WASHINGTON -- Using increasingly combative language, attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department and former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson are battling in legal briefs about whether his alleged demand of payments for helping businesses win African contracts meets the definition of bribery under federal law.
In a brief filed Friday, the Justice Department accuses the Jefferson team of recycling "many of his previously rejected legal theories all of which seek to shield his illegal and corrupt schemes from the reach of the federal bribery statutes."
As part of the legal filing, the Justice Department released copies of 17 letters from Jefferson using official congressional stationery seeking meetings with top officials in Western Africa, or asking their support for business projects he was championing allegedly in return for bribes.
