Traficant's legal foes seek long jail term (Beacause of ATTITUDE More Than "Crimes")

In his last gasp for freedom, James Traficant looked at jurors in his corruption case and promised that he could take what they doled out.

"If you find me guilty, you come out and just say it," Traficant roared. "I'll accept it like a man."

Federal prosecutors say Traficant has accepted nothing about the jury's verdict in April and has failed to show any remorse. Instead, they say in pleadings filed Friday, he has accused investigators, attorneys and a judge of corruptly conspiring to bring him down.

Because of those actions, and for tarnishing the image of Congress, Traficant now deserves the harshest sentence possible, they say.

Tomorrow, U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells will decide Traficant's prison term, one that attorneys have argued over for weeks. The former 18-year member of Congress faces 87 months in prison after being convicted of 10 felony charges, according to federal guidelines.

The judge is expected to listen to some character witnesses who will describe Traficant's 22 years of public service to the Mahoning Valley, including four years as sheriff before he was elected to the U.S. House. Sentencing hearings typically last less than an hour, but the testimony and legal arguments slated for this one could stretch it out over a full day or more, some court officials predict.

Prosecutors say Traficant deserves a much greater sentence than the 87 months because his crimes were so egregious: He shook down contractors who did hundreds of thousands of dollars of free work at his farm and boat in exchange for political favors. They also say his outlandish behavior after the verdict warrants a steep sentence.

Traficant's attorney says his client deserves a much lighter term in prison because of his "lifelong dedication and exceptional public service."

Traficant has denied wrongdoing. With bluster and profanity, he tried - and failed - to bully his House colleagues out of voting last week to toss him from office.

Traficant told them that he was railroaded during his federal jury trial in Cleveland. Legal experts say Traficant's ouster from the House, as well as two jurors expressing second thoughts about his conviction, are not likely to play into Wells' sentencing.

At the end of the 10-week trial, on April 11, a jury convicted him of 10 corruption charges, including tampering with witnesses, bribery and racketeering. Traficant said many witnesses whom prosecutors called at his trial were felons who testified against him to get light sentences.

Traficant wants Wells to allow him to remain free on bond until an appeals court decides his case. But prosecutors in Cleveland say Traficant must first show that he has a chance of winning an appeal, and they believe he has none. They want Traficant to go immediately to prison.

"The fact that a member of Congress, one of the highest positions in our government, has been convicted of these crimes of dishonesty will cause some loss of public confidence in these institutions at the very time citizens must depend on them to ensure our domestic security," prosecutors wrote in court documents.

They stopped short of saying how much more time in prison Traficant should spend, but they asked for a substantial increase to "fully reflect the nature of the crime and extent of its harm on the community."

Prosecutors also contend that Traficant is a risk to run. During his trial, he told Wells: "I do caution the court, that if you poison this jury one more time, you'll have to send a marshal for me because I am not coming back to your courtroom. You can put that on the record."

Traficant represented himself at trial, even though he is not an attorney. For his sentencing, he has an attorney, Richard Hackerd, who said the former congressman is no threat to vanish.

Hackerd also said Traficant deserves the minimum sentence because of his service to the Youngstown area. He cited Traficant's four-year term as sheriff, when Traficant refused to foreclose on the homes of laid-off steelworkers. Traficant was found in contempt of court, and he was sent to jail for failing to remove the families from their homes.

"This demonstrates his willingness to sacrifice his personal liberty for the community," Hackerd said in documents. He plans to call witnesses tomorrow and present affidavits from constituents whom the former congressman helped.

"His office was aggressive in constituent services, and Mr. Traficant pursued legislation action diligently," Hackerd wrote.

Prosecutors say Traficant did not serve his community, but stole from it. They said he took more than $200,000 in kickbacks from his employees, forced his staff to clean stalls at his horse farm and encouraged witnesses to lie for him. And if a constituent needed help, they said, Traficant wanted to know what the citizen could do for him first.

Got this as email today and wonder where it fits in.

NEW PROOF THAT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CONSPIRED IN ORDER TO GET TRAFICANT By
Linda Kennedy, Attorney (pending Appeal), Va WBFLegal@aol.com

The information you are about to read is information that Congressman
Traficant has had, which would help prove that there is a Department of
Justice conspiracy against him, however, the Congressman would not release
the information, as he was trying to protect Mr. James Leigh and his family.
Both Mr. James Leigh, the operative in this story, and I, have had to
convince Congressman Traficant to make this information public. I was just
given permission by the Congressman this morning to utilize this story.
Please publicize this far and wide including, but not limited to the biased
media.

James Leigh is a very courageous government, under-cover operative, whose
work single handedly lead to the United States issuing 11 indictments and
making 4 convictions of high ranking foreign officials in China and Korea.
The sting operation involved several unlawful immigration scams (unlawful
human smuggling in exchange for a large fee) into the United States. The
price received by the governments involved was $50,000 per head amounting to
about $500,000,000. Mr. Leighâ?Ts assignment was named "Operation
Squeezeplay " and the story can be found in several articles including one
at: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/7/23/175619.shtml. Mr.
Leigh has also been involved in several other highly publicized covert
operations involving national security, which can be found in the
newspapers.

