Ohio congressman convicted in federal corruption case

By Paul Singer

Associated Press

CLEVELAND (AP) – Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., the blustery congressman who insisted on defending himself against what he called a government vendetta, was convicted Thursday of federal corruption charges.

The nine-term Democrat was found guilty on all 10 charges he faced, including racketeering, bribery and fraud.

After each count, the judge asked Traficant if he wanted the jurors to restate their verdict.

“No,” he replied softly, standing with his hands folded in front of him.

The sentencing date was not immediately set. He faces up to 63 years in prison, but will probably receive a much shorter term under federal guidelines. He could be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Traficant, 60, could also be expelled from the House by his colleagues, something that has happened only once since the Civil War.

Traficant contended the government came after him because he beat the FBI in a racketeering case 19 years ago, when he was a Mahoning County sheriff accused of taking mob money.

He was elected the next year to the House, where he quickly became known for his unruly hair, loud wardrobe and tempestuous floor speeches in which he railed against federal agencies, from the Justice Department to the IRS. The rants often ended with an exasperated “Beam me up!”

The trial was raucous, often comic and occasionally vulgar, with Traficant roaring at the judge, crudely questioning the prosecutor’s manhood and using barnyard epithets to describe what he thought of the government’s case.

Among the charges against Traficant were filing false tax returns, receiving gifts and free labor from businessmen for his political help and taking cash kickbacks and free labor from staff.

Prosecutors argued that several Youngstown businessmen provided free work on the congressman’s houseboat and horse farm, and Traficant, in exchange, lobbied state and federal regulators on their behalf.

They also said he required some staff members to pay him a portion of their salaries and others to work at his farm on government time.

Traficant represented himself, though he is not an attorney and often was chastised by the judge for not following procedure. Throughout the 3 1/2-month long trial, he shouted at witnesses, government attorneys and the judge. At one point, he stormed out of the courtroom to retrieve a witness.

“Goodbye, congressman,” U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells said to his empty chair.

By Traficant’s own admission, the trial was no “walk in the park.” His cross-examinations were random and frequently self-destructive. He promised to haul a 600-pound welding machine into court and insisted it was never offered to him as a bribe. It never showed up, and Traficant later said the government had stolen it.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, called 55 witnesses to testify against Traficant and submitted as evidence bank records showing large cash deposits to his accounts and a briefcase full of cash that one witness said the congressman asked him to hide.

Former Traficant staff member Allen Sinclair testified that the congressman hired him under an agreement that he would give his boss $2,500 in cash each month.

When the FBI began investigating the congressman, Sinclair said, Traficant brought him $24,500 in cash and asked him to hide the money and burn the envelopes it had arrived in.

Prosecutors also called former contractor Anthony Bucci, who testified that he dropped a lawsuit against Traficant over an unpaid $13,000 bill in exchange for the congressman’s help with federal and state regulators.

“We were basically going to sue a congressman, or for $13,000, we were going to own him,” Bucci said.

Traficant said many of the government’s witnesses had previously lied under oath or struck deals with the government to testify. He also argued that helping local businesses was part of his obligation as a congressman.

“I didn’t force anybody to do anything. You know what I did: I fought like hell for my people!” he shouted in opening statements.

Traficant contended the government had been out to get him because of his 1983 acquittal, but the judge prohibited him from making the alleged vendetta part of his defense. He argued he was targeted for prosecution because he dared to challenge the power of the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI.

Traficant’s Youngstown-area district was eliminated this year, but he has said he will run for re-election as an independent in a neighboring district.

Under U.S. House rules, a felony conviction involving a member of Congress triggers an automatic investigation by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

Penalties could include expulsion, censure, reprimand, fines or committee removal. Traficant, who angered many Democrats by voting to elect Republican Dennis Hastert as speaker, has already been stripped of a committee assignment.

Expulsion requires the approval of two-thirds of the 435-member House, and has happened to only one congressman in the last 141 years: In 1980, Rep. Michael Myers, D-Pa., was expelled for accepting money from undercover FBI agents posing as Arab sheiks seeking favors from Congress.