White_Male_Canada
06-04-2007, 07:24 PM
UPDATE: Democrat W. Jefferson indicted.
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Sources tell CBS News that authorities are seeking an indictment against Congressman William Jefferson, D-La., on more than a dozen counts involving public corruption.
Jefferson has been the subject of a ongoing probe in which FBI agents allegedly found more than $90,000 in cash in his freezer in August 2005.
CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports that the Justice Department is expected to unveil the charges later today.
This was the latest development in the 16-month international investigation of Jefferson, who allegedly accepted $100,000 from a telecommunications businessman, $90,000 of which was later recovered from a freezer in the congressman's Louisiana home.
Last year prosecutors and the FBI seized nearly 19,000 pages of documents and electronic files from his office.
Jefferson's attorney argued before a federal judge last month that the seizure was unconstitutional because, while FBI agents looked for documents related to a criminal bribery investigation, they also examined many other records related to Jefferson's work as a legislator, in violation of the constitutional principle that the executive branch may not use its law enforcement powers to infringe on the independence of the legislative branch.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/04/politics/main2882231.shtml
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Sources tell CBS News that authorities are seeking an indictment against Congressman William Jefferson, D-La., on more than a dozen counts involving public corruption.
Jefferson has been the subject of a ongoing probe in which FBI agents allegedly found more than $90,000 in cash in his freezer in August 2005.
CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports that the Justice Department is expected to unveil the charges later today.
This was the latest development in the 16-month international investigation of Jefferson, who allegedly accepted $100,000 from a telecommunications businessman, $90,000 of which was later recovered from a freezer in the congressman's Louisiana home.
Last year prosecutors and the FBI seized nearly 19,000 pages of documents and electronic files from his office.
Jefferson's attorney argued before a federal judge last month that the seizure was unconstitutional because, while FBI agents looked for documents related to a criminal bribery investigation, they also examined many other records related to Jefferson's work as a legislator, in violation of the constitutional principle that the executive branch may not use its law enforcement powers to infringe on the independence of the legislative branch.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/04/politics/main2882231.shtml