Former congressman and Senate candidate from Tennessee Harold Ford, Jr.'s uncle, former state Sen. John Ford, has been convicted of bribery by a federal jury in Memphis. The jury deadlocked on a related charge of extortion, but found him not guilty of three counts of witness intimidation.
Woody Baird reports for the Associated Press:
The prosecution's case depended heavily on showing jurors an up-close look of the once-influential state senator stuffing his pockets with $100 bills counted one by one by an undercover FBI agent.
Ford's defense contended he thought he was being paid as a business consultant for a computer recycling company called E-Cycle Management. But the company was a fake created up for an FBI investigation of corruption among state officials. The sting, code-named Tennessee Waltz, arrested five sitting or former lawmakers and several local government officials.
Read the whole story at the above link. Ford could face a maximum of ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine, but is likely to draw a far lighter sentence as a first-time-being-caught-offender.
His nephew is currently the chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, the centrist group formed in part by Bill Clinton when still Governor of Arkansas to keep Democrats from veering too far to the left.
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Democrats, Legal action, Scandal
Tags: bribery, corruption, Democrat, Ford, Tennessee
Comments (3)
When you have a family of c... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Scrapiron | April 28, 2007 5:56 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
When you have a family of criminals the only shock is that they finally managed to convict one, waiting for the screams of racism. 5-4-3-2-
1. Posted by Scrapiron | April 28, 2007 5:56 PM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on April 28, 2007 17:56
2. Posted by Wethal | April 28, 2007 6:16 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
The NYTimes' version of the story did not even mention Ford's political affiliation. Why do I think it woud have been different if Ford have been Republican? No bias here. Move along.
2. Posted by Wethal | April 28, 2007 6:16 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on April 28, 2007 18:16
3. Posted by Kevin![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://wizbangpolitics.com/nav-commenters.gif)
| April 29, 2007 1:10 AM | Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
Woot, a Typekey authenticated comment...
3. Posted by Kevin![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://wizbangpolitics.com/nav-commenters.gif)
| April 29, 2007 1:10 AM |
Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on April 29, 2007 01:10