Mass. State Senator Arrested for Extortion and Wire FraudAfter 13 months of federal investigation, Massachusetts State Sen. Diane Wilkerson (D) was arrested this morning. In a 43 page long affidavit — complete with pictures of hand-offs and money being stuffed into bras — the FBI alleged that Wilkerson took $23,500 in bribes to get a liquor license for the club Dejavu.
Below is the picture from the affidavit exhibits that shows Wilkerson shoving $1000 into her bra. This might beat out TPMmuckraker’s favorite photo of Sen. Ted Stevens’ bronzed salmon statue, but just barely.
Wilkerson has had a long and sordid history with the law which began in 1997 when she was sentenced to house arrest for failing to pay over $50,000 in income taxes. This afternoon, Wilkerson was stripped of her chairmanship of the Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight.
In September, Wilkerson lost the Democratic primary, in which her candidacy was supported by Gov. Deval Patrick. In a statement following the arrest in the Boston Globe, Patrick said that the “initial reports are both troubling and sad. These are very serious charges and I will trust the judicial process to take them seriously.”
