Meet James Traficant
"I will break out of prison and I'll make a neck tie out of some these bureaucrats"

Who Is James Traficant?

James A Traficant Jr. born in Youngstown, Mahoning County, Ohio, May 8, 1941. He graduated from Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown, Ohio in 1959. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, and another M.S. from Youngstown State University. He served as executive director for the Mahoning County, Ohio Drug Program from 1971-1981, as sheriff of Mahoning County, Ohio from 1981-1985 and was elected as a Democrat to the house or representatives in 1985.

As director of the Mahoning County drug program he established a Parent Awareness Group in Ohio to educate families about substance abuse. As sheriff, he greatly expanded the number of community crime watch programs in Mahoning and neighboring Trumbull County. He also put in place aggressive drug enforcement programs.

Sheriff Traficant made national headlines by refusing to enact foreclosure orders on the homes of several unemployed workers. He openly defied a court order and spent three days in jail to protest the proceedings and draw attention to the plight of unemployed homeowners.

His 1984 low-budget, grassroots campaign for Congress was somewhat historical. Despite being outspent seven to one by an incumbent Republican, Traficant won handily by 18,000 votes. He has been re-elected seven times, in each instance garnering at least 68 percent of the vote. In 1992 he received more than 216,000 votes -- the third highest total of any House member.

Traficant is currently serving an eight year federal prison term for racketeering, bribery and income tax evasion. He was expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives on July 24, 2002, because he violated 3 conduct rules based on the criminal elements of his conviction. He was sent to prison six days later. In what amounts to a vague light of hope, however remote, the attorney now representing ex-Congressman Traficant, Mr. Richard Kerger, has argued in federal court that his client deserves a new trial in Ohio due to an unconstitutionally drawn jury and elements of double jeopardy.

Traficant has complained about a government vendetta since he beat the FBI in a bribery case in Columbus, Ohio, in 1983, also while defending himself. Traficant, who was a county sheriff at the time, used the victory to propel himself to Congress in 1984.

The only other House member to be kicked out since the Civil War was Rep. Michael Myers, D-Pennsylvania, who was expelled in 1980 for accepting money from undercover FBI agents.

Congressman Traficant's Last Speech

Delivered 24 July 2002:

Ladies and gentlemen, you heard on the news, the first national news story that I was involved in, a murder scheme by contract. It made national headline news. The woman was a friend of mine. She was so distraught, she called me every name in the book by phone. I didn't know what she was talking about.

She later called and recanted, after they put her in protective custody for 8 weeks, paid $800 to keep her dogs in Kentucky, and then brought her to the grand jury twice. And when she said that JIM TRAFICANT committed no crimes, then they demeaned her. But through the process they told her, to ensure her safety, to go public.

Now, if you are a juror and you have heard about a JIM TRAFICANT, if that isn't poisoning a voir dire, what is?

But then the next one that was in the national news was the $150,000 barn addition. Now, I am an old sheriff. Finally a man with a conscience, Henry Nimitz, sees me at a restaurant and comes up and says, ``JIM, I want to apologize. They were going to indict me, take away my business, ruin my life. My attorney said, why do you have to spend a half a million dollars? Tell them what they want to hear. I did, and I feel like a coward.''

But what he failed to recognize, I had a friend with me by the name of John Innella. I immediately went back to my office and did an affidavit with John Innella. Then the next day, as an old sheriff, I called Mr. Nimitz' girlfriend, who admitted that Mr. Nimitz called and admitted what he said to JIM TRAFICANT. So now the $150,000 barn was not brought.

Now, I am going to get right to the point. I want you to imagine there is a small army of patriots, and they are facing a gigantic army armed to the teeth. And the captain, trying to show strength, calls his assistant and says, ``Go to the tent and get my bright red vest.''

He goes and gets the red vest. He puts the red vest on, and he says, ``To show the power and courage of our people, without a sidearm I am going to carry this sword and I am going to attack the enemy, and, as they slay me, the blood will not be seen because of my bright red vest and you will be encouraged to fight for our homeland.'' He gave a banshee cry. He ran out into battle and was destroyed.

His assistant come up and he called his attendant. He said, ``Go to the tent and get me those dark brown pants.''
Think about it.

Tonight I have dark pants on. Am I scared to death? No. I will go to jail before I will resign and admit to something I didn't do.

