Jefferson takes the stand

Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) testified in open court for the first time Thursday in the wide-ranging corruption case against him, and challenged the FBI’s account of its raid last year on his New Orleans home.

Jefferson argued that he was coerced and was not read his Miranda rights during an early-morning interview that preceded the Aug. 3, 2005, raid. The lawmaker claimed the FBI used intimidating tactics, noting that an agent followed him, prevented him from closing the bathroom door and watched him while he was in the bathroom.

{mosads}He also testified that agent Tim Thibault, at one point toward the end of the interview, yelled at him: “Where is my goddamn money?” The same day, $90,000 was recovered in the freezer of Jefferson’s D.C. residence.

In previous testimony, Thibault acknowledged that he asked the question about where the money was, but he denied using any expletives or yelling.

Prosecutors drove home that point by asking Jefferson if Thibault’s alleged yelling had awakened his wife and daughter, who were asleep upstairs.

Jefferson maintained that the interview had grown “hostile” and Thibault had yelled, but conceded that it had not awakened his wife and daughter.

At that point, the lawmaker testified, he ended the interview and told agents that he did not want to discuss the matter further.

Thursday’s testimony took place at a pre-trial hearing in Alexandria, Va., in which Jefferson was trying to suppress evidence collected during the FBI search.

The lawmaker also disputed a claim that prosecutors made in a previous hearing about what he said after he viewed a DVD of himself accepting a briefcase from cooperating witness Lori Mody in the parking lot of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Pentagon City, Va. Prosecutors previously said that, after viewing the DVD, Jefferson slumped in his chair and said: “What a waste.”

On Thursday, Jefferson stated that he did not slump and that his comment was: “What a waste of time.” He added that he was willing to explain the comment, but the judge stopped the line of questioning.

The prosecution attempted to show that Jefferson was treated fairly during the interview and subsequent raid and that there was no effort to limit the lawmaker’s movements.

Thibault said Jefferson took and made phone calls during the interview, and prosecutors also emphasized that the agents did not wear bullet-proof vests or brandish weapons and spoke with Jefferson in a cordial manner.

Jefferson refuted the FBI agent’s testimony that he made phone calls during the interview by stating that his cell phone was turned off and in an upstairs bedroom, and that he also did not take any calls on the landline. In addition, he argued that he did not call a lawyer until the search had already begun at about 1 p.m. He then left the House to talk to the attorney, Jefferson said.

In cross-examination, however, prosecutors presented phone records showing that a call was made from Jefferson’s home phone to the U.S. House of Representatives’ general counsel’s office, lasting 7 minutes and 51 seconds.

“Did you make a call to the U.S. House of Representatives’ general counsel’s office?” asked Mark Lytle, the lead prosecutor for the government.

“Perhaps I did,” Jefferson replied.

But the lawmaker explained that the call was made after the interview was concluded. Prosecutors argued that Jefferson also took a call at 8:29 a.m. from Jim Creaghan, who is referred to as “Lobbyist A” in the indictment and who is a central figure in the case against Jefferson.

The lawmaker said he did not take that call, which according to phone records went on for more than three minutes, because his cell phone was turned off. When asked if his BlackBerry cell phone had the capability to take a voicemail that long, Jefferson told the court that it did.

When prosecutors asked Jefferson if he made the choice “freely and willingly” to allow FBI agents to enter his home, he replied that he had. In arguing that Jefferson was aware of his rights, the government’s attorneys also confirmed that Jefferson was a Harvard-educated lawyer who had earned his master’s in taxation law from Georgetown University and also had served as a prosecutor in the military’s Judge Advocate General program.

Jefferson said those experiences took place more than 30 years ago and that he had spent the lion’s share of his career as a business lawyer and knew little about search warrants and criminal law.

“I don’t practice this sort of law, so I don’t know it,” he said.

Judge T.S. Ellis III asked him who had taught his criminal law course at Harvard, and Jefferson told him it was the well-known longtime professor Alan Dershowitz.

“I doubt Alan Dershowitz would say you don’t know that much about criminal law,” Ellis interjected.