Democrats Trying to Regain Lead in Corruption Contest with GOP

Congressman William JeffersonOMG! A politican being investigated for bribery and influence peddling. That could never happen in America.

Jefferson’s Capitol Hill office was raided over the weekend, the first for a sitting member of Congress. A redacted copy of the warrant was released Sunday by the FBI.

The indictment accuses the eight-term congressman of accepting bribes and using his office and influence to illegally participate in high-tech business ventures in Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana.

According to the 83-page affidavit, the FBI had been tracking Jefferson since last March. The FBI was tipped off by a woman the Washington Post named as Lori Mody, a wealthy northern Virginia businesswoman who, persuaded by Jefferson, invested millions of dollars into iGate Inc., a Louisville-based telecommunications company.

The document describes iGate as a company that produces high-speed Internet and cable television services that is transmitted through copper wires.

At a Capitol Hill news conference Monday, Jefferson said, ”There are two sides to every story; there are certainly two sides to this story. There will be an appropriate time and forum when that can be explained.”

Proof once again that there ain’t a dimes worth of difference…

Update by Stephen VanDyke: For those of you with eagle eyes… yes this was already posted yesterday. Don’t sweat it though, there’s another post coming that deals with all of Congress suddenly becoming all constitutional-limitations friendly now that the FBI is stomping through their backyard.

posted May 23rd, 2006 by Stephen Gordon
  • Scott

    Says Jefferson “(this is) an outrageous intrusion in the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government.”

    If only I had thought of this excuse when I was getting a traffic ticket.

  • patriotBoy

    So what’s the score? I think it’s something like 4-0 with 7 repubs in the wings and 1 dem?

    I hardly think the repubs are in any danger of losing the lead any time soon.

    I think the real two parties are the corporacrats who have figured out how to buy the government and rig the system permanently in their favor and the rest of us who are . Repubs and Dems are both fictions.

    I think it’s time to reboot the government. This one has crashed.

  • Scott

    Its close patriot. The republicans have had more scandals, but they are less severe and most of them involve appointees. The democrats have a different strategy, having more severe and blatant scandals with major elected officials.

  • Stephen Gordon

    Patboy:

    I think it’s time to reboot the government. This one has crashed.

    Great quote.

    A lot of Dems have gone down, too. It’s just that the Republicans are in power now, so they are getting in more trouble these days. When the Dems were in power, their arrest records were higher.

  • Stuart Richards

    The indictment accuses the eight-term congressman of accepting bribes and using his office and influence to illegally participate in high-tech business ventures in Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana.

    LOL! I’ll bet you anything that he put all that bribe money in a bank account for that widow of that Nigerian general or whatever… the jackyderms really are that stupid.

  • Harv

    The FBI used to have minimum guidelines for what is called entrapment. They kept the bribes low so that most normal people (including the sensabilities of jury members) wouldn’t take the bribe. They used $100,000 in this case, and that’s a lot of cash, to bribe Jefferson. In La you probably can get someone knocked off for half that. They must want Jefferson pretty bad.

    Anyway, I think Jefferson’s movin’ on up to the big house. The fact seems to be that all the pols are being corrupted by the beltway green.

  • http://libertarianyouth.blogspot.com Nigel Watt

    Thomas.loc.gov is a great resource for finding out what congresscritters really do, I did a quick search on Jefferson yesterday.

  • http://www.caucusscandal.com Wisconsin

    In response to this article, a well-educated Madison liberal sent me this coherent email:

    “This is a bunch of bullshit. A total lie.

    This guy is ONE RANDOM DEMOCRAT who got greedy.

    This is very different from the systematic widespread Abramoff scandal.

    More bullshit from the “liberal media”?”