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- <text>
- <title>
- (1980) Abscam (Contd.)
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1980 Highlights
- </history>
- <link 07671>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- December 15, 1980
- NATION
- Abscam (Cont'd.)
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>Once again, a guilty verdict
- </p>
- <p> Congressman Frank Thompson Jr., 62, of Trenton, N.J., is a
- 26-year House veteran and the highly respected chairman of its
- Administration Committee. Congressman John M. Murphy, 54, of
- Staten Island is chairman of the House Merchant Marine and
- Fisheries Committee. Last week they became the most powerful men
- convicted in the Abscam probe to date. A Brooklyn jury found
- Thompson guilty of bribery and conspiracy and convicted Murphy
- of receiving an unlawful gratuity, conflict of interest and
- conspiracy. They face jail sentences of up to 22 years for
- Thompson and nine for Murphy.
- </p>
- <p> A hidden camera recorded seven hours of sessions at which an
- FBI agent posing as the representative of an Arab sheik tried
- to bribe Murphy and Thompson with $50,000 each in return for
- helping the sheik to immigrate to the U.S. The money was
- carried away in a briefcase by Howard Criden, a Philadelphia
- lawyer and an alleged conspirator, who is to be tried later.
- Thompson and Murphy insisted they had never received any funds
- and had met with the fake sheik's emissary only to encourage the
- Arabs to make investments in their districts.
- </p>
- <p> Not only did the jury not believe the Congressmen, their
- constituents had doubts as well. Both were defeated in last
- month's election. Thompson's and Murphy's best hope now is that
- Judge George Pratt will follow the precedent of Philadelphia
- Judge John P. Fullam, who last month overturned the convictions
- of two city councilmen on the grounds that the elaborate FBI
- operation had entrapped the defendants and induced them to
- commit a crime. The two Congressmen plan to appeal, but they
- may have difficulty arguing that they were entrapped, because
- they did not raise the issue in their trial. The trial of
- Florida's Congressman Richard Kelly, indicted for receiving
- $25,000, continues this week in Washington. Still to come: the
- cases of Congressman Raymond Lederer of Philadelphia and New
- Jersey Senator Harrison Williams, accused of taking mining stock
- as a bribe. </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-