Feds: Lawmaker Hid Bribe In Freezer

Affadavit Says Rep. William Jefferson Accepted $100K From FBI Informant

(CBS/AP)  While the name of the intended recipient of the $100,000 is blacked out, other details in the affidavit indicate he is Abubakar Atiku, Nigeria's vice president. He owns a home in Potomac, Md., that authorities have searched as part of the Jefferson investigation.

According to the document, Jefferson assured the FBI informant in coded conversations that he paid the money to the Nigerian official, even though the money was still in Jefferson's possession when agents searched his home on Aug. 3.

On Aug. 1, two days after Jefferson picked up the $100,000, the informant allegedly called Jefferson to ask about the status of "the package."

Jefferson responded: "I gave him the African art that you gave me and he was very pleased."

According to the court document, when Jefferson and the informant had dinner at a Washington restaurant on May 12, 2005, the FBI was listening as Jefferson indicated he would need an increased stake in the profits of one deal. The affidavit says instead of the 7 percent stake originally agreed upon, he wrote "18-20" on a piece of paper and passes it to the informant.

That is when negotiations allegedly moved ahead, with notes back and forth, ending with Jefferson's laughter about the FBI watching it all.

The document says that throughout the conversations, Jefferson makes attempts to deflect direct connections to any bribes.

He is said to have told the informant at one point that money should be paid to businesses operated by his children. "I make a deal for my children. It wouldn't be me," Jefferson said, according to the affidavit.

In a different conversation, Jefferson seeks to distance himself from bribes that must be paid to Nigerian government officials to facilitate transactions.

"If he's gotta pay Minister X, we don't want to know. It's not our deal," Jefferson told the witness, according to the affidavit. "We're not paying Minister X a damn thing. That's all, you know, international fraud crap. We're not doing that. We're not doing any of that that gets us (unintelligible)."

The affidavit also spells out "seven other schemes" in which Jefferson was involved; nearly all were blacked out in the document.

The Jefferson investigation has provided fodder for Republicans who have suffered black eyes in the investigations of current and former GOP lawmakers, including Tom DeLay and Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Jefferson, who has pledged not to resign from Congress in the face of the bribery investigation, is said to speculate about his political future in one of the recorded conversations.

When the informant asked Jefferson about his political plans, he allegedly responded: "I'm gonna get your deal out of the way ... and I probably won't last long after that."