The Daily Background
| I was right: The Jefferson Raid wasn’t about Jefferson
by Arlen Parsa
This is so surreal. On Friday I wrote a piece in which I mused about the possibile signifigance of the search on William Jefferson’s office: specifically the idea that they certainly didn’t need to raid his office because they already have enough evidence to indict. I suggested that perhaps there were other targets they were considering, and that the raid was perhaps conducted to gain evidence on them, rather than just more evidence on Jefferson himself. The bigger fish theory, you might say. I wrote the following:
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?
At the time, I called myself a silly conspiracy theorist for wondering about it, but oddly enough I might have actually have been right. From today’s Washington Post:
Jefferson Probe Includes Other Suspected Schemes
The FBI is focusing on at least eight different suspected bribery schemes as part of its corruption probe of Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), according to a federal affidavit and sources familiar with the investigation.
[…]
an affidavit used in last weekend’s controversial search of Jefferson’s Capitol Hill office stated that authorities are looking at “at least seven other” bribery schemes in which Jefferson “sought things of value in return for his performance of official acts.”
No, not another congressman. But, another businessman? Maybe seven other businessmen. Looks like I wasn’t such a silly conspiracy theorist after all.