Mr. Leigh had given Congressman Traficant an affidavit and Congressman
Traficant was told to use it to help prove that there is indeed a Department
of Justice conspiracy against Congressman Traficant to expel him from
Congress and to lock him up for life. Mr. Leigh states on 7/27/02 that:

"I provided an affidavit to Traficant, just this week and it proves that
there was indeed a plan to go after him. I live under security concerns and
asked Traficant not to use it unless it would really make a difference. I
think he is holding back to protect my security but now he should be urged
to bring the evidence forward and demand an inquiry and delay of
proceedings. Iâ?Tll back him and testify."

To really understand what is happening here, as Mr. Leigh was ready to close
in on the entire illegal operation of the Chinese and Korean governments,
Bill Clinton and Janet Reno suddenly put a stop to any further undercover
work involving Operation Squeezeplay, and ordered the sting operation to
cease and desist. Obviously, Mr. Leigh was very upset as he had risked his
life, and was extremely close to busting this entire phony immigration
scheme wide open. Even with the desist order, the United States was still
able to convict four illegal smugglers out of the eleven indictments issued
in Operation Squeezeplay.

Later, James Leigh requested that the United States Department of Justice
provide him the protection they had promised he and his family in exchange
for his risky undercover assignments he had accomplished on behalf of our
country. In spite of their agreement to do so, The Department of Justice
just ignored him and let Mr. Leigh and his family fend for themselves even
though they had severely exposed themselves to increased danger for the
United Stateâ?~s benefit. Thwarted at every turn, James Leigh then went to
Congressman Traficant for assistance. From Mr. Leighâ?Ts own email to me
dated 7/26/02, he states that:

"Traficant came out in the press demanding a Congressional hearing into
Operation Squeezeplay and why Reno/Clinton shut it down. A the same time, I
was meeting with Justice officials from [the] U. S. discussing what they
would do to provide the security as promised to me and my family. They
mentioned Traficant and said â?~Donâ?Tt count on Traficant, weâ?Tre going to
get him no matter what we have to do.â?T They further asked me to help them
on that matter."

This discussion between Mr. Leigh and the Justice Department occurred before
any indictment of Congressman Traficant was ever issued. Do you see this
friends? Isnâ?Tt this exactly what Traficant has been saying all along?
Hasnâ?Tt he been saying that Reno and the Justice Department have set this
lynching up in advance? Did you hear Congresswoman S. T. Jones from Ohio,
during expulsion hearings telling Congress to just ignore all the evidence
and claims of judicial corruption and expel the Congressman anyway? Did you
hear the prosecutor say that they had no direct evidence of Traficantâ?Ts
wrongdoing because Traficant was too good to have allowed for evidence? Did
you hear jurors saying that they could tell that Judge Wells had marching
orders? Did you hear another juror describe how he was unlawfully, and
deceptively removed from the case with only one week left, and that he was a
pro-Traficant juror? Did you hear a juror say, that after being allowed to
hear all the evidence, he thinks Traficant is innocent?

Friends, did you see during the Congressional Expulsion vote that Traficant
actually WON the oral motion to stay all expulsion proceedings until an
investigation into these claims of corruption could be made, but Congressman
Hefley insisted that in spite of the victory, that a written vote be taken?
Hefley obviously knew that NOBODY in Congress would have the guts to write
his or her name to stay the proceedings under such threat of retaliation.
Not even those Congressmen who raised the motion to stay the proceedings
were willing to put it in writing? Can anyone else put two and two together
here? Can you see that the Congressional majority who wanted to stay the
proceedings were so afraid of the Justice Department that they would not
even write down their names in fear of being next? Do we now see who is
running our country? Anyone else have any doubt why these rogue courts of
ours, can freely ignore the law and the facts when their own Justice
Department has put such fear into our cowardly Congress, the alleged
judicial overseer, that not a one of them was willing to write his or her
name next to Traficantâ?Ts to stay the motion to expel?

Finally, on July 25, 2002, Mr. Leigh writes:

"Traficant is being noble by withholding my affidavit that can save his ass.
He is protecting me and my familyâ?Ts security. Urge him to use the Canadian
former US. Justice operatives information. It proves there was a conspiracy
within the Justice Department to nail him. I have urged him to go ahead . .
."

And on July 26, 2002, Mr. Leigh states that the Justice Department

". . . basically left my family and I out in the cold to fend for ourselves
[concerned about being exposed]. . . Iâ?Tm willing to take that chance.
Traficant went to bat for me when I needed him, so I guess its time for me
to do the same."

It sounds like Traficant is a lot more noble than the biased media would
have one think. We need to get this story out to everyone including the
biased media fast. Traficantâ?~s sentencing is tomorrow, Tuesday, July 30,
2002, and the public needs to know that there is yet more credible proof of
a conspiracy by Judge Wells, and the Justice Department aimed at getting
Traficant, along with a cowering Congress too fearful to stop it, before
this sentencing.

Thanks to American libertiesa ssociation for helping break this story, but
also for keeping it confidential as lives could be at stake in this matter.

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