Chump change?

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Vern Humphrey

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In another thread, the $100,000 bribe Congressman William Jefferson was videotaped taking was described as "chump change" with the implcation it wasn't worth prosecuting.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060528/NEWS06/605280456/1012

FBI eyes 8 bribery schemes in Jefferson case

Corruption investigation looks into suspected pattern of money exchanged for favors

By Allan Lengel
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is focusing on at least eight different suspected bribery schemes as part of its corruption probe of embattled Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., according to a federal affidavit and sources familiar with the investigation.

A key part of the FBI probe has centered on Jefferson's dealings with a Louisville high-tech company, iGate, that was marketing broadband technology for the Internet and cable television in Africa.
But an affidavit used in last weekend's search of Jefferson's Capitol Hill office said authorities are looking at least seven other bribery schemes in which Jefferson "sought things of value in return for his performance of official acts."

Some of those schemes might be beyond the statute of limitations but could help show a pattern, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The records and materials seized during the FBI raid could shed more light on these areas, according to the affidavit.

Investigators are looking at a number of companies listed under the names of Jefferson, his wife or other relatives, according to court documents. Since January, two people have pleaded guilty to bribing him.
The affidavit discloses an alleged scheme in which Jefferson introduced officials from Netlink Digital Television (NDTV), a Nigerian company, to Vernon Jackson, the owner of iGate.

NDTV agreed to pay iGate nearly $45 million for the right to its technology and to distribute it in Nigeria. The affidavit alleges Jefferson, without iGate's knowledge, separately negotiated with NDTV officials to receive $5 for each subscriber in "return for Jefferson's official assistance if the deal was successful."

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Maybe, given the total take from the eight different schemes, $100K is chump change!
 
It was astonishing that "our representatives" apparently unanimously believed that they were, or should be, exempt from the execution of a search warrant. It makes me wonder how many others in Congress have documentation of shady dealings in their offices, which they previously believed were beyond the reach of the law. Now that they have quit screaming "unconstitutional" they are reportedly busy working out "protocols and procedures" for the execution of warrants - undoubtedly to ensure that they are never caught by surprise.

:barf: :barf: :barf:
 
i remember reading many years ago that foreigners were not surprised by our politicans taking bribe,but by how little they were willing to take to sell out.
 
Hey it is "only a $100,000 bribe." Hell in Congress that IS a chump change bribe. There is a tradition to uphold you know.:evil: :evil: :evil:

Kevin
 
Frist

Senator Frist is a puke. I wouldn't believe a thing Frist said if he were Jesus' brother. I have a dishrag in my sink with more charisma. And I've had dogs with more sense.
 
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Chump Change Defined

Since Vern is taking things out of context in a different thread, here's
some insight:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=2469877&postcount=128

My point was that people are missing the big picture. What is of more
interest is that far larger sums of money are being wasted and stolen
and not just within the so-called Long War on Global Terror.

Let's also not ignore another interesting part of the current investigation
was the possible Constitutional violation of searching a Congressmen's
papers in a Congressional office while Congress was in session. No one
has a problem with the search of the accused's home, but a Congressional
office is an entirely different matter.

One must ask why it was never done before? Why NOW?

Doesn't anyone else find it a little bit thought-provoking that the secret
police can set up a phone number database of the entire country's call
patterns, raid Congress under the guise of controlling inside crime, but
when evidence begins to appear that the Executive Branch may have
violated national and international law that they get to barf up the usual
"national security" line and NOT get searched or investigated?

Most of us are aware of this quote:

"Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer."

But how about this one:

"It will be an evil day for American liberty if the theory of a government outside of the supreme law of the land finds lodgment in our constitutional jurisprudence. No higher duty rests upon this court than to exert its full authority to prevent all violation of the principles of the Constitution." See Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244 (1901), Harlan dissenting.

So, with those thoughts in mind one must ask:
Is our Constitution worth $100K to throw away?

Vern,

My memory is long enough to include the shelling of the Russian Parliament,
but here's a quote:

In late September 1993, after Yeltsin signed a decree dissolving the Supreme Soviet, as the legislature was then called, the Communist-dominated parliament voted to remove the Russian leader and handed his powers to his vice-president Alexander Rutskoi, who joined the opposition.

Anti-Yeltsin protests began on October 2 and escalated the following day as parliament supporters barricaded themselves inside the White House (parliament building), seized the Moscow mayor's offices and took over part of the national television centre.

But on Monday October 4, troops and tanks loyal to Yeltsin opened fire on the White House and by the next morning the rebellion had been crushed.

The other ringleader of the rebellion, then parliament speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, remains unrepentant and maintains that he and his allies were faced with a presidential putsch.

"The systemic removal of all checks on the executive branch that followed the October events led to the rapid spread of corruption throughout the government," he wrote in a Moscow newspaper opinion piece this week.

"The people's right to elect its leaders has turned into farce in which money and the power of the government machine determine the outcome," said Khasbulatov, who was later pardoned along with other rebel leaders.

A decade later, Russians have changed their view and largely condemn the military crackdown. A poll published Saturday by the All-Russian Centre of Public Opinion Studies showed that 57 percent of people believed it was not justified.

Just 20 percent believe it was necessary to use force, down from 51 percent who said so in 1993, Interfax reported.

A senior lawmaker who serves as a presidential aide, Dmitry Rogozin, called for a fresh investigation into the assault on parliament and "punishment for those responsible," Interfax reported.

But Sergei Filatov, chief of presidential staff in 1993, said Yeltsin had no choice but to act forcibly to stop the country sliding into chaos in the face of armed opposition from hardline communist and nationalist lawmakers.

"Did he violate the Constitution? Yes, he did. Did he take a risk? Yes, he did. But he was relying on the fact that people had expressed their trust in him.

"The most frightening thing was to make a decision to shoot at your own people. But there was no other way. It (the revolt) had to be extinguished," he said in a Russian newspaper interview.
Click to expand...

Again, Vern,

Is our Constitution worth $100K to throw away?

Let's review history again:

"The systemic removal of all checks on the executive branch that followed the October events led to the rapid spread of corruption throughout the government," he wrote in a Moscow newspaper opinion piece this week.

"The people's right to elect its leaders has turned into farce in which money and the power of the government machine determine the outcome," said Khasbulatov, who was later pardoned along with other rebel leaders.
Click to expand...

Yeah, $100K is chump change.
 
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There may be some issues with the timing of a raid in a specific place at a specific time - I don't know, as I'm not an expert on the details of the separation of powers.

That said, corrupt officials need to be thrown out of office and prosecuted as early as the law (and/or Constitution) allows. Winning a popularity contest should not give a person the right to violate the laws of the land (McKinney, Jefferson, etc.).
 
JohnBT

No. Never met Al Gore either (another puke, and a commie to boot). You do have a point here, don't you? Or is this just a Southern-gentleman thing? Where I come from, we don't hem and haw and beat-around-the-bush, nor have we much tolerance for those who do--especially when coupled with pretensions to ante-bellum aristocracy.
 
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