Now, I want to go case by case. Forget all these witnesses. The judge's husband is a senior partner in the law firm that represented one of the key witnesses in my case, and that is part of now legal action relative to 28 U.S.C. 455. In addition, that person, Cafaro, I am not going to mention names, admitted giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to politicians, I might add, mostly Democrats.

He said he gave me a $13,000 bribe. Because we were at a public meeting, he said he waited until everybody left, and then we walked out together, we got in his car, and he gave me the money.

One of the attorneys handling my appeal is a bright young black attorney by the name of Attorney Percy Squire, Chief Clerk to the Chief Judge of the Northern District of Ohio, and I called him as a character witness. And he said, ``JIM, what do you want me as a character witness for? I came late to that event where you were trying to put a quarter percent sales tax together, so you could leverage funds, and I walked you out and saw you get in the green truck,'' that another witness said he picked me up in a green truck, because his had a cap on, and we had built prefab siding for a hunting hut. We went and got my truck and went and put the hut up.

And they accepted Cafaro's testimony even though he admitted to lying in a previous RICO trial. That is one count.
Richard Detore is a patriot. I didn't subpoena Detore because his attorney said, ``Don't subpoena Richard, subpoena me.'' To tell you the truth, I was a gentleman, and I did it. I felt sorry for him.

Before I was indicted, before Detore was indicted, I have a tape where he says everything on that tape that he told the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. He said, ``JIM, I think I am living in Red China. If I didn't have two kids, I would blow my brains out.''

Now, let's look at a few affidavits. Dealing with David Sugar, just yesterday caught up with him. They said it was a half mile, Jack, across the State line, and they might now pull me into jail for being out of my district.

With one of my staffers close by to listen, Sugar admitted that he told Harry Manganaro that after the second FBI visit, because he had backdated some invoices, if he did not lie against JIM TRAFICANT he would not only be indicted, his daughter, his wife and his son would be indicted. I have a tape of Harry Manganaro. He wasn't allowed to testify, nor was the tape admitted at trial.

Now, in addition to that, a man by the name of Joe Sable told another one of my constituents three days ago, ``I feel so bad for JIM.'' David Sugar told me the same thing. And David Sugar said to me, ``JIM, I would love to help you.'' Now he is saying in the paper, ``I never said that to TRAFICANT.''

By the way, Nimitz' attorney, who I taped his girlfriend, his attorney said he admits to meeting TRAFICANT, but did nothing illegal.

Now, let's talk about Tony Bucci. His fourth plea agreement, his brother in Cuba, fled the country on a fugitive warrant, they sentenced him to 6 weeks arrest, and here is what he said. He did $12,000 worth of work at the Traficant farm, and he owned me. Now, not all of you know me personally, but if you think someone owned me, you would throw me the hell out of here.
Witnesses testified that I asked him for jackhammers because we had an old bank barn. I never owned the farm. But this old bank barn didn't have enough height for horses, Ralph. I asked him to let me use their jackhammers. He said, ``It is an insurance problem. I will send some people out.'' I said, ``I don't want you to do that. You will get too close to that old bank barn and you will drop it in.''

And that is what happened, folks. And the whole corner of that barn, Cynthia, fell down. Harry Manganaro came out and helped me prop it up. It cost my dad $15,000.

Now, guess what? Harry Manganaro came to my office yesterday and said his building happened to be firebombed last weekend and all his records are missing, including the bill, $15,000, not counting materials, to my dad who owned it.

Sinclair. Now, look. You are prosecutors. Mr. Callahan made a hell of a point. Mr. LaTourette, thank you. But now I want a prosecutor to think, you really want JIM TRAFICANT. They didn't allow a witness to testify, they wouldn't allow a vendetta defense. She voir dired nine of my witnesses outside the presence of the jury, didn't allow them to testify. Allowed none of my tapes. All of my tapes are exculpatory. Even on those who took the 5th Amendment, she didn't allow them.

Bucci lied through his teeth. His sister-in-law told me that there were three brothers and a brother that lived across the street from the farm and he was my friend. And she said he was sick, they took him to Florida, where he had his leg amputated; brought him back, stole the money from the family, and her children did not even attend the funeral.

She submitted an affidavit and testified.

God almighty here. Now, they said the prosecutor said, ``TRAFICANT is touchy-feely. TRAFICANT is too intelligent to be taped.'' Why did they have Sinclair tape an attorney, Madovich? Why didn't they fake body injury? I have a device, Mr. Hefley, that I could tape you right now, your conversation in the midst of all of this, and you wouldn't know you are being taped.

