Posted July 18, 2006 by J. Gerald Hebert and Josh Bennett
Justice Delayed In Congressional Scandals 
Justice delayed is justice denied, and right now it appears that Americans are being denied justice by Justice. Despite substantial and damning evidence against two Members of Congress, the United States Department of Justice has yet to indict either Representative William J. Jefferson (D-LA) or Representative Bob Ney (R-OH).
This week a federal judge ruled the FBI raid on Representative Jefferson’s office in May was constitutional and since late last month Representative Ney has seen two more staffers subpoenaed and three other top aides leave his staff. Both Congressmen have former aides and associates who have entered guilty pleas stemming from federal investigations and both Members have been directly implicated. In other words, the writing seems to be on the wall and given what we know about each, it is hard to imagine why the Justice Department has yet to act against these two Members of Congress identified as “Representative A” and “Representative #1” in affidavits and the guilty pleas of others.
As a former federal prosecutor of civil rights violations, I spent many years assembling complex cases once piece of evidence at a time. A number of those cases involved thousands of pages of documents and hundreds of potential witnesses. Oftentimes, in discussing the case with prospective witnesses or attorneys in outside organizations, they would express their frustration at how slow we at Justice were moving. So this delay at Justice may well be legitimate, and is not something with which I am totally unsympathetic. At the same time, however, whenever my colleagues at Justice and I had reached the point that we had a very solid case, we acted swiftly. Many federal prosecutors, including those within DOJ and those who have left, are wondering why on earth the Department has not yet acted in these two cases. Consider the facts.
The evidence against Representative Jefferson is overwhelming and more than sufficient to obtain an indictment from a grand jury. An FBI informant captured video and audiotape of Representative Jefferson taking a $100,000 bribe in a hotel room. Nearly all of that money was found in Jefferson’s freezer, either wrapped in tinfoil or inside food containers. Documents show that Jefferson planned to bribe Nigerian Vice-president, Abubakar Atiku, with that money in an effort to cement a business deal.
And as if that isn’t enough, two individuals close to Jefferson have implicated him in bribery schemes: businessman Vernon Jackson copped to bribing Jefferson to the tune of $400,000; former aide, Brett M. Pfeffer, pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy charges which included a charge that “Representative A,” a.k.a. Jefferson, demanded a bribe before agreeing to help a telecommunications company land a contract in Nigeria. And that’s just what we know from information the Justice Department has released publicly. The nearly 100 page affidavit that was attached to the search warrant of Jefferson’s congressional offices revealed that Jefferson is also involved in “seven other schemes,” the details of which were all blacked out in the search warrant affidavit. Despite the weight of this evidence, and more than a month after searching Jefferson’s offices, the Justice Department has yet to bring an indictment.
Likewise, Justice has brought no charges against “Representative #1,” a.k.a. Representative Bob Ney, who is up to his neck in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and has already been implicated in the guilty plea of his former chief of staff, Neil Volz. Moreover, according to a press release from Justice, “in exchange for [certain] things of value,” such as lavish golfing trips, campaign contributions, meals, tickets to sporting events, etc., “Abramoff sought and received [Ney’s] agreement to perform directly and through others a series of official acts[.]” These acts included: 1) placing statements in the Congressional Record to advance a business deal for Abramoff; 2) using his position as Chairman of the House Administration Committee to endorse and support a certain wireless company which was a client of Abramoff’s; 3) passing a bill to lift the federal government’s gaming ban on behalf of two Native American tribes (also Abramoff clients).
Ney was true to his word in each case. First, Ney placed statements in the Congressional Record regarding “unnerving” conduct of SunCruz Casinos in Florida to create pressure for new ownership at a time when Abramoff was attempting to buy the company. Second, Ney used his position as Chairman of the House Administration Committee to aid Abramoff’s wireless client when Ney approved a license for the company to install its equipment in the Capitol and House office buildings. Third, Ney tried to pass a bill that would have lifted a gaming ban against the Tigua Indians, thereby allowing the Tiguas to open a casino. For that ultimately unsuccessful effort, the Tiguas donated $32,000 to Ney’s PAC. When asked by Senate investigators about his involvement in this effort, Ney inexplicably told the investigators that he was not “familiar with the Tigua” even though his own attorney found a calendar entry indicating that the Congressmean met with the “Taqua.” In the face of this evidence, Justice has not brought an indictment against Ney for his misconduct either.
This brings us back to the question of the delay. It is often said that an indictment is so easy to obtain a prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich. Given the evidence already obtained against both Jefferson and Ney, this sandwich is now getting stale.
If, as a Justice Department official recently told reporters, “[p]ublic corruption is not a victimless crime,” and “all of us lose when people believe public officials can be bought,” what happens when people see public officials can be bought and then we see no action by those who can prosecute these wrongdoers? If Justice is waiting until after the fall elections to bring these indictments, they do a great disservice to the American people in general and to the constituents in these two Congressional districts in particular. Voters are not served well when their representatives are on the take and can be bought by the highest bidders. Justice knows that, and should get on with it.
