Lawmaker seeks more black jurors in bribery case

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A black U.S. lawmaker fighting corruption charges after investigators found $90,000 in his freezer argued on Friday that his case should be moved to Washington, where he is less likely to face discrimination from the city's majority-black population.

Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson argued that prosecutors brought the case across the Potomac River in Alexandria, Virginia, to minimize the number of blacks who might serve on the jury.

Blacks make up 57 percent of Washington's population, but only 12 percent of the population in Alexandria and surrounding cities, Jefferson said in a court filing.

"These statistics demonstrate that the prosecutor has used his discretion to achieve a monochromatic and unjust result, and they give rise to the inference that the prosecutorial decision-making had a discriminatory purpose," Jefferson's lawyers wrote.

Jefferson also asked the court to force prosecutors to turn over any documents explaining why they brought the case in Alexandria rather than Washington, where the $90,000 was found.

Jefferson, whose district includes New Orleans, has pleaded not guilty to seeking millions of dollars in bribes from nearly a dozen companies doing business in Africa.

He discussed bribery payments at several meetings in Virginia, according to prosecution documents.

"This venue is appropriate as we have indicated in public court filings and as represented by the guilty pleas of two alleged co-conspirators in the Eastern District of Virginia," Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said in a statement.

Jefferson has said that the $90,000 in bribe money found in his freezer was given to him by the FBI to pass on to a Nigerian vice president.

The trial is scheduled for January 16, 2008.