Life Imitates Spam

This would be funnier if it wasn’t so pathetic.

A congressman under investigation for bribery was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer.

At one audiotaped meeting, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company’s deal for work in Africa.
…

As for the $100,000, the government says Jefferson got the money in a leather briefcase last July 30 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington. The plan was for the lawmaker to use the cash to bribe a high-ranking Nigerian official–the name is blacked out in the court documen–to ensure the success of a business deal in that country, the affidavit said.

In case you didn’t remember, Jefferson is the congressman who commandeered a National Guard squad and their truck in the immediate aftermath of Katrina so that he could recover, er, documents from his New Orleans home.

As it happens, the VodkaPundit investigative bureau has recently come into posession of faxed documents which we believe were at the heart of this matter. The crucial document reads as follows:

“Dear Congressman Jefferson,

“I am Mr John Eze, a native of Kano in Nigeria and I
am an Executive Accountant with the Nigeria ministry of mineral
resources and energy.

“I have decided to seek a confidential co-operation with you in the
execution of a deal described here under for the benefit of all
parties and I hope you we keep it as a top secret because of the
nature of this transaction…”