Gambit Weekly: The Rise and Fall of Bill Jefferson

[Swamp Rat]

The Rise and Fall of Bill Jefferson

In June, a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., indicted nine-term Congressman William Jefferson, 60, charging him with 16 felony counts detailed across 95 pages. The indictment portrays Jefferson as a bribe-fisted mastermind of an alleged scheme to bring high-speed Internet service to Africa " in exchange for funneling cash and stock to his relatives.

'This is not who I am. This is not what I have done," Jefferson declared after a court hearing that saw him released on a $100,000 bond. Standing in the sunlight with his wife, Andrea, he said: 'I am innocent of all the charges."

Jefferson is scheduled to stand trial in northern Virginia on Jan. 16, despite a slew of pre-trial motions and a mountain of evidence to review before then " 172,000 pages and roughly 2,000 secretly recorded conversations " although a last-minute delay is always possible. As the case moves toward a showdown, Jefferson has seen his iron grip on New Orleans politics, which extends back as long as his 17 years in the U.S. House, loosen to the point where his own daughter couldn't even get 30 percent of the vote in a runoff for the state Senate seat that launched his political career in 1979.

No matter what the outcome of his criminal case, Bill Jefferson's political star has fallen.

(snip)

Continued here

[Warpy]

1. They're in no hurry to get this trial started

because the Nigerian bribery scheme also involves Halliburton and Cheney.

If he decides to risk his life and sing, he could take the whole rotten gang down with him.

[Swamp Rat]

2. Waterboard him.

:D