James Traficant, the colorful Ohio politician whose conviction for taking bribes and kickbacks made him only the second person to be expelled from Congress since the Civil War, died Saturday. He was 73.
Traficant was seriously injured Tuesday after a vintage tractor flipped over on him as he tried to park it inside a barn on the family farm near Youngstown. He died four days later in a Youngstown hospital, said Dave Betras, chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party.
The Democrat's expulsion from Congress in 2002 came three months after a federal jury in Cleveland convicted him. Prosecutors said he used his office to extract bribes from businesspeople and coerced staffers to work on his farm and his house boat on the Potomac River in Washington. He also was charged with witness tampering, destroying evidence and filing false tax returns. He spent seven years in prison.
Traficant's notoriety was rivaled only by his eccentricity.
He loved to play the buffoon during his 17 years in Congress. He got plenty of notice within the staid, buttoned-down Capitol and airtime on C-SPAN for his messy mop of hair — revealed to be a wig when he went to prison — his typical wardrobe of cowboy boots, denim or polyester suits, and his bombastic speaking style.
His made-for-TV rants on the House floor invariably ended with the signoff "Beam me up," which Traficant borrowed from "Star Trek" to show his disgust or bemusement at whatever he found particularly outrageous.
"Mr. Traficant was a complex man," Betras said. "He gave voice to the frustrations and anxieties of the common man. The public felt he was one of them and because of that connection, they supported him in good times and in bad. He was a larger-than-life character who will long be remembered."
In 2000, as he geared up for reelection, Traficant was indicted in a grand jury investigation that targeted corruption and organized crime in the Youngstown area and led to the convictions of scores of people, including judges, a prosecutor and a sheriff.
But Traficant was the biggest prize, and he was not as lucky in his second trial as in his first.
He claimed the government had tried to frame him because of his criticism of the FBI, CIA and Internal Revenue Service.
During the two-month trial, he did a curbside interview on live network TV outside the courthouse each morning and then went inside to challenge U.S. District Judge Lesley Brooks Wells, who tried to dissuade Traficant from representing himself.
He often slumped alone at the defense table preparing handwritten motions as a team of prosecutors and investigators pressed the government's case under the eye of Justice Department attorneys.
He was expelled from Congress in a 420-1 vote by the U.S. House on July 24, 2002, three months after being convicted on 10 corruption-related counts. He could have avoided the indignity of expulsion by choosing to resign, but he remained defiant to the end.
"I'm prepared to lose everything. I'm prepared to go to jail," Traficant told colleagues as they debated his political fate. "You go ahead and expel me."
Six days later, at his sentencing, he abruptly fired his attorney.
"Take your things and move," he told the lawyer, who then switched seats with Traficant.
He was sentenced to eight years in prison and led from the federal courtroom in handcuffs.
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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