Jefferson jury hears dinner dialogue

• By GERARD SHIELDS
• Advocate Washington bureau
• Published: Jul 3, 2009 - Page: 1A

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ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Jurors in the trial of former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson heard secretly recorded conversations Thursday that put them at the table of a $1,000 dinner where FBI agents said he solicited a bribe.

The New Orleans Democrat met with FBI informant and Virginia businesswoman Lori Mody, who was putting together a partnership to form a Nigerian telecommunications company. Federal prosecutors said Jefferson requested a share of the company in return for using his congressional influence to promote the project in Africa.

“I make a deal for my children,” Jefferson said on the recording. “It wouldn’t be me.”

Jefferson slipped Mody a note which contained the letter “C” and “18-20,” which prosecutors contend was the percentage share that Jefferson wanted in the company for his family. At one point in the recording, Jefferson even joked about the secretive nature of the dinner meeting at the tony restaurant in Washington, saying that the two were “acting like the FBI is listening.”

Jefferson later listed Global Energy and Environmental Services as the business that would receive the company profits. Global was formed with Jefferson’s son-in-law and five daughters as the owners.

Jefferson eventually concluded that Global should get 22.5 percent of Mody’s company. The share would have netted the family members $13.8 million by the second year of the deal, according to documents seized from Jefferson.

In another recording, Jefferson tells Mody about a New Orleans woman who gave $20,000 to an undercover officer. Jefferson called the woman “stupid by getting caught by the undercover guy.”

Jefferson also warns Mody about bringing too many people into the partnership.

“It’s better not to put all the hands in the pot if we don’t need to,” he said.

FBI Agent Timothy Thibault sat in the witness stand all day Thursday as prosecutors played the recorded excerpts and Thibault testified to their authenticity. Thibault told jurors that he was instructing Mody on how to conduct the secret meetings with Jefferson.

Jefferson, an 18-year veteran of Congress, has pleaded innocent to 16 public corruption counts including bribery, conspiracy, racketeering and money laundering. Government prosecutors allege that Jefferson promised to use his congressional influence and office to further the African projects in return for payments to himself and family members.

Jefferson has said he was acting as a private businessman and did not undertake official acts as a congressman, such as appropriating money, voting or introducing legislation.

FBI agents raided Jefferson’s Washington home on Aug. 3, 2005, and found $100,000 that it gave to Mody for Jefferson. The FBI said $90,000 of the money was found in Jefferson’s home freezer. They say the money was intended to bribe then-Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar.