The downward spiral for former congressman Jesse L. Jackson Jr. took another dramatic turn Friday when federal prosecutors in Washington laid out their criminal case against the once-promising Illinois Democrat, accusing him of misusing campaign funds to benefit himself and his wife. Among the purchases were fur coats, a high-end watch and a football autographed by presidents.
Jackson was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit false statements, mail fraud and wire fraud in the misuse of approximately $750,000 in campaign funds, according to court papers filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington.
The court filing was a clear signal that Jackson, who served in the House of Representatives, intended to plead guilty to the charge, which has a maximum penalty of five years in prison. No court date has been set.
Jackson’s expected plea would be another mile-marker in his slow political and personal collapse, which began shortly after President Obama’s 2008 election. That had seemed to open up new possibilities for Jackson, considered a likely successor to Obama in the Senate.
Instead, FBI agents arrested then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) and charged him with trying to sell the interim appointment to the Senate seat from Illinois to the highest bidder, and Jackson was implicated in the scandal. Though not charged, he would never recover politically.
According to the documents released Friday, Jackson used campaign funds to buy a $43,350 gold Rolex watch along with almost $10,000 in children’s furniture that he had delivered to his home in the District.
Among other allegations, prosecutors say Jackson made direct expenditures from the campaign’s accounts of about $57,793 for personal expenses. The documents say that he and a co-conspirator used a campaign credit card to make $582,773 worth of purchases for their own use.
Jackson’s wife, former Chicago alderman Sandra Stevens Jackson, was not named or charged in that case, but the description makes clear that she was the co-conspirator.
“That’s a big number as these things go,” said Stan Brand, a former House counsel who has represented defendants in this type of case. “That obviously isn’t the kind of case you would risk putting in front of a jury. That’s why people plead.”
The details of the case against Jackson were part of a document known as a “criminal information,” which cannot be filed without the consent of the defendant and which signals that a plea agreement is near.
Jackson’s wife was charged with filing false income-tax returns from 2006 through 2011, according to a separate criminal information in her case. That charge has a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
Attempts to reach the Jacksons for comment were unsuccessful, but news reports in the Chicago media quote statements, issued by their attorneys, in which the pair take responsibility for their conduct.
Through a representative, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jackson’s father, declined to comment on the charges.
The criminal documents outline a series of illegal expenditures from the former congressman’s campaign account, including more than a dozen purchases of pop-culture artifacts that revealed his place firmly as a child of the 1970s and 1980s:
Jesse Jackson Jr. charged with conspiracy
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Jesse Jackson Jr. charged with conspiracy
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