The Mafia and the Congressman: My 1985 interview with James Traficant Here is a rough-and-tumble 1985 interview I did with James Traficant, a former county sheriff in Youngstown, Ohio—who was indicted by a federal grand jury in 1982 for accepting money from the Mafia. In the presentation of their case, federal prosecutors had, among other evidence: 1) tape recordings of Traficant accepting the bribes, 2) the testimonies of several witnesses to the payoffs, and 3) Traficant’s own signed confession. Still, Traficant, who was not a lawyer, pled not guilty, fired his defense attorneys, and represented himself at trial—inexplicably winning a complete acquittal in an episode that the U.S. Department of Justice has yet to live down. And then, after all of that, the people of Youngstown, Ohio, elected Traficant to Congress. See: moldea/Traficant.html.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 20:19:11 +0000
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