Jury selection began Tuesday and could wrap up Wednesday, with opening statements slated for Thursday. If not, opening statements will begin Tuesday. Win or lose, Jefferson isn’t likely to get a Boy Scout badge at the end of the trial with all the allegations and the unflattering FBI wiretaps.
By Jonathan Tilove
New Orleans Times-Picayune
WASHINGTON — There is no doubt about what former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, considers his greatest accomplishment: his five daughters and their academic achievements.
“The most important thing in life is for your children to have success; if you have that, nothing else matters, ” Jefferson said in an interview last month. “The most heart-warming thing for me in my life is my children have been able to have these outstanding educations.”
But even as Jefferson was joined by his wife and five daughters Tuesday at the opening day of jury selection for his corruption trial at the federal District Court in Alexandria, Va., prosecutors released a 152-page list of trial exhibits that is dotted with the names of his daughters and the elite colleges and universities they attended.
