Abscam, sometimes writtenABSCAM, was aFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s that led to the convictions of seven members from both chambers of theUnited States Congress and others for bribery and corruption.[1] The two-year investigation initially targeted trafficking in stolen property and corruption of prominent business people, but later evolved into acorruption investigation. The FBI was aided by theUnited States Department of Justice and convictMel Weinberg in videotaping politicians acceptingbribes from a fictitiousArabian company in return for various political favors.[2]
More than 30 political figures were investigated, and six members of theUnited States House of Representatives and one member of theUnited States Senate were convicted.[3] One member of theNew Jersey State Senate, members of thePhiladelphia City Council, the Mayor ofCamden, New Jersey, and an inspector for theImmigration and Naturalization Service were also convicted. The operation was directed from the FBI's office inHauppauge, New York, onLong Island, and was conducted under the supervision of Assistant DirectorNeil Welch, who headed the bureau's New York division, andThomas P. Puccio, head of the Justice Department'sUnited States Organized Crime Strike Force for theEastern District of New York.
"Abscam" was the FBI codename for the operation, which law enforcement authorities said was a contraction of "Arab scam".[4] The American-Arab Relations Committee made complaints. Hence, officials revised the source of the contraction to "Abdul scam" after the name of its fictitious company.[5]
In March 1978,John F. Good of the FBI's office in suburbanLong Island created and oversaw asting operation called "Abscam", which was initially intended to investigate theft, forgery, and stolen art.[6][7][8][9] The FBI employedMelvin Weinberg, a convictedswindler,international con artist andinformant, and his girlfriend,Evelyn Knight, to help plan and conduct the operation. At that time they were facing a prison sentence and, in exchange for their help, the FBI agreed to let them out on probation.[3] Weinberg, supervised by the FBI, created a fake company called Abdul Enterprises in which FBI employees posed as fictional Arabsheikhs led by owners Kambir Abdul Rahman and Yassir Habib, who had millions of dollars to invest in the United States.[8] Weinberg instructed the FBI to fund a $1 million account with theChase Manhattan Bank in the name of Abdul Enterprises, giving the company the credibility it needed to further its operation.[2]
When a forger under investigation suggested to the sheikhs that they invest incasinos in New Jersey and that licensing could be obtained for a price, the Abscam operation was re-targeted toward political corruption. Each member of Congress who was approached would be given a large sum of money in exchange for "private immigration bills" to allow foreigners associated with Abdul Enterprises into the country and for building permits and licenses for casinos inAtlantic City, among other investment arrangements.[10] Among the casino projects involved were theRitz-Carlton Atlantic City,[11] theDunes Hotel and Casino (Atlantic City),[12] thePenthouse Boardwalk Hotel and Casino, and the sheikh's fictional casino.[13] The first political figure to participate in the phony investment scheme was Camden mayorAngelo Errichetti. In exchange for monetary kickbacks, Errichetti told the sheikhs' representatives, "I'll give you Atlantic City." Errichetti helped to recruit several government officials and United States members of Congress who were willing to grant political favors in exchange for monetary bribes (originally $100,000 but then reduced to $50,000).[3]
The FBI recorded each money exchange and, for the first time in American history, surreptitiously videotapedgovernment officials accepting bribes.[8] The meeting places included a house owned byLee Lescaze[14] in theFoxhall neighborhood ofWashington, D.C., a yacht in Florida, and hotel rooms in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.[citation needed]
Each convicted politician was given a separate trial. During these trials, much controversy arose regarding the ethics of Operation Abscam. Many lawyers defending their clients accused the FBI ofentrapment. Though some judges concurred,[15][16] appeals eventually overruled this claim and each politician was convicted.[17]
Of the 31 targeted officials, the following members of Congress were convicted of bribery and conspiracy in 1981:
Five other government officials were convicted, including
Angelo Errichetti, mayor ofCamden, New Jersey, was the first government official to be caught in Operation Abscam.[3] Errichetti first accepted the bribe in exchange for obtaining a casino license in Atlantic City for Abdul Enterprises. He then introduced Abdul to Senator Harrison Williams, who also took the bait. Errichetti also introduced Michael Myers and Raymond Lederer to the company and arranged meetings with the undercover agents. He also introduced the "Arab businessmen" to Frank Thompson Jr. By the middle of 1979, Errichetti had arranged meetings with a list of state and federal politicians willing to go in on the operation.[2] The FBI set up video cameras in a hotel suite near New York'sJohn F. Kennedy Airport to record the transactions between the undercover agents and Errichetti.[3] He was convicted on the federal bribery charges, for which he served about three years in prison.
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SenatorHarrison A. Williams (D-NJ) was indicted on October 30, 1980,[18] and convicted on May 1, 1981,[19] on nine counts of bribery and conspiracy to use his office to aid in business ventures.[20] Williams repeatedly met with the FBI agents and had worked out a deal where he would become involved in atitanium mining operation by way of having 18% of the company's shares issued to his lawyer, Alexander Feinberg. Williams then promised to steer government contracts to the venture by using his position in the Senate.
