Supreme Court ruling in McDonnell case sets Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson free
Former Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana was set free Friday, five years into his 13-year prison sentence, when the judge who sentenced him vacated the majority of convictions against him for his involvement in political corruption in the early 2000s.
“I’m just grateful,” Jefferson said outside a federal courtroom in Alexandria on Friday morning.
Jefferson grabbed the nation's attention in 2005 when an FBI sting revealed that he was holding $90,000 in cash in his freezer for the president of Nigeria. The disgraced U.S. representative, who served the Bayou State on Capitol Hill for 18 years, was found guilty in 2009 of 11 counts of bribery and business dealings with multiple African governments.
While one charge was dropped not long after, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis sentenced Jefferson to 13 years, followed by three years of probation, and he began serving his prison sentence in November 2012.
Not long after Jefferson was put behind bars, another political corruption case blossomed, this time around Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell and his wife, Maureen. The McDonnells reportedly accepted more than $175,000 in loans and gifts from a local businessman in return for his exposure to state officials and industry leaders. McDonnell and his wife were indicted and convicted after the governor left office in January 2014.
But in June 2016, the Supreme Court vacated all charges against McDonnell and his wife under the premise that the definition of "official act" within the political corruption charges against them was too broad, making any public official guilty.
More on the McDonnell case
Because of the Supreme Court's more limited definition of political corruption, Ellis dropped seven of the remaining 10 charges against Jefferson in October this year and vacated another count of racketeering Friday. The two final conviction charges against Jefferson – bribery of international leaders – had in combination a statutory maximum sentence of five years.
Jefferson was released from prison in October after Ellis initially dropped charges, but he was released from court monitoring Friday.
"I’m going to go back home and have a Christmas dinner with my family,” Jefferson said outside the courthouse. “Whatever they want me to cook.”
When asked whether he felt he did anything wrong, given his two remaining corruption charges, The Washington Post reports that Jefferson said there’s “no point in talking about that now.”
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