Cold Cash, Warm Welcome

23 Feb 2007 // House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made some progress in her vow to "drain the swamp" of ethical misconduct in Congress. Unfortunately, she's still allowing Rep. William J. Jefferson to wade freely in the deep water.

Jefferson, D-La., became a national laughingstock last year when FBI agents filed court papers indicating they had videotaped him taking bribes and later found $90,000 cash in his home freezer in a raid a year and a half ago.

The scandal wasn't enough to deter voters in his New Orleans-based district from re-electing him. It was enough, though, to prompt Pelosi to turn down requests to reinstate him to the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

But it didn't keep him off all committees. Pelosi recently appointed Jefferson to the Homeland Security Committee, a move that angered Republicans and has caused some Democrats to say they are embarrassed.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., asks a fair question: "They couldn't trust him to write tax policy, so why should he be given access to our nation's top secrets or making policy for national defense?"

After being stripped of his committee assignment on Ways and Means, Jefferson, 59, is on the Homeland Security Committee even though he remains the target of a two-year-old investigation. The FBI believes that the videotaped $100,000 payment Jefferson put in the trunk of his car - most of which was found in his freezer shortly thereafter - was a bribe for his help in setting up a telecommunications deal in Africa for iGate, a Kentucky-based company.

Vernon Jackson, iGate's chief executive, pleaded guilty last summer to paying more than $400,000 in bribes to Jefferson. Prosecutor Mark Lytle told the court that Jackson paid $367,500 over a four-year period to a company run by Jefferson's wife. He said iGate also paid $80,000 in travel expenses to send Jefferson to Africa to promote the company's technology.

Jefferson has maintained he has never taken a bribe in public service - but has refused to explain why he was caught on videotape taking $100,000 from an FBI informant. "I was surprised-and-disappointed to learn of Vernon Jackson's guilty plea and of his characterization of our relationship," Jefferson told reporters.

About two weeks ago, Jefferson and his wife, along with Jackson, became the object of a lawsuit filed in federal court by a former iGate stockholder seeking unspecified damages on behalf of all stockholders. The suit alleges iGate bilked stockholders by using its money to pay bribes. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that iGate no longer has an office, has a nonworking telephone number and no longer has a Web site.

Pelosi defended her appointment of Jefferson on Monday at a Tempe, Ariz., stop. She said Jefferson's appointment came in the final round of appointments and said Jefferson's constituents in New Orleans deserve representation when Congress reconvenes Monday after the Presidents' Day recess to discuss issues relating to Hurricane Katrina.

Jefferson apparently remains too arrogant or out-of-touch to realize that he has disgraced the House of Representatives in general and the Democratic Party in particular. While he complains that other members of Congress serve on committees while under ethics investigations, he fails to acknowledge one big difference: None has been caught on videotape loading money into car trunks; no cold cash has been found in their freezers.

Yet, Jefferson still has been charged with no crime. His case has been delayed by, among other things, bipartisan complaints about a raid of his Capitol Hill offices last year. But a federal district judge ruled in August that the taking of documents from Jefferson's office was legal, and he rejected a request from Jefferson that they be returned.

The documents taken by what the Justice Department termed "a public corruption and government fraud squad" of agents remain sealed as Jefferson continues to argue that the documents were taken illegally. But the search warrant gives a clue as to what might be among them: "There is probable cause to believe that the above-described Washington, D.C., Congressional Office of Congressman William J. Jefferson contains property constituting evidence of the commission of: (a) bribery of a public official ... (b) wire fraud (scheme or artifice to deprive persons of honest services) ... (c) wire fraud (scheme or artifice to obtain money) ... (d) bribery of a foreign official ... and (e) conspiracy to commit bribery, wire fraud, bribery of a foreign official and to defraud the United States with regard to the above-referenced crimes."

Still he serves in Congress. Now he serves on the Homeland Security Committee. The Justice Department and the House ethics panel need to settle his fate as soon as possible.