Former U.S. Rep.?Jesse?Jackson?Jr. and his wife have agreed to plead guilty to federal charges in an alleged scheme to spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal items.
Then-Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill. speaks at a Democratic primary election night party in Chicago last March. The former congressman and his wife Sandra were charged Friday with spending $750,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses.
M. Spencer Green/AP
EnlargeThe prospect of prison looms over former U.S. Rep.?Jesse?Jackson?Jr. and his wife after they agreed to plead guilty to charges in an alleged scheme to spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal items ? including furs, a gold watch, a football signed by U.S. presidents and even a hat once owned by Michael?Jackson.
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It wasn't immediately clear how much time either?Jackson?could end up doing when the legal drama inevitably reaches its climax before a federal sentencing judge within a few months. But judges frown on brazen breaches of public trust, said one former federal prosecutor, and that may mean the former Chicago congressman will likely to have to serve at least a few years behind bars.
"It shows hubris and arrogance that a politician sees his campaign coffers as his to spend as he likes," said Jeff Cramer, who as an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago worked on multiple corruption cases. "With these kinds of charges, I cannot imagine him not going to prison ... for 3 1/2 or 4 1/2 years."
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He thought Mrs. Jackson, at most, would spend several months in prison.
Prosecutors are reluctant to ask judges to send couples with school-age children, like the?Jacksons, to prison for long terms simultaneously ? so it's possible, Cramer said, that the government will seek to stagger their sentences in such a way that the?Jacksons?aren't behind bars at the same time.
Federal prosecutors on Friday filed one charge of conspiracy against the former congressman and charged his ex-alderman wife, Sandra, with one count of filing false joint federal income tax returns for the years 2006 through 2011 that knowingly understated the income the couple received. Both agreed to plead guilty in deals with federal prosecutors.
Both face maximum penalties of several years in prison; he also faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and forfeitures. But the government did not immediately release the text of its plea agreements. Such agreements almost invariably call for prosecutors to recommend sentences below the maximum.
The son of a famed civil rights leader,?Jackson, a Democrat, entered Congress in 1995 and resigned last November. Sandi, as she's known, was a Chicago alderman, but resigned last month amid the federal investigation.
Jackson?used campaign money to buy a $43,350 gold-plated, men's Rolex watch and $9,587.64 on children's furniture, according to court papers filed in the case. His wife spent $5,150 on fur capes and parkas, the document said.
"I offer no excuses for my conduct, and I fully accept my responsibility for the improper decisions and mistakes I have made," the ex-congressman said in a written statement released by his lawyers. "I want to offer my sincerest apologies ... it is my hope that I am remembered for things that I did right."
Several messages left with?Jackson's?father, the voluble civil rights leader?Jesse?Jackson, were not returned Friday. The elder?Jackson?has often declined to comment about his son's health and legal woes over the past several months.
The government said, "Defendant?Jesse?L.?Jackson?Jr., willingly and knowingly, used approximately $750,000 from the campaign's accounts for personal expenses" that benefited him and his co-conspirator, who was not named in the one-count criminal information filed in the case. The filing of a criminal information means a defendant has waived the right to have a grand jury consider the case; it is used by federal prosecutors when they have reached a deal for a guilty plea.
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