Now not one wiretap, with the number one target in the United States of the Department of Justice prosecutors. My phone wasn't tapped. They didn't want to get an admission. They didn't want to get TRAFICANT saying listen, go to it, that grand jury, do this.

J.C., everybody that testified against me would have gone to jail and lost their law license and ruined their life.
Now, a brother-in-law testifies. He said his brother-in-law told him that he was taped by someone that he had bribed a county engineer, hundreds of millions of dollars. He told his brother-in-law that he would go to jail for 10 years and lose $15 million, but all they wanted was TRAFICANT. So he told his brother he added up all the campaign contributions, which was $2,300 or $2,400 and said he bribed TRAFICANT.

You know what is amazing about this one? She didn't even allow the brother-in-law, who was subject to jeopardy, being sentenced in another case, to testify.

And guess what I did? I used the government's own picture because he said I did this, Ellen, in a barn. So I held up the picture and said, ``What barn was it?'' Couldn't identify the barn.

I said, ``What was I doing in a barn?''
He said, ``You were cleaning a horse's hoof.''
``Which one?''
He said, ``The back one.''
I said, ``Was he tied, or was he being held?''
He said, ``Someone was holding him.''
``Anybody else in the barn?''
``Oh, all kinds of people.''
``What was the floor like?''
``Can't remember. Too much manure.''

The jury even threw that one out.

I have an affidavit or a tape on every one of these counts.

Now, Sandy Ferrante testified that she personally saw me repay over a period of years money to staffers that I borrowed from them. When the IRS nailed me, they took me to civil court, and I made $2,400 a month. And that just run out, and now they are going to put me in jail for 12 years, take everything that my wife and I owned, and I never owned that farm.

I will go to jail, but I will be damned if I will be pressured by a government that pressured these witnesses to death to get a conviction on a target, the number one target in the country.

Jim Kirsham, who was an FBI-paid special agent, she would not let him testify, said, ``If you get us anything on TRAFICANT, we will build a monument to you.''

I got an affidavit from a guy just sent to me from Canada that I helped in a case where 11 Chinese were arrested, and he said, ``I want to thank JIM TRAFICANT publicly,'' and they said, ``Stay away from TRAFICANT. Don't mention his name. We are going to get him.''

I had an FBI agent that compromised one of my constituents under mental instability, desperately trying to save custody of her child, compromised her into sex. She said, ``Jim, he didn't throw me to the ground. I don't want my 87-year-old mother to know about it.''

FBI agent Anthony Speranza. I will be damned if someone is going to rape one of my constituents.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will suspend. The gentleman will avoid profanity or indecent language.
Mr. TRAFICANT. How much time do I have left?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 30 1/2 minutes remaining.
Mr. TRAFICANT. I read an affidavit of a Scott Grodi. He sat through the whole trial.

I would like your attention. I got this affidavit today, about an hour before I came here. He was released two days before the trial, his aunt died. He said he wanted to finish. I thought we had it resolved for the U.S. Marshals to take him so he would be a pallbearer. When he came back, he was dismissed.

He didn't put in his affidavit, Cynthia, but you can write and talk to him, John Grodi, Scott Grodi. He said he knew the prosecutor wanted him out. He said, ``I knew JIM TRAFICANT was innocent.'' He said, ``I could see how he impeached their witnesses and how they were lying.''

Now, Mr. Berman said that there was a recant by Mr. Glaser. This is today's newspaper just faxed to me. Mr. Glaser said he did not recant, and, on the evidence, he couldn't see himself convicting JIM TRAFICANT now.

Mr. Grodi said the woman next to him also felt I was innocent. I tried to get an affidavit from her. Her attorney informed us that she was afraid to get involved. Now, folks, if she had something good to say about the government, would she be afraid?
Look here, that Cafaro Company and that Laser, I saved them with a $4 million appropriation. Thank you, Bill Young. But most air flights miss on their airports, and that technology is already used on our submarines and our naval aircraft carriers. And the only deal I have with Cafaro is bring those jobs, Ellen, and bring those headquarters from Manassas, and screw Frank Wolf.

I have helped everybody in my district and every one of these people, yeah. I did not even like some of them. But when they had 150 employees and got a contract for a highway that hired another 200, I had a 22 percent unemployment rate. Did I go to bat for them? Yes. Did I write letters to the Secretary of State? Yes. Did I write letters to the Secretary of Commerce? Yes. Secretary of Labor? Yes. Department of Transportation? Yes.

