US Congressman planned to bribe Ghana govt officials

CNN just reported that Congressman William Jefferson's, representing Louisiana's second congressional district, arrest is partially linked to bribery allegation involving a communication business he has a stake in with Ghana, Nigeria .

Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana), was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in one-hundred-dollar bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana), also were recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer." Hard, cold cash. People are now wondering if this is the same cash that Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana), asked rescue personnel to take him to his fashionable home in New Orleans five days after Hurricane Katrina to get. Is that what he removed from his house along with other items?
"At one audiotaped meeting, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company's deal for work in Africa.
As Jefferson and the informant passed notes about what percentage the lawmaker's family might receive, the congressman 'began laughing and said, "All these damn notes we're writing to each other as if we're talking, as if the FBI is watching,"' according to the affidavit. Jefferson, who represents New Orleans, has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing." He said he's not going to plead guilty to something he didn't do, and the facts of this, he says, have been terribly, terribly misreported and are out of context.
He tells the informant at one point that money should be paid to businesses operated by his children. "I make a deal for my children. It wouldn't be me," Jefferson said, according to the affidavit.
In a different conversation, Jefferson seeks to distance himself from bribes that must be paid to Nigerian and Ghanain government officials to facilitate transactions.
"If he's gotta pay Minister X, we don't want to know. It's not our deal," Jefferson told the witness, according to the affidavit. "We're not paying Minister X a damn thing. That's all, you know, international fraud crap. We're not doing that. We're not doing any of that that gets us (unintelligible)."
The affidavit also spells out "seven other schemes" in which Jefferson was involved; nearly all were blacked out in the document.
The Jefferson investigation has provided fodder for Republicans who have suffered black eyes in the investigations of current and former GOP lawmakers, including Tom DeLay and Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
Jefferson, who has pledged not to resign from Congress in the face of the bribery investigation, speculated about his political future in one of the recorded conversations.
When the informant asked Jefferson about his political plans, he responded: "I'm gonna get your deal out of the way ... and I probably won't last long after that."
"As for the $100,000, the government says Jefferson got the money in a leather briefcase last July 30 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington. The plan was for the lawmaker to use the cash to bribe a high-ranking Nigerian official - the name is blacked out in the court document - to ensure the success of a business deal in that country, the affidavit said. All but $10,000 was recovered on Aug. 3 when the FBI searched Jefferson's home in Washington." They searched his Washington home.
"The money was stuffed in his freezer, wrapped in $10,000 packs and concealed in food containers and aluminum foil."