At his trial, lawyers for Williams argued that he had not been bribed because the stock in the titanium mining company was worthless. Other defenses attempting to have the charges dismissed included that he was a victim ofselective prosecution by the Justice Department because he had supported the presidential bid ofTed Kennedy overJimmy Carter in the Democratic primary.[21] These premises were not accepted by the jury, who convicted Williams after 28 hours of deliberation on May 1, 1981. Later appeals made by Williams included arguments that a main prosecution witness had perjured himself and that Williams had been a victim ofentrapment. The guilty verdict was upheld, and Williams was sentenced to three years in prison.
Because of the convictions, theSenate Ethics Committee voted tocensure Williams and put a motion to the floor to expel him for charges of bringing dishonor upon the Senate and his "ethically repugnant behavior". Supporters of Williams moved that the censure was enough and that theexpulsion was unnecessary. The Senate voted to censure Williams, but before the vote on his expulsion could occur, Williams resigned his seat. In his resignation speech, Williams proclaimed his innocence. He argued that the investigation into his activities was a grievous assault on the rights of the Senate and that other senators should be wary of unchecked investigations into their activities by other branches of the government.[22]
Williams served two years of his three-year sentence at a federal penitentiary in Newark, New Jersey. He served the remainder of his term at the Integrity House halfway house, where he later became a board of directors member until his death by cancer on November 17, 2001. He also attempted to receive a presidentialpardon from PresidentBill Clinton, but his request was denied. Williams was the first Senator to be imprisoned in almost 80 years, and, had the expulsion motion been approved, would have been the first Senator to be expelled from the Senate since the Civil War.
Linguistics expertRoger Shuy is convinced of Williams' innocence. In a recording of Williams' encounter with an agent disguised as a sheikh, "At one point, the sheikh put the bribe directly to Williams: 'I would like to giveyou . . .some money for, for permanent residence.' The first four words of Williams' reply were 'No, no, no, no.'"[23] A prosecution memo at the time stated that there was no case against Williams but the judge, who in his ruling decried "the cynicism and hypocrisy of corrupt government officials", set it aside. After the trial, the lead juror said that had he known all the facts, he would not have found Williams guilty.[24]
Frank Thompson (D-NJ) was a member of the House from Trenton, New Jersey, who was indicted and convicted of accepting a bribe from an FBI agent posing as an Arab sheikh. Thompson was offered money in exchange for helping the Arabs overcome certain immigration laws.[2] Well-liked by his constituents, he was the longest-serving member of Congress convicted in Operation Abscam.
Thompson abstained on the vote to expel Representative Myers, the first Congressman to be indicted. While most of the politicians resigned, Myers wasexpelled from the House, and Williams did not resign until the vote on his expulsion was almost to take place. Thompson himself was not expelled from the House of Representatives because he lost his re-election campaign in 1980 to RepublicanChris Smith, a relatively unknown candidate who in 1978 had run against Thompson as asacrificial lamb candidate. Smith won the 1980 election by a margin of 20,000 votes. On December 29, 1980, Thompson resigned his seat in the US House of Representatives. Smith has continuously represented Thompson's former district through the119th United States Congress.
On December 2, 1980, Thompson was indicted on bribery charges. Thompson spent $24,000 of campaign funds fighting the charges and appealing his conviction on grounds of entrapment. Thompson was convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges and sentenced to three years in prison, starting in 1983. He served two years before being released and worked as a consultant in Washington until he died in 1989.
Thompson introducedJohn M. Murphy to the operation. Murphy was from Staten Island, New York. He was chair of the Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries. He accepted monetary bribes in exchange for his resources.[2] Murphy's conviction differed from the other Congressmen. His conviction was considered "receiving an unlawful gratuity" instead of bribery, but he served three years in prison for conspiracy charges only. Murphy was not filmed taking the $50,000 that most other participants took that day, instead arguing on tape with attorney Howard Criden about who would pick up Murphy's money for him, which Criden did at a John F. Kennedy airport hotel.[25]
In 1982, the conviction ofRichard Kelly was appealed on the grounds ofentrapment. Kelly, the sole Republican, said that he was only pretending to be involved with the bribery from Abdul Enterprises. He claimed that he was conducting his own operation dealing with corruption and that the FBI was ruining his own investigation. However, an appeals court upheld the conviction, and Kelly served 13 months in prison.[26]
John Jenrette was one of the few who resigned before being expelled from the House.[2] During the operation, Jenrette was asked by an undercover FBI agent if he would take the bribe from the Sheikh. He replied, "I've got larceny in my blood. I'd take it in a goddamn minute."[3]
John Murtha (D-PA) was one of the Congressmen who refused to take the bribe from the undercover agents. He too was videotaped[27] in his encounter with undercover FBI operatives.[28] Although he was never convicted or prosecuted, he was named anunindicted co-conspirator in the scandal.[29] As such, he testified againstFrank Thompson (D-NJ) andJohn Murphy (D-NY), the two Congressmen mentioned as participants in the deal at the same meeting. A short clip from the videotape shows Murtha stating, "I'm not interested, I'm sorry. At this point..." in direct response to an offer of $50,000 in cash.[30]
