William Jefferson (politician)

William Jefferson

William Jennings Jefferson (born March 14 1947), American politician, has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1991, representing Louisiana's 2nd congressional district, which includes much of the Greater New Orleans area. (map)

The Washington Post called him "Louisiana's first black congressman since Reconstruction."

Early life and career

Jefferson was born in Lake Providence, a small town in northeastern Louisiana, where he and his eight brothers and sisters worked alongside their father who was a sharecropper and heavy-equipment operator for the Army Corps of Engineers. Despite neither of his parents graduating high school, William Jefferson graduated from G. W. Griffin High School in Lake Providence and received a bachelor's degree from Southern University, where in 1969 he led a protest against substandard campus facilities and negotiated with then-Governor John McKeithen. He later earned a law degree from Harvard University in 1972. After graduation, he became a law clerk for Louisiana Eastern District Judge Alvin B. Rubin from 1972 to 1973, and a lawyer with a private practice. From 1973 to 1975, he was a legislative assistant to United States Senator J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana. He moved to New Orleans in 1976 and was elected as a member of the Louisiana Senate in 1980, where he served until 1991. He twice unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of New Orleans, first challenging Ernest N. Morial in the election of 1982, and then being defeated by Sidney Barthelemy in the mayoral runoff of 1986. In 1991 William Jefferson was elected the first African American Congressman to the state of Louisiana since Reconstruction. He is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Conduct during Hurricane Katrina

ABC News reported on Jefferson's apparent misuse of National Guard resources to check on his personal belongings and property at the height of the Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts. According to a military source, Jefferson delayed two heavy trucks, a helicopter and several National Guard members for over an hour while he went back into his house to retrieve "a laptop computer, three suitcases and a box about the size of a small refrigerator".

Corruption investigation

Jefferson has been under investigation by the FBI for suspected corruption since March 2005; since that time, he's been named in two guilty pleas of associates. On May 15, 2006, Jefferson called a press conference at which he announced that he did not intend to resign despite expecting to be indicted on corruption charges. On May 20, 2006, Jefferson's Congressional offices were raided by the FBI, "believed to be the first-ever FBI raid on a Congressional office" , raising concerns that it could "set a dangerous precedent that could be used by future administrations to intimidate or harass a supposedly coequal branch of the government". See below.

On May 24 House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi publicly requested his immediate resignation from the House Ways and Means Committee; he declined to do so.

An investigation of Jefferson by various agencies began in mid-2005, after an investor came to authorities. Jefferson is alleged to have received over $400,000 in bribes through a company maintained in the name of his spouse and children. The money came from a tech company named iGate, and in return Jefferson would help iGate's business. Jefferson was to persuade the U.S. Army to test iGate's broadband two-way technology and other iGate products; use his efforts to influence, possibly through bribery, high-ranking officials in Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon; and meet with personnel of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, in order to facilitate potential financing for iGate business deals in those countries..

FBI investigation of alleged bribery and fraud

On July 30, 2005, he was video taped by the FBI receiving a $100,000 in $100 dollar bills in a leather briefcase at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington. Jefferson told an investor, Lori Mody, who was wearing a wire, that he would need to give Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar $500,000 "as a motivating factor" to make sure they obtained contracts for iGate and Mody's company in Nigeria. A few days later, on August 3, 2005, FBI agents raided Jefferson's home in Northeast Washington and, as noted in an 83-page affidavit filed to support a subsequent raid on his Congressional office, "found $90,000 of the cash in the freezer, in $10,000 increments wrapped in aluminum foil and stuffed inside frozen-food containers."

Late in the night of May 20, 2006, FBI agents executed a search warrant at Jefferson's office in the Rayburn House Office Building.

The affidavit used to support these raids included, among other allegations:

• The FBI videotaped Jefferson receiving a stock certificate from Mody for a company set up in Nigeria to promote iGate's technology. Jefferson predicted the deal would generate $200 million annually after five years.
• Jefferson told Mody that he wanted a similar financial stake in the business in Ghana.
• Jefferson sought $10 million in financing from Mody to take over iGate and install "confidants" on the new board. In two payments, Mody wired $89,225 to the ANJ Group LLC, a company controlled by Jefferson's family.
• Jefferson lent $4,800 of the money Mody gave him to an unnamed congressional aide. Another $4,900 was given back to the FBI by one of Jefferson's attorneys.
• The FBI claims it has uncovered "at least seven other schemes in which Jefferson sought things of value in return for his official acts."

Former aide pleads guilty

In January 2006, Brett M. Pfeffer, a former aide to Jefferson, implicated him in a corruption scheme involving an Internet company being set up in Nigeria. Pfeffer was president of an investment company in McLean, Virginia. In return for political support for the deal, Jefferson had legal work directed toward his family's operations. It was also said that a daughter of his was put on retainer of the Virginia investment company to the tune of $5,000 a month. Jefferson also is said to have arranged for his family a 5% to 7% ownership stake in the Nigerian Internet company. Pfeffer pled guilty to charges of aiding and abetting bribery of a public official and conspiracy on January 11, 2006 in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. On May 26, he was sentenced to eight years, but was "cooperating in an ongoing probe and may be eligible for a sentence reduction afterward", according to a prosecutor.

Business associate pleads guilty

On May 3, 2006 Vernon Jackson, 53, CEO of Louisville, Kentucky based iGate Inc., admitted to bribery of a public official and conspiracy to bribe a public official during a plea hearing in U.S. District Court. According to the Associated Press, "court documents make clear that Jefferson is the accused congressman, without naming him." Jackson's plea bargain requires his cooperation in the ongoing investigation against the congressman he admits bribing. The total amount of the bribes is between $400,000 and $1 million, according to court documents of the Jackson proceeding.

Raid of the Congressional offices

The May 20 raid of Jefferson's office in the Rayburn House Office Building set off a series of political events. Jefferson immediately challenged the action in federal court. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi issued "a rare joint statement demanding that the FBI return the documents and saying that Jefferson then should cooperate more fully with the investigation." . "Many Republicans and Democrats contend that the unprecedented raid on a congressional office was unduly aggressive and may have breached the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government that are meant to shelter lawmakers from administrative intimidation." James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee announced he would hold a hearing on the "profoundly disturbing" questions that he said the Justice Department's actions have raised. On May 25, President Bush stepped in, taking the extraordinary step of "directing the Department of Justice to seal all the materials recovered from Congressman Jefferson's office for the next 45 days and not to allow access to anyone involved in the investigation."

A number of Republican and conservative pundits quickly distanced themselves from the House GOP leadership on this issue, most notably National Review and Rush Limbaugh.

Further reading

• William J. Jefferson's official house.gov website