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American Morning

James Traficant Facing Up to 63 Years in Prison

Aired April 12, 2002 - 08:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, James Traficant, the eccentric Ohio Congressman is facing up to 63 years in prison. He was convicted on all 10 federal racketeering counts against him, bribery, racketeering, fraud, everything, all the charges. Traficant says he will not resign, despite being found gety.

CNN congressional correspnodent Kate Snow joins us from Cleveland now with more on this high-profile case in which Traficant served as his own lawyer.

Good morning, Kate.

KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kate.

CAFFERTY: Good morning, Jack.

SNOW: Traficant marched into court yesterday, saying sometimes you've got to face eventually what you must face, prophetic words, as he went in to face those 10 charges. As you mentioned, he was charged with taking bribes from businessmen in the Youngstown, Ohio area in exchange for political favors. He was charged with telling his aides to work on his farm instead of reporting to work at Congress, at his congressional office, and then finally, telling some aides to kickback a portion of their salaries every month to him.

He sat in the courtroom yesterday stone-faced with his head down, really downplaying and downtrodden, looking uncharacteristically quiet yesterday as jury foreman again and again said he was guilty on all 10 counts. Now He wasn't so quiet when he finally emerged from the courthouse, delivering what's become a fairly typical tirade against the media and against the judge. He said he didn't have much hope for an appeal, because in his words, he feels he's too wanted. He went on to say he felt the entire trial was unfair.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES TRAFICANT (D), OHIO: I don't believe I was tried by a jy of my peers. I think peers have an understanding of a person's character, and I think there are very few people on this jury that really knew Jim Traficant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Jurors who spoke to the media say what they based their case on is the fact that all of this evidence was against him. There were 55 witnesses who testified against Mr. Trafficant. They say most of them didn't know much about the congressman going into this. They certainly say they didn't really understand his disrespectful behavior toward the judge. They didn't really appreciate some of the loud comments and the interactions he would have with the judge, but again, they said it was the evidence that really convinced them of his guilt, the prosecutor saying the victory was bittersweet.

There's a part of me that always feels sad that a U.S. congressman has been convicted. I think that's a difficult thing, but I also think it's a good thing in the sense that it does say to people that nobody is above the law.

SNOW: The House Ethics Committee is already investigating this case. That's typical protocol when someone is convicted of a crime in Congress. And then seperately from that, the House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt quickly calling on Traficant to resign immediately. As Traficant emerged from the courthouse, he had some unkind words for Mr. Gephardt that I can't repeat to you, Jack, on television. But he did say he's not a quitter, and that indicated that he intends to stick with his job as long as he can -- Jack.

CAFFERTY: What might the Congress do to Mr. Traficant in light of his conviction?

SNOW: Well, the Ethics Committee will look into it, as I've said. They're report back, and they can recommend expelling him. The other thing that could happen is any member of Congress has the right, when a Congressman is convicted, to stand up on the floor of the House and make a motion for expulsion. It would just take one member to do that, and then it would take a two-thirds vote of the House to expel him. But as of now, he says he's not quitting, and he's trying to run as an independent for his seat again in the fall.

Back to you, Jack.

CAFFERTY: Thanks a lot, Kate. Kate Snow, congressioal correspdnent, reporting outside the federal courthouse in Cleveland, Ohio.

Traficant's decision to act as his own lawyer obviously didn't resonate with the jury. They convicted him of all 10 counts.

Joining us now from Cleveland is one of the jurors in the Traficant trial, Jeri Zimmerman.

Jerry, nice to have you with us.

Thanks for joining us on AMERICAN MORNING.

JERI ZIMMERMAN, JUROR: Good morning, Jack.

CAFFERTY: It took four days to get 10 guilty verdicts together. Was it a difficult deliberation? Give us a sense of how that went?

ZIMMERMAN: I think we -- what the difficulty came in, there was a lot of counts. There was a lot of evidence to weigh. We got good, thorough instructions from the judge, and that helped, but we took our time with each count, and we weighed the evidence very carefully.

CAFFERTY: Was there concensus among the jurors, or were their arguments or disagreements about whether or not to convict on all 10 counts?

ZIMMERMAN: Well, we took each count one at a time, and we made sure that everybody had a voice in it. We took a lot of notes. I had four steno pads filled with notes from the trial, and we just made sure we heard everyone's opinions, and we relied heavily on the evidence.

CAFFERTY: His behavior in the courtroom was unusual, to put it kindly. Give me your sense of how the jury reacted to the fact that he apparently showed a good deal disrespect at times toward the judge, and that he acted as his own lawyer. How did that resonate, or fail to resonate with you guys?

ZIMMERMAN: Well, we did not hold his outbursts and his unique personality against him. We didn't weigh that against him. But I think that we did feel that he was very offensive to the judge, he was not respectful, and after we were done with our deliberations, we did agree he did himself a disservice by not getting respresenation.

CAFFERTY: When you say offensive to the judge, do you recall a particular incident that stands out in your mind?

ZIMMERMAN: He would have a constant -- if there was an objection by the prosecution and the judge would try to rule on it, he would talk over her. There was Many times that he would not stand and object, and he just would not follow the rules and guidelines that she would reiterate over and over to him.

CAFFERTY: There was one witness in the trial who testified that he was told by congressman that he would get this job that pay him $65,000 a year on the conditoin that he kicked back, what was it, $25,000 to the congressman. That's almost incredulous. I mean, this is the stuff of some 1920s ganster movie. Were you surprised that that kind of behavior was being engaged in by a member of the United States Congress?

ZIMMERMAN: Yes, and we found that witness, Allen Sinclair, very sincere. This man was pushed into the position, he was a young attornery, he had no interest in politics, and he was pushed into this position by Trafficant, and had to give back $32,000 of his paycheck, and was pulled into cars, and involved in burning envelopes in his basement. We felt very sorry that he was victimized by the Congressman.

CAFFERTY: You think he should get the maximum? He faces up to 63 years in prison, if they really want to throw the book at him, although under sentencing guidelines, it's unlikely he'll get that much.

ZIMMERMAN: Well, we did not use what he might get in our process to make a decision.

CAFFERTY: Sure.

ZIMMERMAN: And I think whatever Judge Wells feels is fair, he's guilty. We found him guilty on all 10 counts. We'll leave it in her hands.

CAFFERTY: Black eye for the state of Ohio?

ZIMMERMAN: Yes. I feel very badly for the city of Youngstown. This is somebody that they elected. This is somebody that they chose to represent their district, and I feel very sorry for their city.

CAFFERTY: We feel the same right along with you. Tough stuff. I appreciate you talking with us this morning. Thanks for your time.

CAFFERTY: You're welcome.

ZIMMERMAN: Jeri Zimmerman, a juror in the Trafficant case, joining us this morning from Cleveland.

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