The Daily Background

It’s really not a matter of whether or not William Jefferson (D-La, likely corrupt) will be indicted or not. It’s a question of when. And everything we’ve heard so far indicates that the answer to the “when” question is either June or July.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that the feds didn’t really need to raid his office late last week though. They already had plenty of evidence, including videotapes of him accepting bribes, audio recordings of him discussing illegal deals with associates, and even multiple plea agreements from businessmen who have admitted they bribed him– and the businessmen have agreed to cooperate with investigators and prosecutors as part of their plea deals. Jefferson is going to be taken down, with or without the evidence taken by the FBI when they raided his offices, and he probably knows it.

But that brings us back to the question of the raid itself. If they already had enough evidence (and they did) to convict him ten times over, then why raid his office to get even more? It’s very unlikely that they’re unsure of their case against Jefferson at this point, so they’re hardly desperate for more proof. Certainly not desperate enough to try and raid his offices when they likely predicted that it would create waves regarding the seperation of powers issue that the raid has spurred.

This is total and complete speculation on my part, but maybe could it indicate that perhaps he is not the only target of this investigation? Could it be possible that they raided his offices not to get additional evidence on him, but on some third party who they did not have enough evidence on yet? Another businessman? Dare I guess, another congressman?

Of course, the President has now pre-emptively sealed the evidence collected from Jefferson’s offices (and it sure was a lot of evidence) in an effort to sort the situation out before a full-blown battle between the executive branch (the FBI is regarded as an executive arm), and the congressional (not just Jefferson, but also powerful House leaders, both Democrat and Republican, who threaten to step into the battle if it ensues).

Will the FBI regain access to the sealed evidence? Did they raid his office to send a message to try and scare others? Is that evidence merely more on Jefferson, who they already have enough evidence on, and didn’t need to risk such an aggressive and controversial raid? Or was some of it regarding somebody else? (Signal X-Files music here).

Update: Man, I can really be a conspiracy theorist sometimes, haha. Anyways, TPM Muckraker has a really interesting article on the FBI raid, and more about where the situation stands right now.

Filed under: William Jefferson Related, Z-TDB Blog