Espy Called Ethics Laws ‘Junk,’ Prosecutor Tells Jurors

Mike Espy called government ethics laws “a bunch of junk” before he accepted $35,000 in trips and gifts from companies like Tyson Foods Inc., a prosecutor charged as the former U.S. agriculture secretary went on trial.

Espy is charged with 38 counts of illegally accepting sports tickets, luggage, trips, lodging and other favors from Tyson Foods, Sun-Diamond Growers of California and Quaker Oats Co. and lying to investigators about it. The favors for Espy, who resigned in 1994, included trips to the Super Bowl and other major sporting events, the government said.

“Mr. Espy took these things of value from the givers knowing that the companies were trying to influence him and the performance of his duties when they had matters affecting them before him,” Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz told jurors in his opening statement.

Espy has denied any wrongdoing, though he repaid nearly $7,600 to the companies.

“There is no disputing he got some tickets,” defense attorney Ted Wells told jurors. “The question is did he do something wrong, something criminal. He didn’t believe he was doing anything criminal.”

Tyson Foods paid a $4-million fine after pleading guilty to providing Espy with $12,000 worth of gratuities, including partially financing a weekend trip Espy and his former girlfriend took to Dallas for a National Football League playoff game between the Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers.

Tyson, the world’s largest poultry producer, also admitted providing Espy with four tickets to a 1993 inauguration dinner for President Clinton that cost $6,000.

Sun-Diamond, a growers’ cooperative, was convicted and fined $1.5 million for giving nearly $6,000 in illegal gratuities to Espy. An appeals court partly set aside the verdict, and Smaltz is appealing to the Supreme Court.