2-Year Term Asked for Ex-House Sergeant-at-Arms in Bank Case

Former House Sergeant-at-Arms Jack Russ displayed “thoroughly reprehensible” conduct and should spend at least two years in prison for his role in the House bank scandal, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Russ is to be sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Stanley Harris on three felony counts to which he pleaded guilty in October. One charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and the other two carry five-year maximums.

Russ admitted embezzling $75,300 from the House bank, defrauding investors and lenders of $445,000 that was intended for his private business of making display cases for flags, and omitting $221,125 in liabilities from his 1989 financial disclosure statement. He also admitted cashing 17 checks at the House bank in 1989 that were not backed by sufficient funds.

As sergeant-at arms from January, 1983, to March, 1992, Russ headed the House’s administrative operations.

The department’s recommendation followed federal sentencing guidelines and called for a 24- to 30-month sentence, $445,000 in restitution, an unspecified criminal fine, three years of probation after release from prison and a $150 special assessment. It urged the court to reject Russ’ bid for a lesser sentence.

“The defendant’s conduct, by any fair measure, is thoroughly reprehensible,” the department said. “ . . . The defendant repeatedly and flagrantly abused” positions of trust.

In addition, the department said “his conduct reflected numerous deliberate decisions, rather than a single act of aberrant behavior that a court could properly characterize as an isolated incident.”

Russ also gave “evasive and misleading testimony under oath” to a House committee and his conduct eroded public confidence in the House, the department said.