But here is where I am at tonight. I have been pressured for 20 years. Now, in 1996, read this. ``Dear Sheriff, after watching your deal in Washington and listening to the courageous admission of Mr. Detore concerning Morford pressuring him, I decided to come forward. Mr. Morford pressured me to lie about you in front of a grand jury in 1996. I would not lie. I am proud now that I did not lie after hearing Mr. Detore. Enclosed is my truthful affidavit. You can see it any way you wish.''
Here is what they wanted Mr. Detore to say, he was outside the door and heard me and Cafaro make a bribery deal. What Mr. Berman didn't mention is I paid $10,000 for cars that didn't run, and Mr. Cafaro sold these cars made in Youngstown, the whole company, for $1. They are considered worthless. He owed me money, never gave me the titles. Flying Members of Congress around, getting Senators' girlfriends' gifts.

But you get out of jail free by getting the man right here.

Here is the problem in America, and you must take America back. And I am running as an independent, and don't be surprised if I don't win behind bars.

The American people are afraid of their government. Why are we afraid of our government? Now, I want you to listen to this. Bob, they didn't bring one FBI or IRS investigator who investigated me to the stand so I could cross-examine them. They brought a 30-year veteran from Philadelphia, Mr. Callahan, he had seven trips, spent 40 days, a quarter of a million dollars, and all he did was add up the numbers the prosecutor gave him. And said he did no investigation. When he left, he was so confused he walked into the edge of the jury edge, right in the sore spot.

The other one was an FBI rookie. Now, listen carefully. When it come to fingerprints, the judge smiled like a fox. She dismissed the jury. The prosecutor says, ``Your Honor, we have no fingerprints of the defendant.'' One thousand documents. And listen to this. He said the one time I gave him an envelope of four, five, whatever thousand, and he took it immediately to the FBI guy who sent it to the lab.

Now, I am an old sheriff. I want to get TRAFICANT? I steam that thing open, I fix a few bills, say, ``Look, you tell TRAFICANT you don't want to go any further. You are not going to hurt him. When you come out of that restaurant, just have that damn money on him.''

What I am trying to tell you, there is no physical evidence. And when they talk about this Sinclair, $2,500, they fail to mention that he had five accounts. And every time he took 2,500 out of one, 2,500 went into another one. And after he left my employment for 22 months, $2,500 didn't go into the other account. And while he was in my employ, he said he earned $50,000 from me and $50,000 from the government.

[Time: 21:00]

He bought a $300,000 house, a brand new Buick van, rented a new car for $300 month and spent $60,000 on advertising. They went back 15 years on a horse transaction I had in Uhrichsville, Ohio, George Hooker. They could not find one citizen to say JIM TRAFICANT bought a pencil for cash. Now look, if you drink five gallons of Gatorade, you are going to expend five gallons of Gatorade somewhere in one of these restrooms. You know what you have before you? We are getting to the point where a RICO case is going to be brought against a group of housewives for conspiring to buy Kellogg's cereal.

I am prepared to lose everything. I am prepared to go to jail. You go ahead and expel me, but I am going to tell you what, Mr. LaTourette was right about Salvati, but do you know what was mentioned of Mr. Detore? Do you know what JIM TRAFICANT said about Janet Reno? The administration wants him out. Now, I said this on radio and I am on the House floor. I am going to say it to you right now. I called Janet Reno a traitor and I believe in my heart she is.

I believe Monica and Henry Cisneros were not that important, but I think that Red Army Chinese general giving money to the Democrat National Committee was an affront to our intelligence, and now I am going to tell it like it is. The Republicans want a permanent trade status with China. You let it slide. Democrats did not want Clinton and the party hurt. You let it slide. And what you let slide was the freedom of the United States of America. And I called her a traitor.

And Janet Reno, if I do not go to jail, I will be in Orlando August 15 and you are not going to be elected to any damn thing. Nobody should fear our Government.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hansen). The Chair would caution the gentleman to please avoid the use of profanity or indecent language, and the gentleman should address the Chair and not other Members by their first names. The gentleman may proceed.

