|
| FILE - In this March 20, 2012, file photo taken in Chicago, then-Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill. speaks at a Democratic primary election night party. The former and his wife Sandra were charged Feb. 15, 2013, with spending $750,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- In a spectacular fall from political prominence, former U.S.
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife agreed Friday to plead guilty to
federal charges growing out of what prosecutors said was a scheme to use
$750,000 in campaign funds for lavish personal expenses, including a
$43,000 gold watch and furs.
Federal
prosecutors filed one charge of conspiracy against the former Chicago
congressman and charged his ex-alderman wife, Sandra, with one count of
filing false joint federal income tax returns for the years 2006 through
2011 that knowingly understated the income the couple received. Both
agreed to plead guilty in deals with federal prosecutors.
Both
face maximum penalties of several years in prison; he also faces
hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and forfeitures. But the
government did not immediately release the text of its plea agreements.
Such agreements almost invariably call for prosecutors to recommend
sentences below the maximum.
The son of a
famed civil rights leader, Jackson, a Democrat, entered Congress in 1995
and resigned last November. Sandi, as she's known, was a Chicago
alderman, but resigned last month amid the federal investigation.
Jackson
used campaign money to buy such things as a $43,350 on a gold-plated,
men's Rolex watch and $9,587.64 on children's furniture, according to
court papers filed in the case. His wife spent $5,150 on fur capes and
parkas, the document said.
"I offer no excuses
for my conduct, and I fully accept my responsibility for the improper
decisions and mistakes I have made," the ex-congressman said in a
written statement released by his lawyers. "I want to offer my sincerest
apologies ... for my errors in judgment and while my journey is not yet
complete, it is my hope that I am remembered for things that I did
right."
Several messages left with Jackson's
father, the voluble civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, were not returned
Friday. The elder Jackson has often declined to comment about his son's
health and legal woes over the past several months.
The
government said, "Defendant Jesse L. Jackson Jr., willingly and
knowingly, used approximately $750,000 from the campaign's accounts for
personal expenses" that benefited him and his co-conspirator, who was
not named in the one-count criminal information filed in the case. The
filing of a criminal information means a defendant has waived the right
to have a grand jury consider the case; it is used by federal
prosecutors when they have reached a deal for a guilty plea.
The
prosecutors' court filing said that upon conviction, Jackson must
forfeit $750,000, plus tens of thousands of dollars' worth of
memorabilia items and furs. The memorabilia includes a football signed
by U.S. presidents, a Michael Jackson and Eddie Van Halen guitar, a
Michael Jackson fedora, Martin Luther King Jr. memorabilia, Malcolm X
memorabilia, Jimi Hendrix memorabilia and Bruce Lee memorabilia - all
from a company called Antiquities of Nevada.
The
conspiracy charge carries a maximum statutory penalty of up to five
years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and other penalties. U.S.
District Judge Robert L. Wilkins is assigned to the case.
Tom
Kirsch, an attorney for Jackson's wife said she has signed a plea
agreement with federal prosecutors and would plead guilty to one tax
count.
Kirsch said his client and her husband
have supported each other. He said the episode has been stressful for
Sandi Jackson, but she "expected to be held responsible ... and wants to
put (it) behind her and her family."
The
charge against Sandi Jackson carries a maximum of three-year prison
sentence. But Kirsch says the agreement "does not contemplate a sentence
of that length."
The court papers said that
Jackson filed false financial reports with the U.S. House of
Representatives in an attempt to conceal his and his wife's conversion
of campaign funds for their personal benefit.
A
black and red cashmere cape cost $1,500, a mink reversible parka cost
$1,200 and a black fox reversible cost $1,500, prosecutors wrote.
According the government's court papers:
-Jackson
and his wife carried out the scheme by using credit cards issued to
Jackson's re-election campaigns to pay personal credit card bills for
$582,772.58 in purchases by Jackson. Jackson provided his wife and a
long-time campaign treasurer $112,150.39, solely for having the two
carry out transactions that personally benefited Jackson.
-In
a false filing with the House, the owner of an unidentified
Alabama-based company issued a $25,000 check to pay down a balance on
one of Jackson's personal credit cards. Jackson's financial disclosure
statement with the House omitted the payment made on Jackson's behalf.
-In
a false campaign filing with the Federal Election Commission, an
unidentified treasurer for Jackson's campaigns reported that the
campaign spent $1,553.09 at a Chicago Museum for "room
rental-fundraiser." In fact, said the court papers, Jackson spent those
funds to buy porcelain collector's items.
Jackson's
resignation ended a once-promising political career tarnished by
unproven allegations that he was involved in discussions to raise
campaign funds for imprisoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in
exchange for appointment - which never came - to President Barack
Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat. The House Ethics Committee, which no
longer has any power over Jackson, may choose to issue a report on the
matter.
Jackson denied any wrongdoing in the
Blagojevich matter. But the suspicions, along with revelations that he
had had an extramarital affair, derailed any aspirations for higher
political office. It wasn't clear from the court papers whether the
woman with whom he had the affair was among the half dozen people
identified the documents by letters of the alphabet rather than by their
names.
Since last June, Jackson has been
hospitalized twice at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for treatment
of bipolar disorder and other issues, and he stayed out of the public
eye for months, even during the November elections.
