Jury deliberates in Jefferson case

• By GERARD SHIELDS
• Advocate Washington bureau
• Published: Jul 31, 2009 - Page: 11A

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal judge on Thursday placed the fate of former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson into the hands of the jury overseeing his seven-week bribery trial.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III spent close to three hours reading the 135 pages of jury instructions.

Jefferson has pleaded innocent to 16 counts of public corruption, including bribery, conspiracy, money laundering and racketeering. The theme throughout the jury charge was that Jefferson need not have completed his alleged acts, only that he intended to commit the offenses.

On the racketeering charge, jurors will have to unanimously conclude that Jefferson committed two of the 12 alleged business schemes he set out to complete, Ellis said.

Prosecutors allege that Jefferson pushed business deals in Africa on behalf of American companies who were required in return to hire Jefferson family members as consultants. Only two of the projects Jefferson produced resulted in combined payments of about $400,000 to one company started by his wife and another by his brother.

Other projects that Jefferson pushed that never came to fruition could have reaped “hundreds of millions” of dollars, prosecutors said.

Ellis recited a broader definition for the term “official acts” than Jefferson’s attorneys had hoped. Jefferson contends that he was acting as a private businessman while promoting the companies. He never committed an official legislative act for the companies such as appropriating money, introducing legislation or voting on it.

But Ellis told the jury that official acts could include that Jefferson recommended the projects to African officials without telling them that he or his family had a financial interest in the arrangements.

In one count, Jefferson is charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The accusation surrounds the $100,000 that prosecutors claim that Jefferson planned to use to bribe the vice president of Nigeria. FBI agents found $90,000 of the money delivered to Jefferson by an FBI informant in the congressman’s Washington home on Aug. 3, 2005.

Ellis told the jury that although Jefferson never completed the delivery, he violated the law if they found that he promised to pay the money.

Ellis noted that it is not uncommon for the jury to receive the entire indictment of a defendant. Ellis decided not to give them the 93-page Jefferson indictment but told prosecutors to spell out the acts Jefferson is accused of committing.

“You’re already fortunate the whole indictment isn’t going back,” Ellis snapped at a protest from Jefferson lawyers. “They have to have some of this material.”

The jury deliberated four hours on Thursday. Within an hour of retiring to the jury room, jurors had Ellis and the lawyers reassemble to answer a question.