Mr. TRAFICANT. I apologize. As a fashion leader, it is tough for me at times to comport with some rules.
It was brought up and said, JIM, why don't you go to Speaker Hastert? HASTERT owes you. I didn't go to the Speaker. I didn't vote for the Speaker to get something from the Speaker. Now, you go ahead and expel me, but you ran this place for 50 years, Democrats, and you made the IRS and the FBI and the Justice Department so strong, our people are afraid to death of them.
I want to thank Bill Archer and the Republican Party, and that is why I voted for you, Speaker. For 12 years I tried to change the burden of proof in the civil tax case and protect the American people's homes from being seized, and now, I want to give those statistics because they are relevant to my case and the IRS hates me for it.

The law was passed in 1998, the Traficant language wasn't in, Clinton threatened to veto it. Ninety-five percent of the American public wanted the Traficant bill. The Republican Chairman, Bill Archer, called me and said he talked to the Speaker and leaders and said, JIM, we are going to put your burden of proof in and we are going to put your language on seizure in the conference, and wrote me a letter giving me the credit.

Now, let me give you the statistics that I am proud of and I want to share, because this may be the last time on the floor, and I expect it. The year before compared to the year after the law, wage attachments dropped from $3.1 million to $540,000. Thank you, Mr. Archer. Thank you, ROB PORTMAN. Property liens dropped from $688,000 to $161,000, but now let us think of our communities. Seizures of individual family-owned homes dropped from 10,067 to 57 in 50 States when they had to prove it, and you guys did it. Congratulations.

I want to fight these people. I want to fight them like a junkyard dog. They tied my hands behind my back and that first vote was 7-5. I am not going to get into some of the personal dynamics, but there were some people that Mr. Grodi told me that were predisposed to vote against me before that case started, and that upset him. By the way, one of the jurors said, it is unfortunate he got caught, but most of those Members of Congress are crooks anyway. I don't think you are crooks. I never ripped off Mr. Skelton.

I have a lot of Hispanics mad at me, and I think Ms. Sanchez is a great member, but yes, I voted for Mr. Dornan because I thought we set an illegal precedent by allowing possible illegal immigrants to vote in a Federal election, and I voted with Mr. Dornan. And I am sorry, but that's the way it is. Now, since then I think you have an been an excellent Member. If you have been offended by this, I am sorry.

I also want to say this. I urge you to put our troops on our border. I think anybody who jumps the fence shouldn't be made a citizen, they should be thrown out. And you are going to be dealing with homeland security, and I am saddened in my heart I can't vote on it.

Now, I don't know how much time I have left, but show me one piece of physical evidence.

Mr. Detore, by the way, spent $600,000 and is now without an attorney. His last attorney he paid $239,000 who went to the judge without him knowing and asked to be withdrawn from the case, because Richard Detore would not give him $100,000. He had already given him $239,000, and all he did was submit 3 motions for him. And one thing rang true: Every one of the witnesses that testified; significant, they had some witnesses scared to death. The key witnesses all would have gone to jail, lost their license, wives should have been indicted, and you know what? Back to my valley. I don't blame any one of you.

I think if they had something on Mr. Detore, who knows what to God he would do, but I am going to say this. Someone who impugns the character of Mr. Detore is, in my opinion, violating the sanctity of this House. Because he said, I checkered my wife and I will not lie. And if they indict me, go ahead and indict me.

They talked about a Corvette that cost $1,000. It was supposed to be $1,000, but ended up being $6,000 that I paid for it. They said, why did you pay so much for the Corvette? I rented a Corvette because I wanted to get a car to drive to visit Mr. Cooksey to go hunting and to speak at one of his events. But he got tied up 3 weeks later, and I had the car for 3 weeks, and when I drove back, the license plate expired in 30 days, got picked up on 395.

I ended up paying $6,000 for a car. I paid for it and got the records. Everything I paid was by check or a credit card. No cash in 20 years. My God, if you don't give me a right to appeal a judge whose husband was taking his law firm fees from the Cafaro company, who is the predicate act of the RICO, then who is our last bastion of appeal if it is not the people's House?
Mr. Speaker, I voted for you; I thought you were better for the country, period. I thought the Republicans' program was better. Mr. Gephardt, if you're here, I apologize for my comments; it was in the heat of battle. If you had been there, I probably would have hit you too. But I apologize for those words.

With that, with that, I retain the balance of my time, or however you word it. How much time do I have?

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hansen). The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Traficant) has 14 1/2 minutes remaining.
PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY
Mr. TRAFICANT. Do I go last, Mr. Chairman? Parliamentary inquiry.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Would the gentleman state his inquiry?
Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, do I go last, since I am the subject of the demise?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley) has the right to close.
Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, I ask the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley) as a gentleman to relinquish his right to close, surrender to me and give me his time.
Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, I will hold that decision in abeyance until we get down to that time. I will take it into consideration.
Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman has any time left.
....

Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Number one, the businessman my colleague is talking about that corroborated Mr. Cafaro's testimony was Al Lang, and I did not find out until after the trial that there was a demand note from Mr. Cafaro to Al Lang to repay the money for the boat he was to buy.

Number two, that also Mr. Cafaro paid for Mr. Lang's attorney. So it was really Mr. Lang and attorney or Mr. Lang was represented by Mr. Cafaro's attorney? My God.

Second of all, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct allowed me to subpoena one witness. I asked for 11 subpoenaed and 20 that did not need subpoenas. They finally come back and retracted. The one witness testified she personally made the loans when I could not make it to the farm. One fellow saw me make loans to the other fellow.

My colleagues had a hearsay transcript. Now I want to ask the committee, and I wish the committee would hear me. I want to know what witness the committee called to refute my witnesses or the hearsay in that transcript. Why was I willing to bring 31? Why did the judge tie my hands behind my back?

The point I am making to my colleagues is I am not unique. I know why I was targeted. I do not need American history to beat them, and I was an embarrassment, and then I brought home John Demjanjuk, the infamous Ivan the Terrible. I was labeled an anti-Semite. No one would look into his case. The headlines in my paper said Nazi sympathizer. What they did not say when the family came in, they came to me last because no one would listen to him because they said ``the case was too sensitive.''
I said come on in and what they also did not print, I said, if your dad has been convicted and I will go over and pull the switch, but whether he was Ukrainian or Jew made no difference to me.

I literally, through my investigation, discovered the evidence that proved that Ivan the Terrible was 9 years older, taller, black hair, long scar on neck and his name was Ivan Marchenko and then presented a picture to Israeli Supreme Court, and for all of the people calling me anti-Semite, let me tell my colleagues something. I never voted for a foreign aid bill until we had a surplus, and then I voted for aid, and I support Israel, a democratic State, surrounded by a cluster of monarchs and dictators who have held us hostage for oil, but he was not Ivan, and the Israeli Supreme Court taught me something that I think Congress should know. They literally delivered him to me on an El Al flight to take home. Congress would not even hold a hearing in light of my compelling evidence that the Israeli Supreme Court freed him, because it was too sensitive.

What has happened to us, Congress? Am I different? Yeah. Have I changed my pants? No. Deep down my colleagues know they want to wear wider bottoms; they are just not secure enough to do it. I do wear skinny ties. Yeah, wide ties make me look heavier than I am and I am heavy enough. Do I do my hair with a weed whacker? I admit.

Take into consideration what my colleagues are doing. The Democrats, and I agree with the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), and I have had my run-ins with him, probably no one brighter in this whole place.

Mike Myers, an FBI undercover agent posing as an Arab sheik gave him $250,000, captured by videotape, and my colleagues let him go till after the break. The two Members who violated a 17-year-old page boy and a 17-year-old page girl, which is rape in every State, were not expelled.
If my colleagues know law enforcement and they have got a target, they want a confession, and when they cannot get that confession, they want an admission, and I am telling my colleagues this right now. They have more tapes on me than NBC. I did nothing wrong. That is why go ahead and expel me, and I believe this judge is so afraid of what is resonating throughout America, who believes that they should not have to fear their government and that Congress is the last hope to take it back, and I am saying to the Speaker, take it back.

No American should fear their government and this guy does not. I am ready to go. Expel me. It will make it easier for them to really jack me good.

But do my colleagues know what they will have done? They will have taken the standards of a RICO case down to less than a DUI where a person needs a .10 to get a conviction.

Let me tell my colleagues what happened to me early Saturday morning. I was up in Portage County, a new part of the district of the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland), and I did not run against the gentleman because I thought I would beat him easily, and I wanted to give him a break.

I left my car, and at 2:30 in the morning I pulled out, and I got pulled over by a township police car and a county sheriff. The window does not work on the car, so I opened up the door. They could not see me but said, ``Mr. Traficant, can we see your registration and license.'' It had dealer tags on it. I did. He asked me to get out of the car.

