Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), whose Capitol Hill office was raided by the FBI Saturday night as part of a 14-month public corruption probe, said today has no plans to resign and intends to seek reelection in November.
“I plan to go to the floor tonight to vote,” Jefferson said at a late-afternoon news conference. ” . . . I expect to continue to represent the people who sent me here and to try to respond to their needs and their issues. I will continue to do that, so long as they permit me to do to.”
Jefferson 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, 2005, 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.
I don’t find it to be news that a politician is corrput. It’s certainly news that we caught him since we usually let them do whatever the hell they want. It’s news that’s being underreported though. When DeLay was even suspected of wrongdoing it was a press led witch hunt. Nevermind that is took multiple grad juries to even bring charges and that those are getting thrown out. DeLay’s career is over. He was murdered in the press. This little indiscretion from a Democrat isn’t even headlines. And people want to tell me our media isn’t biased! Homeboy is caught redhanded with 100,000k in his freezer that he took from an FBI informant. Well it was missing 10k so it’s really only 90k. He wrapped it up and hid it inside food containers. He’s been recorded. And yet there are no calls from the press for him to leave his post. The arrogrant prick is even seeking re-election!
Jefferson asserted today he is innocent of any wrongdoing in the “storm” he says he has weathered since last year.
The 83-page affidavit, used to raid Jefferson’s office, portrays him as a money-hungry man who freely solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, discussed payoffs to African officials, had a history of involvement in numerous bribery schemes and used his family to hide his interest in high-tech business ventures he promoted in Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria.
At the news conference, Jefferson repeatedly declined to respond to reporters’ questions about the allegations. He said his lawyers had advised him not to discuss the case in any way.
“I will simply say to you there are two sides to every story, and we’ll have a chance when it’s the right forum to express our side of this,” Jefferson said.
Two sides to every story? Really! There are two sides to you taking money from someone the FBI had a wire on? It would seem to me that any other side would necessarily be made up and chock full of fiction. We have the story. We have the evidence out in front of us. How’re you going to spin this one? I am waiting to see that but I have feeling we will not see much for a while.
The affidavit states that in one instance, at an unidentified D.C. restaurant, Jefferson allegedly exchanged cryptic notes with investor Lori Mody and discussed illegal kickbacks for his children in a telecommunications venture in Nigeria in which she had invested.
“All these damn notes we’re writing to each other as if we’re talking as if the FBI is watching,” he told Mody, who was wearing an FBI wire.
Now that’s rich. I cannot imagine he thought he wouldn’t be watched. It’s as if he thought he was above the law…oh wait he did and still does…
About 15 FBI agents, wearing suits, entered Jefferson’s office in the Rayburn House Office Building about 7:15 p.m. Saturday and left about 1 p.m. yesterday. Authorities said it was the first time the FBI had raided a sitting congressman’s office.
Jefferson today called the raid “an outrageous intrusion of the separation of powers between the executive branch and the congressional branch.”
An intrusion of the seperation of powers? You mean that the FBI cannot investigate bribery? What seperation of powers again? So there is a seperation in law enforcement and congress? Hrmmm. I thought that was only true if your last name was Kennedy or Clinton!
There are two more pages to the article. It’s way too ludicrous to keep commenting on and work is at me to get some crap done so it’s back to the grind. Just remember if you are a democrat taking 100k in cash is alright but if you are Republican then possibly misusing campaign funds is reason enough to be crucified.
I would love to write an entry about the drive home. It’s still fresh in my mind. The thing is that it is uneventful. Nothing spectacular happened at all. We drove 11 hours a day fortwo days. We all cheered when we hit Anthony, Texas. We stopped in Schulenberg for beef jerky and barbeque. It was filled with the happiest emotions. But nothing really happened. To chronicle the journey would be to list gas stations and restaraunts and little else. The kids were good, the dog puked one time in the car, and we listened to the Astros get beat in two games. That’s about it. I would love to romaticize it all but it seems like it would be a waste of words. It was a long and mostly brown drive that ended with us being home, safe, sound, and happy. I haven’t written much of anything partly because of the things mentioned in the other entry and partly because I thought I had to tell this story. I don’t have to tell any more than I have. I am sorry it’s not a pretty story but it’s the real deal.
So it’s been a while since I have written anything here or anywhere else. Life has been interesting in the way the Chinese curse assumes. We made it back to Texas safe and sound. We got our house and we like it. Money is much tighter than it should be and I can’t figure out where my math was wrong. So we don’t have any furniture in the living room yet except an air matress.
I haven’t written because I don’t want to whinge on about life. My life is mostly good and I don’t want to seem petty. Michelle’s life isn’t going alll that well. She is depressed and it’s really hitting her hard. Of course a good bit of that is pregnancy hormones. She talks about this stuff on her blog so I am not revealing anything that she doesn’t want known. She is always depressed. I think that part of it is chemical and part of it I cannot understand. So things can be tense around here. Some of it is me trying to help her knowing full well that there is precious little I can do. That’s the part that gets me. If I try and do something that she wanted me to do and don’t get it right she gets upset. I guess there is logic to that but it’s logic that I miss. I really don’t get it sometimes. I don’t know how to get it. I don’t think like she does. I am a man first off and that makes my thought processes different. When I am depressed I think differently about that so my thought processes are different there. I don’t know how to get it. I am not willing to give up but it’s hard some days.
I don’t like complaining about my wife because I love her. I don’t want her to ever think that I am not alright with our life. Our life could be better but it’s the best life I have ever had. It’s hard balancing a need to vent a little bit and not gossiping about my wife. I figure if I stick to facts then most everything will be alright.
I lied earlier. My life isn’t mostly good. The good points are that I have my family around me, that I am back where I can go see friends, that our church is here. That’s the list. I hate my job. I have no sense of accomplishment. I am on call for 60 hours a week and have 1/2 hour to respond. This means I am tied to my house from noon to midnight every damn day. I do not like that. My being here doesn’t help the family either. That is a dynamic that I do get and fully understand so there’s not point whining about it at all. It may be annoying but it’s more than valid.
One of my best friends is leaving. He is moving far away. This week might well be the last time I get to see him for a very long time if not forever. That is sucking pretty hard as well. Bleh…
Well I guess I have whined enough for today. I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
We are home safe and sound! It was a long drive, one restful day (of me being sick), and then two days of unloading the trailer. We are moved in and partially unpacked. I am back working. There is more to say but it will wait I am tired and have a longish day left still.
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