Traficant gets eight years in prison; re-election bid planned

CLEVELAND -- Expelled from Congress a week ago, an unrepentant James A. Traficant Jr. was sentenced to eight years behind bars for corruption Tuesday and made it clear he intends to run for re-election from his prison cell -- and expects to win.

The 61-year-old former House member was immediately led off to jail in handcuffs after the judge refused to let him remain free on bail while he appeals his conviction on charges of taking bribes and kickbacks.

"Quite frankly, I expect to be re-elected," the pugnacious former congressman told U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells after she imposed sentence.

The judge gave Traficant a longer sentence than the minimum 7 1/4 years prosecutors had requested, saying he had undermined respect for the government and lied to distract attention from the charges against him.

The judge also fined him $150,000 on top of the $96,000 the jury required him to forfeit in ill-gotten gains.

"To protect a junkyard full of deceit and corruption and greed, you fought like a junkyard dog," Wells said, borrowing Traficant's own words.

Traficant -- a Democrat known on Capitol Hill for his arm-waving rants on the House floor, his loud '70s-style suits and bellbottoms, and his thatch of unruly gray hair and shaggy sideburns -- was unrepentant: "I committed no crime. I regret nothing that I said."

He turned to one of the prosecutors and repeated his oft-stated claim of witness intimidation. "You should be ashamed of yourself, not me," he said.

Defiant throughout his trial and ethics hearings in Congress, Traficant filed earlier this year to run for a 10th term in November as an independent, despite the threat of imprisonment and expulsion.

Traficant said Tuesday he plans to run for re-election from jail, and asked the judge to select a prison in Ohio to make sure he is still eligible to run in the state. He said that if he wins, he will try to abolish the IRS and create an advisory board to oversee the Justice Department.

Served as own lawyer

Traficant was found guilty of bribery, tax evasion and racketeering April 11 after a 2 1/2-month trial in which he mounted a loud, sometimes comic and frequently vulgar defense, serving as his own lawyer without benefit of a law degree.

He was found guilty of requiring staff members to do personal chores for him and kick back a portion of their paychecks and of accepting cash and various favors from businessmen who were seeking his help in Washington.

Last Wednesday, he was expelled from the House in a 420-1 vote, with only Rep. Gary Condit, whose career was ended by his connection to slain intern Chandra Levy, siding with Traficant. Traficant became only the second congressman expelled since the end of the Civil War.

Wells rejected Traficant's argument that he should not be sanctioned because he has already been punished by expulsion from the House. Traficant had argued that a prison sentence would amount to double jeopardy, or being punished twice for the same crime.

Wells agreed with prosecutors that expulsion is not criminal punishment.

At his sentencing, Traficant complained that the judge did not allow him to argue at his trial that the government has a vendetta against him. "Why did you tie my hands behind my back?" he asked. The judge ordered him to sit down.

Prosecutors had asked the judge to deny Traficant bail, saying he had bragged that he would escape from prison and had threatened federal agents in the case.

Federal prosecutor Craig Morford welcomed the judge's decision.

"In these types of cases when you have those types of facts, the defendant always goes to jail," he said. "There shouldn't be any exceptions for him for who he is. He should be treated like any other defendant."

Mark Colucci, appointed by Traficant to represent him during his appeal, said he will ask a federal appeals court to free Traficant while he appeals.

Traficant was mostly quiet during the hearing until he abruptly stood up and told Wells he wanted to dismiss the attorney he hired to represent him at the sentencing. "Take your things and move," he told the attorney, Richard Hackerd, who then switched chairs with Traficant.

He has argued that the government was out to get him ever since he singlehandedly won his acquittal in 1983 in a racketeering case in which he was accused of taking mob money while sheriff in Youngstown.

On Tuesday, as he arrived on the courthouse steps, he declared: "All of Ohio and America knows I've been railroaded."