Former congressman William J. Jefferson was convicted of corruption charges Wednesday in a case made famous by the $90,000 in bribe money stuffed into his freezer and a legal battle over the raid of his Washington office that reached the highest levels of the U.S. government.
Federal jurors found the Louisiana Democrat guilty of using his congressional office as a criminal enterprise to enrich himself, soliciting and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to support his business ventures in Africa. The eight-woman, four-man jury convicted Jefferson of 11 of 16 counts that included solicitation of bribery, racketeering and money laundering.
…Jefferson, 62, faces up to 150 years in prison when he is sentenced Oct. 30. Judge T.S. Ellis III rejected prosecutors’ efforts to send the former lawmaker to jail in advance of sentencing, allowing Jefferson to remain free on bond.
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