The New Encyclopedia of American Scandal

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Excerpt

A

"A. B. PLOT." See Ninian EDWARDS: rash politician.

ABSCAM

In the Washington, D.C., of 1978 and 1979, the wordwas out in certain political circles that an enterprisinggroup of Arab sheiks were willing and eager to give cashpayments in exchange for promises of legislative "favors."Avaricious bigwigs met with the wealthy Arabsand their associates in a number of secret, swank locations?arented Washington townhouse, several NewYork City hotel rooms, a luxurious Florida home, andan elegant yacht off the Florida coast, to name a few.The sheiks and their representatives sought political andbusiness help in making investments, constructing hotels,securing casino licenses, and obtaining immigrationpermission for other Arabs.

    What the Washington politicians didn't know wasthat these Arabs and their company, Abdul Enterprises,were in reality completely bogus, agents in a "sting"operation set up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI), and that hidden in all of these posh meeting spots,videotape and recording devices were planted and secretlymonitored the dealings.

    The American public first learned of this clandestineFBI "sting" operation in early February 1980 when 31public officials were named as subjects in the so-calledAbscam (for Arab scam) investigation. The public wasespecially shocked when law-enforcement officers disclosedthe involvement of United States congressmen,seven of whom were indicted in 1980 on charges ofbribery and conspiracy by different federal grand juriesin Washington, D.C., and Brooklyn, New York. Theseven were U.S. Representatives Michael O. Myers(Dem., Pa.), Raymond F. Lederer (Dem., Pa.), John M.Murphy (Dem., N.Y.), Frank Thompson, Jr. (Dem.,N.J.), John W. Jenrette, Jr. (Dem., S.Car.), and RichardKelly (Rep., Fla.), and U.S. Senator Harrison A. Williams,Jr. (Dem., N.J.). Also indicted (and later convictedand sentenced to prison) was Mayor Angelo J.Errichetti of Camden, New Jersey, an important figureat the start of the FBI investigation, who introduced the"Arabs" to other politicos and business friends. Theethics committees of both houses of Congress launchedsearching inquiries into the bribery charges, notwithstandingsome objections by the attorney general of theUnited States, who thought the government's criminalprosecution in the cases might be jeopardized by thecongressional probe. Some of the press was severely criticizedfor obtaining and then leaking secret Abscam informationbefore federal grand jurors saw it. In addition,there was much heated public debate over the proprietyof the "entrapment" by the FBI. Some contended thatthe government had gone too far and had stretched thefederal statutes in gaining evidence against those accused;recordings and videotapes clearly showed the culpritsaccepting cash bribes for political influence,however. Despite the controversial nature of the situation,the U.S. Justice Department defended the Abscam"sting" throughout all of the trials and said that the politiciansand others involved had entrapped themselvesby their greed.

    Representative Myers was shown taking $50,000 inreturn for promising to introduce private legislation topermit Arabs to enter and remain in the United States;his conviction came on August 30, 1980. Afterward theHouse, stunned, recommended his immediate expulsionand voted affirmatively for this on October 2, 1980;Myers became the first House member expelled since1861. Next, Representative Jenrette was convicted,having taken a $50,000 bribe (half of the money wasdiscovered by his wife, Rita, hidden in one of his shoes,and was passed on to authorities; see Rita JENRETTE).Grand jurors found both Thompson and Murphy guilty(December 3, 1980) but the latter was acquitted of thecharge of bribery (a charge of which all his Washingtoncolleagues were found guilty): Murphy had received"an unlawful gratuity." Representative Lederer,strongly pleading his case of illegal entrapment by theFBI, was also found guilty (again, a $50,000 bribe),and about two weeks later, on January 26, 1981, aWashington federal court decided that former congressmanKelly (he and all the other Abscam indicted representatives,except Lederer, had lost their House seatsin the 1980 elections) was guilty (a verdict overturnedin 1982); Kelly was the only congressman to admit takinga bribe ($25,000) and claimed he took the moneyas part of his own investigation into congressional graftand corruption. The incriminating videotape recordingshowed Kelly agreeing to help two bogus sheiks emigrateto the United States, declaring as he pocketed themoney, "If I told you how poor I am, you would cry."

    New Jersey's Senator Williams stood trial like theothers and was convicted of nine counts of bribery andconspiracy in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, onMay 1, 1981. Damning videotaped and recorded evidenceshowed him agreeing to help obtain a federalcontract for Abdul Enterprises to build a titanium minein Virginia; in return the senator would receive morethan $12.5 million and partial control of the mine. Althoughclaiming innocence and unlawful entrapment,Williams was sentenced to prison (Murphy, Myers, andLederer were, too) and fined $50,000. Knowing hefaced almost certain expulsion from the Senate, wherehe had served for the last 23 years, he resigned his seaton March 11, 1982. New Jersey's "most popular politician"in 1981 became the first of that legislative bodyin more than half a century to do so in the face of allegationsof misconduct.

Brock ADAMS: guilty of sexual misconduct?

Brock Adams spent much of his life in public service.Born in 1927, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy at age 17 tofight during World War II. In 1961 he gave up a successfullaw practice to accept an appointment from PresidentJohn F. Kennedy as U.S. attorney for the WesternDistrict of Washington State. Three years later, at age37, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representativesand served seven consecutive terms. From 1977 to 1979he served as President Jimmy Carter's Secretary ofTransportation, and in 1986 the lifelong Democrat waselected to represent Washington in the U.S. Senate.

    As a congressman, Adams championed the cause ofwomen's rights. He was an outspoken supporter of awoman's legal right to obtain an abortion. He also sponsoredbills to fund research into the prevention of infertilityand breast cancer and supported a number ofother bills related to women's health care. As chairmanof the Senate subcommittee on aging, he held the firstcongressional hearing on menopause.

    In 1989 it became clear that Adam's interest inwomen went far beyond his duty as a public servant.Kari Tupper, the daughter of lifelong friends of Adams,publicly accused the senator of sexually molesting hertwo years earlier, shortly after his election to the Senate.According to Tupper, who was 24 years old at the time,she met the senator in his Washington, D.C., home fordrinks. But something was wrong with her drink, andshe blacked out. When she came to, she was completelynude and Adams was pawing her body. Tupper filedcharges against Adams, but when the U.S. attorney'soffice hemmed and hawed for 18 months before finallyrefusing to prosecute him for lack of evidence, she contactedthe Seattle Times.

    Following publication of Tupper's story in 1989, theTimes received...