They asked me to walk around the back of the car. They asked me to do my ABCs. They asked me to do this with all four fingers on both hands, and they asked me to stand and put my foot in front of my right, take nine steps, stop, turn and return. Then they asked me to lift my right knee, with my left foot on the ground and count to 30. Try that. Then they said reverse, put your right foot on the ground, pick your left knee up, count to 30, and I did that, and they said would you mind a breathalyzer. I said knock yourself out. I was .001.

Here is what I asked them: Did the FBI tell you that was my car and ask you to see if you can get a DUI on me? They looked at each other real funny, and I cannot tell my colleagues exactly what I told them because of House decorum, but I told them if I find out it is an FBI agent that did it, I will tear his throat out, and if they lied to me, I would come back to them and tear their throats out.

They are not going to frighten me. I am ready to go to jail. I will go the jail before I admit to a crime I did not commit, and there was never any intent to commit a crime, and when they start bringing letters that my colleagues send to Cabinet members trying to help their people, there is a dangerous precedent set in U.S. v. Traficant.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
....

Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Number one, to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert), I say that I am sadder than you are.

To my colleague from Ohio, after the public hearings, 80 to 90 percent of the viewing public supports my position.

Number three, all the witnesses that testified against me at trial were either felons or would-be felons, with no physical evidence.

The gentlewoman is a very astute legal criminal mind. I just want her to think before she votes.

In the case of staff, they said one afternoon I invited them down to the boat, they did some sanding, it was a bonding thing, and they drank beer. The ones that came to the farm, came for the weekend, voluntarily; wanted to use it as a health spa.

One guy that said he was there 300 times, I had it before the trial, but I heard he took $2,500 to bribe a judge in a DUI case. I thought they had no evidence, and I did not even question him on it. I have a tape from one of his fellow trustees that I will submit to the committee. His name is Jim Price, Weathersville Township, relative to the testimony of that staffer that I will not mention.

Look, show me the beef. Come up with a transcript. They could not even bring an FBI or IRS investigator to the stand, they are so afraid of me. And I am going to tell my colleagues something, and they are not going to believe it. My hands tied behind my back, I believe in my heart I won that trial, and that trial was manipulated. I would not rush in haste.

Now, if my colleagues do not expel me tonight, I am convinced this judge is going to put me in jail. She cannot stand my guts. And she is deathly afraid of me getting on national TV, because it is beginning to resonate around the country about how people do fear our government. And why do we?

I expect my colleagues to expel me. It is going to hurt me when some of you do.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
....

Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, 20 years and not one tape. Mr. Prosecutor from Missouri, am I that good? Come on.

$1.3 billion in that budget that I brought back, much of it from the help of the Republicans, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha), the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), thanks. Twenty-two percent unemployment, been under 7, and we are still hurting. I am proud of that.

He said that I took money from companies that did me favors. Look at the testimony of Susan Bucci. She said that they owed me money. I bushhogged 40 acres of their fields every year because her husband, Dan, was sick; and baled 25 acres of his hay every year for 5 years using my equipment and never charged him. She came to me when the brothers ripped her off.

You know, there is something unusual here. You did not elect me. Yes, you have the right to throw me out. My people do not want me out. There is something that was not allowed to be brought, and I give the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley) and the committee great respect; but ladies and gentlemen, you passed a 1967 Jury Service and Selection Plan in the Northern District of Ohio before TRAFICANT was indicted, passed a jury selection plan that was not ratified until after my indictment. They excluded people from my area that knew me and these witnesses from the jury pool.

This is not going to help me with the judge, but I think we have an aristocratic judiciary that looks at Congress like an advisory board. I think you better take that back.

Not one person who knew me or these witnesses was on the jury, and you did not subpoena one witness to validate that hearsay transcript.

Here is what I am saying to you. It is not a matter of liking me. A lot of Members do not like me because to get that $1.3 billion, I raided a lot of appropriations bills. But I want your vote. I want 145 votes and I want to be able to go up and I want to fight the Department of Justice and the IRS.

If they put me in jail, you have a very easy vote, and I predict you will. I think as a Member of Congress, I want you to think of this. There may come a time when you might get targeted.

You know what I was told? Watch what you say. You are too outspoken. Watch what you say. Shut up about the Reno case.

I am not going to shut up. I want your vote because I think my vote is your vote, and my people elected me and I do not think you should take their representative away. With that, thank you for giving me additional time, at least listening to me, and vote your conscience, nothing personal; and I hope I am back and get another $1.3 billion.

Some Traficant Websites
Free James Traficant
Who Is James Traficant?
What's Next For Traficant?
The Persecution Of James Traficant

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