Jefferson is bi-directional in the bribery gambit.  Apparently he was soliciting bribes from US businesses so as to bribe the Nigerian VP (obviously, with a handling fee involved and long term business profits going to his family’s businesses):

Rep. William Jefferson told a business associate that the vice president of Nigeria was demanding half the profits of a telecommunications partnership the congressman was involved with, according to court records unsealed Monday.   An alleged plan to bribe Atiku Abubakar to exert influence over the Nigerian state phone company NiTel had been alluded to in earlier court documents in the 15-month federal investigation of Jefferson, but the vice president had not previously been identified by name.

Prompted by separate lawsuits filed by The Washington Post and The Times-Picayune, judges in Maryland and Louisiana agreed to unseal parts of the FBI documents filed to support the Aug. 3 search of Abubakar’s home in Potomac, Md., Jefferson’s residences in New Orleans and Washington, and the New Orleans office of the congressman’s accountant Jack Swetland.

But you can see the Jefferson defense coming. The old Sgt Schulz line: “I know nuthzing”!

“If he’s gotta pay Minister X, we don’t want to know,” Jefferson said. “It’s not our deal. We’re not paying Minister X a damn thing. That’s all, you know, international fraud crap. We’re not doing that. . . . Whatever they do locally, that’s their business.”

Why did the Reps run to this guy’s defense?  Read the whole thing, it is stunning.