..the minute the brother's money was found in a freezer, it was a done deal....
Former Louisiana congressman William Jefferson was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison following his conviction in a corruption case that featured a freezer full of suspected bribe money stuffed into boxes of veggie burgers.
A federal judge in Alexandria, Va., handed down the sentence to Mr. Jefferson, a 62-year-old Democrat ousted by voters last year. He had been convicted by a jury of bribery, money laundering and racketeering in schemes that prosecutors said he devised to enrich himself and his family.
Prosecutors asked for a sentence of at least 27 years, which likely would have amounted to a life term and one that defense attorneys called unprecedented.
Mr. Jefferson's defense attorneys, who had hoped their client's sentence would be less than 10 years, have said they will appeal his conviction. In seeking leniency, they pointed out that Mr. Jefferson ascended from humble beginnings to "the nation's finest educational institutions and its highest corridors of power."
Neil H. MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, suggested a stiff penalty was in order. "Mr. Jefferson's repeated attempts to sell his office caused significant damage to the public's trust in our elected leaders," he said. "This sentence will begin to repair that damage and to restore that trust." read more here....
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