Dollar Bill Jefferson Defense: He Never Intended to Follow Through with Bribe

In court papers made public Wednesday, defense lawyers for former Rep. William Jefferson provided the most detailed picture yet of how they intended to defend their client against charges that he sought to bribe to a foreign official.

The upshot: He was trying to save the government’s key witness from a mental meltdown.

Prosecutors claim that Jefferson intended to pay the vice president of Nigeria a $100,000 cash bribe in order to curry favor for a telecommunications deal involving Louisville-based iGate. After discussing the plan with iGate investor
Lori Mody, who at the time was secretly cooperating with the FBI, Jefferson retrieved a briefcase with the money from a Virginia parking lot. Most of the marked bills were later discovered in the congressman’s freezer, wrapped in tin foil and stuffed into pie crust and Boca Burger boxes.

But in the new filing — a motion asking the court to allow extra evidence at trial
— Jefferson’s legal team argues that the congressman was only placating Mody.

He feared that she might otherwise suffer an emotional collapse, which could have endangered the telecom venture. Jefferson, they said, had no plans to actually follow through with the bribe.

“Mr. Jefferson’s actions were motivated by a desire to assuage Mody’s concerns and to keep the deal moving forward so that she and the other investors could achieve financial success,” the filing states. “[H]e told her that he would do what she wanted in order to avoid an emotional collapse that could also have destroyed the business, not because he intended to do it.”

Read more from Legal Times.

And there is more... Jury hears profanity-laced call:

Jurors listened to a profanity-laced phone call in which Jefferson said he and iGate CEO Vernon Jackson would "end up in the goddamned pokey" if they angered one of the company's chief investors. During the call, Jackson had suggested replacing Virginia businesswoman Lori Mody, with whom he had a strained relationship. Jackson said he had found a new backer willing to step into her place. Jefferson called the idea "crazy," adding, "Lori's going to be filing suits."

After the tape played, Jackson told the jury he believed that Jefferson was worried that a lawsuit would expose the congressman's own relationship with iGate, which was not "aboveboard." Jackson pleaded guilty in 2006 to bribing Jefferson, using sham consulting agreements to hide his payments.