basquebromance
Diamond Member
- Nov 26, 2015
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John W. Jenrette Jr., a flamboyant congressman who was convicted of taking a $50,000 bribe in the Abscam sting operation of the late 1970s, and who gained further notoriety after his wife told Playboy about a romantic rendezvous they had on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, died March 17. He was 86.
Jenrette, a liberal Dem from SC, was 1 of 7 members of Congress found guilty as a result of Abscam, an elaborate FBI sting operation that involved undercover agents posing as wealthy Arab sheikhs seeking favors for cash.
Yet he was also trailed by controversy: He struggled with debt and alcoholism, developed a reputation as a womanizer and was investigated for alleged misconduct that included campaign finance violations, illegal real estate deals and potential connections to drug smuggling. He was never charged with wrongdoing in those inquiries, and he remained popular back home even after his Abscam indictment, winning a primary runoff election less than two weeks after he was charged with bribery and conspiracy.
According to prosecutors, Jenrette accepted a $50,000 bribe, delivered to his office in a paper bag by a business associate, John R. Stowe. The payment was considered a first installment, split between the two men, and Jenrette allegedly planned to pocket an additional $125,000 by himself.
Jenrette denied taking bribe money, saying that he received only $10,000 from Stowe as a loan. At trial, he testified that he believed the operatives he met in Georgetown were mobsters, and blamed alcoholism for his lack of judgment.
“I was drunk, afraid and frightened,” he said, according to the 2017 book “Capitol Steps and Missteps,” by his former aides John F. Clark and Cookie Miller VanSice. “I would have told him anything to get out of there, like ‘I’ve got larceny in my blood.’ What I had in my blood was alcohol.”
Lawyers for Jenrette and other politicians ensnared in the Abscam sting argued that they were victims of government entrapment. Jurors were unswayed, as were most of Jenrette’s constituents: He was found guilty in October, and a month later he lost his reelection by 3% to John L. Napier, a Republican. He resigned from office in December, avoiding a House expulsion hearing, and went on to serve 13 months of a two-year prison sentence.
To avoid further entrapment controversies, the federal government changed its guidelines on undercover operations.
Abscam also inspired a hit movie, “American Hustle” (2013)
Decades later, in a 2011 interview with the New Yorker, Ms. Jenrette said that she had fabricated the detail about the Capitol steps, adding it to the Playboy article while trying to embrace a sexy new image. She went on to tell The Washington Post that she and her husband had “a romantic moment” on the steps “but not a salacious one.”
Jenrette contemplated a political comeback in 1988, announcing that he planned to run for his old congressional seat before changing his mind because of business debts and his federal probation.
“I made some mistakes, but I lived a great life,” he told a newspaper in 2018. “I’ve been blessed.”
Jenrette, a liberal Dem from SC, was 1 of 7 members of Congress found guilty as a result of Abscam, an elaborate FBI sting operation that involved undercover agents posing as wealthy Arab sheikhs seeking favors for cash.
Yet he was also trailed by controversy: He struggled with debt and alcoholism, developed a reputation as a womanizer and was investigated for alleged misconduct that included campaign finance violations, illegal real estate deals and potential connections to drug smuggling. He was never charged with wrongdoing in those inquiries, and he remained popular back home even after his Abscam indictment, winning a primary runoff election less than two weeks after he was charged with bribery and conspiracy.
According to prosecutors, Jenrette accepted a $50,000 bribe, delivered to his office in a paper bag by a business associate, John R. Stowe. The payment was considered a first installment, split between the two men, and Jenrette allegedly planned to pocket an additional $125,000 by himself.
Jenrette denied taking bribe money, saying that he received only $10,000 from Stowe as a loan. At trial, he testified that he believed the operatives he met in Georgetown were mobsters, and blamed alcoholism for his lack of judgment.
“I was drunk, afraid and frightened,” he said, according to the 2017 book “Capitol Steps and Missteps,” by his former aides John F. Clark and Cookie Miller VanSice. “I would have told him anything to get out of there, like ‘I’ve got larceny in my blood.’ What I had in my blood was alcohol.”
Lawyers for Jenrette and other politicians ensnared in the Abscam sting argued that they were victims of government entrapment. Jurors were unswayed, as were most of Jenrette’s constituents: He was found guilty in October, and a month later he lost his reelection by 3% to John L. Napier, a Republican. He resigned from office in December, avoiding a House expulsion hearing, and went on to serve 13 months of a two-year prison sentence.
To avoid further entrapment controversies, the federal government changed its guidelines on undercover operations.
Abscam also inspired a hit movie, “American Hustle” (2013)
Decades later, in a 2011 interview with the New Yorker, Ms. Jenrette said that she had fabricated the detail about the Capitol steps, adding it to the Playboy article while trying to embrace a sexy new image. She went on to tell The Washington Post that she and her husband had “a romantic moment” on the steps “but not a salacious one.”
Jenrette contemplated a political comeback in 1988, announcing that he planned to run for his old congressional seat before changing his mind because of business debts and his federal probation.
“I made some mistakes, but I lived a great life,” he told a newspaper in 2018. “I’ve been blessed.”
