WASHINGTON — An indictment charging Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., in a long-running bribery investigation is being announced Monday, federal officials said. The indictment is being handed up in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. A press conference was being organized for late Monday in Washington to discuss the case.| Update at 15:05 EDT: Jefferson indicted on 16 counts |
Jefferson was not immediately available for comment. The charges will not impact his ability to serve in Congress while awaiting trial.
The indictment pulls back the cover on a government investigation that became public when the FBI raided the congressman's Capitol Hill townhouse in August 2005, finding $90,000 stashed in his freezer. Prosecutors say the cash was part of the $100,000 that an informant had handed Jefferson days earlier in a northern Virginia parking garage.
Jefferson, 60, who won reelection in December despite the publicity from the probe, has steadfastly maintained his innocence and said last year there is "an honorable explanation" for the money and other allegations, some based on conversations secretly recorded by the informant.
The FBI's sting operation, the first of its kind since the Abscam probe targeting corrupt members of Congress in the 1970s, has already sent two former Jefferson associates to prison. Both acknowledged taking part in a scheme to funnel money to companies controlled by the nine-term congressman and his family in exchange for his help in promoting a telecommunications business in Nigeria and Ghana.