Rep. Traficant Indicted on Bribery Charges

A federal grand jury on Friday charged veteran Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. (D-Ohio) with 10 counts of bribery and racketeering for allegedly accepting payments and gifts from businessmen and staff members, using employees to work on his farm and filing false income tax returns.

Under the indictment, returned in Cleveland and made public at Justice Department headquarters, Traficant faces maximum penalties of more than 60 years in prison and $2.2 million in fines if convicted on all counts. The House also could vote to expel him.

Traficant, 59, said the charges were brought by “overzealous bureaucrats” and proclaimed his innocence. Last year, after announcing he was a probe target, he took to the House floor to vow to “fight like a junkyard dog” against any charges.

Long a political maverick, Traficant increasingly has deserted his party on key votes--early this year, he was the sole Democrat to support the reelection of Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) as House speaker. Democratic leaders responded by denying Traficant any committee assignments.

He told voters months ago in his Youngstown-based district that he expected Friday’s indictment, and despite that he was easily reelected to a ninth term last November. Nor is this Traficant’s first experience as a defendant.

As a sheriff in the early 1980s, he was charged with taking bribes from mobsters to overlook loan-sharking, prostitution and other illegalities. Acting as his own lawyer, even though he has no law degree, he admitted taking cash but insisted it was part of his own sting operation.

A jury acquitted him and he won his House seat in 1984, defeating a Republican incumbent. He has been reelected ever since despite the federal investigation, which started several years ago.

The Youngstown area has been plagued by decades of mob corruption, and other federal investigations there have led to the convictions of more than 70 people since 1997, including a judge, a prosecutor, a sheriff and one of Traficant’s congressional aides.

The charges against Traficant include:

* Accepting more than $10,000 worth of paving at his Ohio farm in return for pressuring federal and state highway officials to lift business sanctions against the paving contractor imposed because of his felony conviction.

* Accepting labor and materials from another local contractor in return for helping the contractor with a building demolition contract.

* Directing members of his staff in the early 1990s to perform work on his boat during office hours and instructing other staff members, over a 12-year period, to work on his farm. He is accused of making three of his office workers bale hay, run and repair farm equipment, repair barn walls and build a corral at his horse farm just outside Youngstown.

* Taking $2,500 in monthly payments from a staff member in return for hiring the aide and renting office space from the employee.

* Concealing income on his personal tax returns for 1998 and 1999.

Along with his independent streak, Traficant is known within Congress for his eccentricities. His unruly gray hair and affinity for plaid clothing and polyester suits has made him one of the most recognizable figures on Capitol Hill. His House speeches are filled with bombast and arm-waving, and he often invokes the phrase, “Beam me up!”--a line borrowed from television’s “Star Trek”--to show his disgust at some government action or program, frequently the U.S. tax code.

Politically, Traficant depicts himself as a working-class populist in his blue-collar district, opposing global trade initiatives in favor of “Made in America” products.

Traficant is the first sitting member of Congress to be indicted on corruption charges since House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) in 1994.

Rostenkowski entered a plea agreement two years later and resigned from Congress. He served 17 months in prison and was pardoned by President Clinton in December.

Lawmakers who have faced other legal problems in recent years include former Rep. Jay Kim (R-Diamond Bar). Kim pleaded guilty in 1997 to accepting and concealing illegal campaign contributions and was briefly placed under house arrest. He then lost his bid for re-nomination in the 1998 primary.

*

Times staff writer Nick Anderson and researcher Robin Cochran contributed to this story.