Eddie Jordan, run out of the District Attorney’s Office, in part because of the multi-million dollar racial discrimination judgment that can be traced back to a longtime Jefferson aide.

And now Jefferson’s daughter, state Rep. Jalila Jefferson-Bullock, utterly trounced in her attempt to win the state Senate seat that launched Bill Jefferson’s storied career. Up against fellow freshman legislator Cheryl Gray, Jefferson-Bullock drew just 29 percent of the vote.

That leaves the congressman himself, who was reelected last year despite the cloud over his head, only to be charged in a 16-count federal indictment alleging a set of wide-ranging bribery schemes. Stripped of his committee assignments by a Democratic Congressional leadership obviously embarrassed by his continued presence, Jefferson is scheduled to go on trial in January.

And the extended family’s woes don’t end at the polls.

Jefferson’s brother Mose has not been indicted. But he figures into his brother’s indictment, and he also is a key figure in an unrelated bribery scheme involving former Orleans Parish School Board president Ellenese Brooks-Simms, who has pleaded guilty.

CONTINUED 1 | 2 Next

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.