Congress Takes on Israel and gets thrown in prison!

From The West Wire

Former Democratic Congressman James Traficant sits down with Luke Rudkowski, from WeAreChange, and discusses his nearly 8 year prison sentence he earned after being convicted of falsifying tax returns and accepting bribes. Traficant attributes the prosecution as well as the heavy-handedness of his sentencing to his political combativeness towards interests by groups such as AIPAC.

In the company of other government representatives,  becoming more notorious for accepting money in exchange for corporate favoritism, Traficant was surprising only the second member of the House to be relieved of his post for unethical behavior since the Civil War. So in a den of thieves, Traficant was the only one being shown the door for being a thief; raising a red flag to those following the track record of congressional prosecutions.

In addition to earning the honors of being the only modern House member, at the time of his arraignment, being expelled for “unethical” behavior, Traficant also earned himself a prison sentence that was viewed by many as being heavy-handed, and possibly “overkill.”

“Made him an enemy of Israel, which he attributes to his demise”

As noted in the video above, Traficant maintains his innocence; refuting the methodology used by the prosecution in his case as nothing more than pursuant of an agenda, rather than a presentation of evidence against him. He notes that the 6 year-long investigation, consisting of over 200 federal agents, which cost the American taxpayer over 25 million dollars, was noted under official testimony to have made no audio or video recordings of Traficant. Recent revelations regarding the surveillance practices of our government agencies make that a hard pill to swallow.

Traficant first appeared within the American spotlight during the 1980′s when he was Sheriff of Mahoning County in Ohio, where he gained public favor for refusing to sign foreclosure notices issued to employees of a recently closed steel mill.

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