All these achievements should make Jim Traficant a hometown and American hero, but these good deeds are offset by several criminal actions over the years. This paper will follow Mr. Traficant's case from beginning to end on his abuse of power. I will use articles from the Topeka Capital-Journal in Topeka Kansas. Each newspaper article will be separated by date.
On Friday May 4, 2001, United States representative James A. Traficant was indicted on ten counts by a federal grand jury. He faced these charges: Four counts of conspiring to violate the federal bribery statute, one count of seeking and accepting illegal gratuities, one count of obstruction of justice, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, two counts of filing false returns, in 1998 and 1999, and one count of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) statute, including bribery and mail fraud. Just before the indictment was announced, the congressman said: "I'm as frightened as anyone can be. I'm going to say this to the U.S. attorneys: You'd best defeat me, because if I beat you, you'll be working in Mingo Junction.- Mingo Junction is a small, remote Ohio town. Among other things, he is accused of making three of his office workers bale hay, run and repair farm equipment, repair barn walls and build a corral at his horse farm outside Youngstown, a Rust Belt city plagued by decades of mob corruption. He is also accused of doing local political favors for business and for contractors who had been hired to work at his farm. The indictment alleges a paving contractor worked for free at the congressman's farm and that Traficant contacted prison authorities to help one of the company's owners who served a prison term. Traficant is also accused of accepting free labor and materials from another contractor in return for several political favors, including contacting a local agency on the contractor's behalf during the bidding on a demolition project.
