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Jenrette convicted in Abscam

Guilty . . . guilty . . . guilty." The word rolled through a federal courtroom in Washington, D.C., 72 times last week as twelve jurors were asked for their verdicts on six charges against the defendants. Once again, as in the conviction in August of Democratic Congressman Michael ("Ozzie") Myers of Pennsylvania, the FBI video tapes from the Abscam investigation had proved persuasive. Shaken by the barrage, Defendant John W. Jenrette Jr., a three-term Democratic Congressman from South Carolina, lowered his head and sobbed. Still red-eyed later, Jenrette told reporters in a trembling voice, "I can look at my two beautiful children and my gorgeous wife and say, regardless of what those tapes say, that I didn't take any money."

But the jurors believed the tapes and not the Congressman, who was the second to be tried of six House members charged with bribery in the Abscam operation. "It was all pretty clear in every one's mind," said Joseph D. McDonald, a member of the jury that took only 4 1/2hours after a five-week trial to convict Jenrette, 44, and a longtime friend, John R. Stowe, of bribery. Added McDonald: "One picture is worth a thousand words." The video and telephone tapes showed Stowe accepting $50,000 from an undercover FBI agent and Jenrette agreeing to back legislation that would enable a fictitious Arab sheik to settle permanently in the U.S. The prosecution charged that Stowe had picked up the money as a middleman to insulate the Congressman from the payoff.

The jurors were unmoved by Jenrette's testimony that he had been unfairly trapped. Said Juror Yvonne Bothnel: "We just did not see any place where he got his arm twisted." Nor were they swayed by the claim of the defendant that he is an alcoholic and had been too drunk when meeting with the undercover agents to know what he was doing. When sentenced, Jenrette could receive as much as 35 years in prison.

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