For "Dollar Bill" Jefferson.

I'm sure we'll hear a lot of "punishment doesn't fit the crime" crap over the next couple days and we'll probably also be treated to a new round of "racism" charges, but I for one find the crime of betraying the public trust to be one serious enough to hand what will amount to a life sentence to a 62-year old. 

The defendant betrayed the public’s trust time after time by using his congressional office as a criminal enterprise to a further a pattern of racketeering acts of corruption and self-enrichment,” federal prosecutors wrote. “His crimes included no fewer than eleven distinct bribe schemes as well as a conspiracy involving an extraordinary and historically unprecedented to agreement to bribe the the-sitting Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar.”

According to DOJ estimate, these bribery schemes – which involved companies in west Africa – could have netted Jefferson and his family “hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Jefferson got $478,000 in bribe money, including $367,500 from Kentucky businessman Vernon Jackson. Jackson himself received a 87-month sentence, or more than seven years.

I have no sympathy for lawmakers who use their elected offices in nefarious ways to aggrandize their wallets at the expense of their constituents. 'Dollar Bill' was involved in a particularly egregious violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, by bribing another Head of State in Nigeria. As the Feds note, had they not broken up the scheme, Jefferson would have come away a millionaire hundreds of times over.

Good riddance Bill. 

Russ