ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republicans moved yesterday to seek Rep. William J. Jefferson’s expulsion from Congress, a day after the Louisiana Democrat was indicted on charges of taking more than $500,000 in bribes.
Mr. Jefferson, meanwhile, relinquished his seat on the House Small Business Committee before members of his own party could vote to oust him from the panel.
In a two-paragraph letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Mr. Jefferson, 60, said he was taking the step “in the light of recent developments in a legal matter.” He acknowledged no wrongdoing.
Republicans, citing Mrs. Pelosi’s election-season promise to run the most ethical House in history, sought Mr. Jefferson’s expulsion from the chamber, possibly before he goes on trial for the bribery charges.
House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, pushed for a vote late yesterday on a resolution to bar Mr. Jefferson from serving on any House committee and to direct the ethics committee to decide by July 11 whether the accusations in the indictment merit his expulsion, according to a partial draft of the document obtained by the Associated Press.
The final draft may not include a specific deadline by which the ethics committee must rule, according to a Republican leadership aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the resolution was still being written.
It’s unusual for the House in a resolution to specifically instruct the ethics committee to report whether a member’s expulsion is warranted. Usually such resolutions leave it to the committee to recommend appropriate sanctions after its investigation.
The unusual directive produced a rare retort from the chairman of the House ethics committee.
“It is inappropriate for any other member to impose on these proceedings,” Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Ohio Democrat and chairman of the Standards of Official Conduct Committee, said in a statement that did not mention Mr. Boehner by name. “I refuse to allow these proceedings to be politicized by House Republican leadership.”
An ethics committee probe seemed certain. Mrs. Pelosi, California Democrat, was expected to name 10 House Democrats to a pool from which the House ethics committee can choose if it decides to appoint a special subcommittee to investigate the charges against Mr. Jefferson.
A grand jury in Alexandria indicted Mr. Jefferson on Monday on 16 counts connected to a bribery investigation that could send him to prison for the rest of his life. The charges include racketeering, soliciting bribes, wire fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice and conspiracy. He faces a possible maximum sentence of 235 years.
The indictment said Mr. Jefferson received more than $500,000 in bribes and sought millions more in separate schemes to enrich himself by using his office to broker business deals in Africa. The charges came almost two years after investigators raided Mr. Jefferson’s home in Washington and found $90,000 in cash stuffed in his freezer.
Mr. Jefferson’s attorney has said his client is innocent.
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