Former Jefferson Aide Sentenced to 8 Years

Yikes. This does not bode well for Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA).

His former aide, Brett Pfeffer, who pled guilty earlier this year to bribery charges, has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Eight years. And this is a guy who cooperated, and is continuing to cooperate, with the government in their case against Jefferson.

From the AP:

… Pfeffer admitted to helping broker deals between Jefferson, D-La., and a northern Virginia investment executive for whom Pfeffer worked. That executive, who has not been identified in court documents, agreed to pay bribes to Jefferson after Pfeffer said the congressman would require it.

“I’ve gone over in my head 10 million times why I didn’t look him in the eye and say no … why I allowed myself to take his demands to my boss,” Pfeffer said during the sentencing….

U.S. District Judge T. S. Ellis III said a tough sentence was necessary to deter others from public corruption.

“Public corruption is an infection in the body politic that cannot be tolerated,” Ellis said.

Jefferson is heading for an indictment on a number of bribery charges – if he’s convicted, it seems likely that he could shatter the record set for the longest sentence for a Member of Congress: 8 years, 4 months, set by Duke Cunningham.