The entire Jefferson family is now in jail or under inditment for bribery and corruption. Great leaders of the DEM-LEFT in LA
Former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson has added a prominent appellate attorney to his effort to reverse a jury verdict that convicted him last summer on 11 of 16 corruption charges, leading to a prison sentence of 13 years.
Lawrence Robbins, according to a filing last week, will work with two of Jefferson's trial attorneys, Robert Trout and Amy Jackson.
The filing says that Jefferson's wife, Andrea, and his adult children agreed to pay Robbins' fee, which is described as "steeply discounted from" the usual amount Robbins and his firm normally charge "for comparable appellate work." The Jeffersons have five grown daughters.
Robbins, like Jefferson, is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and according to his firm's website, has argued 18 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. His appellate clients include former Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was convicted of obstruction of justice and two counts of perjury but had his 30-month prison sentence commuted by President George W. Bush.
Jefferson, 63, who served nine terms as the Democratic congressman from New Orleans, remains free pending resolution of his appeal.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals won't set a briefing schedule and a date for oral arguments until the voluminous transcript from the eight-week trial is provided by the court reporter. The court has extended the deadline for the transcript until June 23, but the court reporter, Michael Rodriquez, had said previously he would need until May 2011, to complete it. The trial began one year ago.
Rodriquez faces financial penalties if he doesn't meet the June 23 deadline.
Regarding the transcript, Jefferson's filing asks that Judge T.S. Ellis III continue an order that allowed the cost of compiling the thousands of pages of witness testimony, statements and questions of lawyers, prosecutors and Ellis to be paid for by taxpayers. The court reporter had pegged the cost at $26,000. But the filing says that Jefferson no longer will seek court reimbursement for Trout and Jackson, whose firm was owed more than $5 million, according to a filing last year by Jefferson and his wife in New Orleans bankruptcy court.
But federal prosecutor Mark Lytle, in a separate filing last week, asks that Ellis take a closer look at Jefferson's finances to see if he has the resources to pay the $26,000 cost of the transcript.
The filing says that the Justice Department negotiated with the defendant to receive half of his share of $168,000 from his congressional retirement account, minus IRS penalties for early withdrawal and withholding, to cover forfeiture costs ordered by Ellis after the guilty verdicts. That would have left $168,000 for Jefferson.
Lytle said the court should see if the retirement funds and the $9,459.22 in combined monthly income the family receives, are sufficient to cover the new attorney's fees and the costs of the transcripts.
Jefferson was convicted on corruption charges related to what prosecutors said was a scheme in which he demanded, and in some cases, received payments from business executives to family owned businesses in return for his help getting contracts in Western Africa.
A key argument in the appeal is likely to be Jefferson's contention that his actions weren't related to his official duties, thereby voiding the bribery-related charges, an argument that Ellis rejected during trial. The attorneys also are expected to argue that Ellis made reversible errors, including not telling the jury about a sexual relationship between cooperating witness Lori Mody, who secretly recorded conversations with Jefferson, and an FBI agent assigned to the case. It was Mody who handed Jefferson a briefcase with $100,000 in marked $100 bills from the FBI, most of which was later found in the freezer of the then congressman's Washington, D.C., townhouse.
Replies