Jenrette Jr. was congressman nabbed in Abscam sting
John Jenrette Jr., a charismatic Democratic Representative from South Carolina who became ensnared in the Abscam investigation of political corruption that also brought down six other members of Congress, died Friday in Conway, South Carolina. He was 86.
Jenrette was in his third term in the House and had a progressive record and a strong reputation for serving his constituents, especially Black citizens, when his political career was ruined by his involvement in Abscam — a two-year sting operation that videotaped politicians and others taking bribes from federal agents pretending to be rich Arabs looking for favors.
A former social acquaintance, John Stowe, got in contact with Jenrette in 1979, saying he had found a wealthy investor, sometimes referred to as a sheikh — an invention of the FBI — who was willing to finance the revival of an empty munitions factory, bringing 400 jobs to Jenrette’s district. To sweeten the deal, Stowe said, he needed legislation that would let the sheikh emigrate to the United States.
Jenrette was captured on videotape, during one of his visits to a townhouse in the Georgetown section of Washington in December 1979, discussing a payment he would accept with people said to be lieutenants of the phony sheikh.
To an offer of $100,000, with $50,000 up front, Jenrette said, “I have larceny in my blood — I’d take it in a goddamn minute.”
Five envelopes, each containing $10,000, were laid out on a desk.
Despite the urgings of Anthony Amoroso, an FBI agent posing as one of the sheikh’s executives, Jenrette didn’t take the money. Instead, two days later, Stowe picked it up. Jenrette, fearful of appearing to have accepted a direct payoff to help the sheikh, agreed to receive $10,000 from Stowe as a loan, and received a promissory note for it.
The jury delivered a quick verdict, convicting Jenrette and Stowe of one count of conspiracy and two counts of violating the federal anti-bribery statute by promising to introduce legislation to let a fictitious Arab businessman into the United States.
Jenrette said he believed the conviction was based on the incriminating videotapes of the two men that were shown during the trial.
“Obviously, the videos were all they considered,” he said of the jurors. “I pray that they were not out to get a congressman.” He added, “I can look at my two beautiful children and my gorgeous wife and say, regardless of what those tapes say, that I didn’t take any money.”
The case put a great strain on his marriage, which had already been roiled by his womanizing. His wife, Rita (Carpenter) Jenrette, soon wrote, with a coauthor, an article for The Washington Post with the headline “Diary of a Mad Congresswife,” in which she declared, “I hate my life as a congressional wife” and described Jenrette’s struggles with alcohol.
A few months later, she posed for Playboy and, in an accompanying article, said that she and her husband had once made love on the steps of the United States Capitol. When she was profiled in 2017 on “CBS Sunday Morning,” she amended that to say that they had simply shared a passionate kiss behind a Capitol column.
The Jenrettes divorced in 1981 after five years of marriage.
In a What’sApp interview with The New York Times on Tuesday, Ms. Jenrette said that her ex-husband’s alcoholism had fueled his participation in the sting. But he also needed money. He was paying substantial alimony to his first wife, Sally ( Jordan) Jenrette, as well as child support payments, and he was involved in a money-losing resort development.
“Between our two salaries we were OK but not flush with money,” Ms. Jenrette, now known as Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi, wrote from Italy.
“This evoked his childhood to him, the poverty, the lack, the uncertainty brought to a child with elderly parents. He drank more, and the rest is history.”
She said she had forced him to go to five rehab centers during their brief marriage.
“He’d be OK for while,” she said in an earlier phone interview, “but it’s hard to overcome it.”