Democrats Won’t Push Jefferson
Roll Call Staff
House Democrats will not publicly call on Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) to leave office, despite a guilty plea in federal court on Tuesday by Vernon Jackson, a Kentucky businessman who allegedly paid Jefferson and his family more than $450,000 in bribes.
Behind the scenes, Democratic insiders said that everyone from Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on down would love to see Jefferson resign from Congress, although they won’t make an open declaration about Jefferson because of internal party politics.
Among other things, the Democratic leadership does not want to alienate the Congressional Black Caucus by calling for Jefferson’s ouster. Several CBC members — including Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) and Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) — have donated to a legal defense fund set up by Jefferson in 2005, and African-American politicians have been concerned for years that law enforcement unfairly targets minority lawmakers for official scrutiny.
“There is a lot of sensitivity on the issue of African-American lawmakers being the subject of criminal investigations” by the FBI or other agencies, said an aide to one CBC member. “The leadership knows this and wants to step gingerly.”
Pelosi’s office would not comment directly on Jefferson’s political future, other than to say that each lawmaker has to take personal responsibility for his or her own actions.
“Every Member, Republican or Democrat, must obey the law and follow the rules,” said Jennifer Crider, Pelosi’s spokeswoman. “If they don’t, they will be held accountable.”
The Democratic lawmakers who would comment publicly on Jefferson’s case expressed shock and disappointment at the news of Jackson’s guilty plea, although none called for Jefferson to immediately step down.
“My initial reaction is that I’m surprised,” said Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. “That was an unusual turn of events and I don’t know what the implications are in terms of what he does and where we go from here.”
Republicans pounced on the news of a second guilty plea in the Jefferson probe as proof that Democrats as well as Republicans face corruption problems. Former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) was sent to federal prison this year for accepting more than $2.4 million in bribes, and Reps. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and John Doolittle (R-Calif.) are under investigation by federal and state officials.
“It appears to be only a matter of time before [Jefferson] is led out of the House chamber in handcuffs,” said Carl Forti, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “It’s getting to the point where it would be appropriate for Nancy Pelosi to tell him it’s time to leave.”
Democrats countered that neither Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) nor Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has called on Ney to step down, despite the fact that the Ohio Republican has been implicated in three plea agreements growing out of the Jack Abramoff scandal, including Abramoff’s own.
Jefferson, as he has done since news of the Justice Department probe into his activities became public last year, insisted that he was innocent and would be cleared of any allegation of wrongdoing.
“I was surprised and disappointed to learn of Vernon Jackson’s guilty plea and of his characterization of our relationship,” Jefferson said in a statement released by his office on Tuesday afternoon.
“As I have previously stated, I have never over all the years of my public service, accepted payment from anyone for the performance of any act or duty for which I have been elected. I am confident and am trusting God, that this simple fact will be established in the proper forum as I am innocent in the matter to which Vernon Jackson has plead guilty."
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