Espy donates to Jefferson’s legal defense fund

Former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, who was forced out of office in 1994 after allegations surfaced that he improperly took gifts from businesses and lobbyists, donated $1,000 to Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) legal expense fund in early June.

Espy, the first black person to hold the position of Agriculture secretary, was acquitted of 30 corruption charges brought against him by an independent counsel four years after leaving office.

The charges included accusations that he took $35,000 in gifts. He was also the first USDA chief from the Deep South and the youngest to serve in that cabinet post when President Clinton selected him at age 39 after three terms as a Mississippi congressman.

“He’s not unlike any other schoolyard bully,” Espy said of the prosecutor at the time of the acquittal. “You have to stand up to him. You have to let him know you’re not going to back down, and sooner or later it’s going to be OK.”

Espy made the contribution one day after Jefferson was indicted June 8 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. Jefferson pleaded not guilty to soliciting $500,000 in bribes from businessmen with interests in Africa, as well as to racketeering, obstruction of justice and money-laundering charges and vowed to “fight his heart out” and “to sell every stick of furniture” to fund his defense and clear his name.

Jefferson acknowledged that he made mistakes “along the way that I now deeply regret,” but insisted that he did not sell or trade official acts and did not bribe a foreign official.

He said the now-notorious $90,000 the FBI found in his freezer during a raid of his home did not amount to evidence of a bribe because he never gave it to the Nigerian vice president, for whom the FBI alleges it was intended.

Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus have urged members not to rush to judgment about Jefferson, arguing that all people, including members of Congress, are innocent until proven guilty.

Jefferson collected a total of $6,800 in contributions from nine individuals in June, including $1,000 from Rep. Donald Payne’s (D-N.J.) campaign committee. He reported no expenditures in the second quarter, the period from the beginning of April to the end of June. Since its founding, the defense fund has collected a total of $142,800, but it did not receive any contributions since October  2006.

Rep. Tom Feeney’s (R-Fla.) legal expense fund collected $33,500 in the first month of its existence, including $18,500 from five fellow members, according to second-quarter filings.

The FBI is looking into his ties with jailed former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and has asked him about a golfing trip he took with Abramoff to Scotland.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), and  the leadership PACs of GOP Reps. Pete Sessions (Texas), Spencer Bachus (Ala.) and  John Carter (Texas) as well as Mike Pence (Ind.), donated to the fund. Hensarling and Sessions and Bachus gave $5,000 each, while Carter and Pence donated $2,500 and $1,000, respectively.