Jefferson: Freezer Money Was Really the FBI’s
If you’re going to lie, you might as well come up with a doozy:
[Rep. William J.] Jefferson [(D-La.)], who was indicted on charges that he used the power of his office to enrich himself and his family, emerged from U.S. District Court here with rhetorical guns blazing. “I’m going to fight my heart out to clear my name,” he said.
The case against Jefferson became notorious after it was disclosed that the congressman, according to the indictment, accepted $100,000 in marked bills from an investor in a fledgling digital technology firm. The indictment said Jefferson told the investor, who had agreed to cooperate with the FBI, that the money would gain him access to the Nigerian market. The FBI later reported finding $90,000 of the marked bills wrapped in foil and “concealed inside various frozen food containers” in a freezer in Jefferson’s home.
“The $90,000 was the FBI’s money,” Jefferson said Friday in his first public explanation. “The FBI gave it to me as part of its plan — part of their plan — that I would give it to the Nigerian vice president, but I did not do that.
Good enough for me.
And probably good enough for the voters in his district.