Former Representative William “Cash in the Freezer” Jefferson CONVICTED of Corruption

Former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana was convicted Wednesday on 11 of the 16 corruption charges against him in a case that included the discovery of $90,000 in his freezer.

A federal court jury convicted Jefferson on four bribery counts, three counts of money laundering, three counts of wire fraud and one count of racketeering. He was acquitted on five other counts including wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

Jefferson, a 62-year-old Democrat, was indicted by a federal grand jury on June 4, 2007, about two years after federal agents said they found the cash in his freezer. Authorities said the cash was part of a payment in marked bills from an FBI informant in a transaction captured on video.

Jefferson had pleaded not guilty. He faces a maximum possible sentence of 150 years in prison, with sentencing tentatively set for October 30.

After the verdict on the fifth day of jury deliberations, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis turned down a prosecution request for Jefferson to be taken into custody, ruling that he posed no flight risk.

The verdict showed that “no person, not even a congressman, is above the law,” said U.S. Attorney Dana Boente of the Eastern District of Virginia. Asked what might have turned the case in the prosecution’s favor, Boente said: “We always thought that a powerful piece of evidence in this case was $90,000 in a freezer.”

A stern-faced Jefferson emerged from the courthouse with his lawyer, Robert Trout, who said the verdict would be appealed.

Jefferson can appeal but it looks to Flap that he is going to federal prison after almost four years of legal wrangling after the cash was found in Jefferson’s freezer.

Interestingly enough, Jefferson was acquitted on the charge involving the $90,000 in frozen cash that purportedly was to be delivered to the Vice President of Nigeria.

However, the Harvard Law School graduate and the first African American Congressman from Louisiana since Reconstruction will be spending his retirement days pondering the frozen cash and what ruin plus shame it brought him and his family.

Graphic courtesy of Flip

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