Former congressman gets reprieve

9th October 2017   ·   0 Comments

Former U.S. Congressman William Jefferson, D-Louisiana, is getting out of prison and his family is elated, his brother told FOX 8 News last week.

Jefferson is currently at Oakdale federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana.

Judge T.S. Ellis issued the order on October 4.

Ellis’ order said Jefferson’s convictions on seven counts, including bribery and conspiracy, have been vacated, which means they are tossed out.

Judge T.S. Ellis III ruled that in light of the Supreme Court’s decision last year in the case of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell, not all of Jefferson’s behavior rose to the level of public corruption defined by the high court.

“No one reading this opinion should conclude that Jefferson was innocent of crime; he was not innocent of crime,” Ellis wrote in throwing out most of the charges on which Jefferson had been convicted. “Even by McDonnell’s standard, he engaged in and was convicted of some criminal conduct.”

The former congressman clearly engaged in a conspiracy to bribe engaged in a conspiracy to bribe foreign officials, Ellis wrote, most famously with the money in his freezer that was intended for the vice president of Nigeria. And the judge said enough evidence was presented at trial to show that Jefferson used his position as a congressman to pressure the U.S. Trade and Development Agency to fund a study of a fertilizer project in Nigeria in exchange for bribes.

But other behavior did not include “official acts” as defined by the Supreme Court in the McDonnell case, Ellis ruled, because Jefferson merely set up meetings and expressed support for a high-tech company called iGate looking to break into the Nigerian market.

“The overwhelming weight of the government’s case with respect to the iGate scheme was focused on ‘constituent services’ and other activities that were not criminal,” Ellis wrote.

The Supreme Court ruled that McDonnell’s promotion of a nutritional supplement, which likewise included meetings and expressions of support, were not direct, corrupt uses of his office as governor.

While Jefferson did pressure African officials, Ellis said, official acts committed abroad are not covered by the bribery statute.

Ellis who sentenced Jefferson to a 13-year prison sentence after he was convicted on a slew of corruption charges, ordered Jefferson be released from custody immediately pending resentencing on counts two and 16.
Because Jefferson had already served his full five-year sentence on one count he cannot be resentenced on that charge.

Jefferson, who lived in uptown New Orleans when federal agents raided his home and found cash in his freezer in addition to seizing documents, is a former mayoral candidate who has been linked by New Orleans businessman Sidney Torres to current New Orleans mayoral candidate Desiree Charbonnet recently.

Torres has targeted Charbonnet, one of the frontrunners in this year’s mayoral race, after she pulled out of a scheduled debate late last month at the last second.

Jefferson’s younger brother, Archie Jefferson, told FOX 8 News, “It’s great and we’re extremely happy. I can’t wait to see my brother, and it’s the best news we could have received.”

This article originally published in the October 9, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.