In November 1980, the Justice Department announced that Murtha would not face prosecution for his part in the scandal. The U.S. Attorney's Office reasoned that Murtha intended to obtain investment in his district. Full-length viewing of the tape shows Murtha citing prospective investment opportunities that could return "500 or 1,000"miners to work. In July 1981, the House Ethics Committee also chose not to file charges against Murtha following a mostlyparty-line vote. The resignation later that day of attorneyE. Barrett Prettyman Jr., the panel's special counsel and a Democrat, has been interpreted as an act of protest.[31]
Murtha remained prominent in Congress and was re-elected by his constituency 19 times over 36 years before his death on February 8, 2010.[32]
SenatorLarry Pressler (R-SD) refused to take the bribe, saying at the time, "Wait a minute, what you are suggesting may be illegal." He immediately reported the incident to the FBI. When Senator Pressler was told thatWalter Cronkite referred to him on the evening news as a "hero", he stated, "I do not consider myself a hero... what have we come to if turning down a bribe is 'heroic'?"[33]
Bob Guccione, publisher ofPenthouse, was also approached with a bribe from the undercover FBI agents. Guccione was in the process of building thePenthouse Boardwalk Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City and needed financing. He was associated with Abscam's interest in Atlantic City, so Weinberg approached him and told him that an Arab sheikh wanted to invest $150 million in the casino project, but only if the casino had obtained a gaming license. Weinberg wanted Guccione to pay a $300,000 bribe to New Jersey gaming officials to get the license. Guccione refused and said, "Are you out of your mind?"[34] After the Abscam scandal came to light, Guccione sued the federal government but lost.[35]
In 1980,New Jersey State Senate memberJoseph A. Maressa accepted $10,000 from a group of FBI agents who were part of the Abscam undercover operation. The money was given to Maressa on behalf of a fictional Arab sheikh in exchange for Maressa's efforts to get legislative support to obtain a gambling license for a casino inAtlantic City. Maressa justified accepting what he described as legal fees, saying, "I felt like it would be patriotic to take some of thisOPEC oil money and get it back to the United States."[36] Maressa was not prosecuted for his actions.[37]
When the investigation became public in the early 1980s, ethical controversy focused on using the "sting" technique and Weinberg's involvement in selecting targets. Although Weinberg was a previously convicted criminal involved in previous scams, he avoided a three-year prison sentence and was paid $150,000 in concurrence with the operation. Ultimately, all of the Abscam convictions were upheld on appeal,[38] although some judges criticized the tactics used by the FBI and lapses in FBI and DOJ supervision.[39]
In the wake of Abscam, Attorney GeneralBenjamin Civiletti issued "The Attorney General Guidelines for FBI Undercover Operations" ("Civiletti Undercover Guidelines") on January 5, 1981. These were the first Attorney General Guidelines for undercover operations and formalized procedures necessary to conduct undercover operations to avoid future controversy. Following the initial press accounts about the Abscam investigation, Congress held a series of hearings to examine FBI undercover operations and the new Civiletti Undercover Guidelines. The House Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights began hearings on FBI undercover operations in March 1980 and concluded with a report in April 1984. Among the concerns expressed during the hearings were the undercover agents' involvement in illegal activity, the possibility of entrapping individuals, the prospect of damaging the reputations of innocent civilians, and the opportunity to undermine legitimate privacy rights.
In March 1982, after the Senate debated a resolution to expel Senator Williams for his conduct in Abscam, the Senate established the Select Committee to Study Undercover Activities. In December 1982, the Committee issued its final report, which generally supported the undercover technique but observed that its use "creates serious risks to citizens' property, privacy, and civil liberties, and may compromise law enforcement itself".
FBI documents later disclosed in accordance with theFreedom of Information Act, consisting of newspaper clippings and letters written to the FBI, revealed a mixed response from the American public. Some Americans supported the FBI, but others argued that Abscam was an entrapment scenario ordered by a revenge-minded FBI, which earlier had been stung by Congressional inquiries into acts ofpolice brutality and similar widespread abuses.[40] Congressional concern about sting operations persisted, creating numerous additional guidelines in the ensuing years:
During Abscam, the FBI handed out more than $400,000 in "bribes" to Congressmen and middlemen.
In his book,The Dangers of Dissent, historian Ivan Greenberg suggests that the FBI's aggressive investigation of political corruption might have been a response to the years of criticism the agency had received from Congressional investigations: "Was this [ABSCAM] payback for theChurch Committee hearings? The FBI wanted to punish the Congress for exposing its past corruption." Greenberg cites FBI Director William Webster's 1980 speech to the Atlanta Bar Association as evidence. Webster stated, "In the FBI we've been under attack for past incidents and circumstances. It's quite understandable for those in Congress who love their institution, who are trying to rebuild its reputation and the confidence of the American people, to have an encounter and deal with a situation of this kind, and emotions run high. It's my sense that the good sense of the Congress, similar to the emotions in the Bureau when they had their times, that now people are saying, well, let's wait and see what the facts are..." However, Greenberg does not provide evidence beyond this public comparison for his allegation.[41]
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