The Vote to Expel Rep. James Traficant

KWAME HOLMAN:

Late last night, just before they cast their votes, several members of the House stood to express the sadness, regret, but also the sense of duty they felt having to expel a member of Congress for only the second time since the Civil War.

REP. GENE GREEN, (D) Texas: This is the people's house and we have to do our job. If we cannot remove a member of Congress who has been convicted of ten felonies, including using his office for personal gain, we risk losing the faith and trust of the American people that we have.

KWAME HOLMAN:

Members of the Ethics Committee had spent most of last week listening to James Traficant try to explain away the ten counts of House rules violations involving bribery, racketeering, and tax evasion, the same charges on which a federal jury in Cleveland convicted him in April.

REP JAMES TRAFICANT, (D) Ohio: My God, we're talking about circumstantial evidence in a circumstantial evidence in a RICO case.

KWAME HOLMAN:

Traficant alternately joked and sparred with his colleagues, complimented and criticized them, all the time trying to convince them the case against him was a government conspiracy, built on no physical evidence and hearsay.

REP. JAMES TRAFICANT:

So I will take an upward departure and I will die in jail because I did not commit these crimes. There is not one count of which I am guilty.

KWAME HOLMAN:

However, the Ethics Committee remained unconvinced and recommended the full House expel him. Traficant was given one last opportunity to present his side last night, but in the 45 minutes he was given, he managed only to repeat a rambling, disjointed defense.

REP. JAMES TRAFICANT:

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.

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 ten 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. 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 one dollar. 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.

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.

KWAME HOLMAN:

Traficant already had alienated most of his fellow Democrats. A year and a half ago, he voted for Republican Dennis Hastert, and not Democrat Dick Gephardt for Speaker of the house.

SPOKESMAN:

Traficant? Hastert!

REP. JAMES TRAFICANT:

I thought you were better for the country, period. And I thought the Republican's program was better. Mr. Gephardt, if you're here, I apologize for my comments– it was in the heat of battle.

KWAME HOLMAN:

But it was the government conspiracy, according to Traficant, that had done him in.

REP. JAMES TRAFICANT:

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. 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 don't think you should take their representative away.

KWAME HOLMAN:

Traficant's words were passionate, even pleading, but the words of the ethics committee members were unequivocal.

REP STEPHANIE TUBBS JONES:

I won't go through all the red herrings, but we talked about: "I paid for the car, I never owned the farm; everybody would have gone to jail or lost his license; I repaid the money to my staffers; do not be surprised if I win, I will win behind bars; 1,000 items; no fingerprints; hearsay transcripts…" when the play is cast in hell, ladies and gentlemen, none of the witnesses in the trial will be angels; you can't believe that the credibility of some of these witnesses could be better if they were someone else.

REP. KENNY HULSHOF:

The gentleman from Ohio has referenced the lack of evidence and the quality of evidence. Is there anybody in this chamber who believes that the gentleman from Ohio could be captured incriminating himself on tape? Should we, in this case or any other case, reward a wrongdoer because he has the wherewithal to avoid being captured in the act? Shall a clever criminal who has enriched himself at taxpayer expense be further enriched because he almost avoided detection?

Mr. Traficant has violated the House rules not only as an individual who happened to be a public servant, but as a public servant who traded upon that very elected office.

KWAME HOLMAN:

James Traficant left the House chamber before the vote began, and within minutes, the matter was decided. With the votes of two-thirds of the members was required to expel, only one voted not to. By early this morning, James Traficant's name had been removed from the door of his Congressional office.