Representative Chaka Fattah (PA-D) was indicted on Wednesday on racketeering charges tied to public corruption schemes as reported by CNN.
Fattah was first elected to Congress in 1994 and has served on the House Appropriations Committee. Currently he is facing 29 charges mainly in association with his 2007 campaign for mayor.Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell released the following statement:
As charged in the indictment, Congressman Fattah and his associates embarked on a wide-ranging conspiracy involving bribery, concealment of unlawful campaign contributions and theft of charitable and federal funds to advance their own personal interests.
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Fattah said he has not had the chance to review the 85-page indictment.
He also said:
I’ll stand by my previous statement that I’ve never been involved in wrongdoing, any lawful activity, any misappropriation of federal funds, and I think that there’s a lot for us to digest once we see the indictment.
Fattah said he has spent his time helping people:
And I want to spend my time helping millions more. I’m going to let my attorney — a small one-man shop in Philadelphia — handle this matter. It’s obviously going to be important to my constituents that this matter not be a distraction in terms of my work, and I’m going to try to have it not be a distraction.
The Justice Department has said Fattah borrowed $1 million from a supporter in 2007 and then used an education non-profit he founded to repay back a majority of that loan with donations and grant funds. He then tried to cover it up.
They also said he used his campaign money to repay $23,000 of his son’s student loans and in exchange for $18,000 he lobbied the White House and Congress for an ambassadorship or U.S. Trade Commission appointment for lobbyist Herbert Vederman.
In August 2014, Fattah’s longtime aide plead guilty to similar charges.