Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson & wife in court after being arrested in sting operation. FBI says $79,000 found in Leslie Johnson's underwear. Read charging documents.
Previous FBI raid of Prince George’s County office involved fire department figure
Read charging documents
Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson and his wife Leslie face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to a federal indictment.
Jack and Leslie Johnson face tampering with witness charges; and destruction, falsification and altering of documents charges.
In an affidavit released Friday afternoon, F.B.I. agents described how they tapped the Johnsons’ phone right before the raid was about to take place at just after 10:00 a.m.
“Tear up the check,” the document stated, referring to Jack Johnson’s demands to his wife, while federal agents were at the door of their Mitchellville, Md. home.
The check Johnson was telling his wife to tear up was a $100,000 bribe from developers, according to federal documents.
When police arrested Leslie Johnson, they found a $79,600 check in her underwear, according to the sworn federal affidavit.
The F.B.I. agents also claim Johnson received $5,000 on November 5th, from developers to use his influence to get them bids in projects, according to the document. The documents state Johnson received $15,000 more Friday morning in the first leg of the raid.
While federal agents were ransacking Johnson’s offices, Jack Johnson called his wife and told her to tear up the check in the underwear draw in their room, federal agents said in the sworn statement. She tore up the check and flushed it.
“Do you want me to put it down the toilet?,” Leslie Johnson asked, according to the affidavit. Then agents heard the sound of a toilet flush over the wire-tap.
They each face 20 years if convicted of all charges, and three years of supervised release. They are also facing fines of, no more than, $250,000.
In court Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney James A. Crowell told the judge: “This is a very very long investigation involving voluminous wiretaps and numerous cooperating witnesses.” The case is likely to expand, he added.
Since taking office in 2002, Johnson has been linked to investigations by various authorities, including a pay-to-play accusation involving a county contract to lease office space and a broad FBI investigation involving a massive development project near the Greenbelt Metro station that Johnson had strongly backed.
Both investigations have involved a number of Johnson associates either requesting payment or receiving strong government support. A Washington Post investigation of Johnson’s first term in office found that he had given 15 friends and allies 51 county contracts totaling nearly $3.3 million.
In all, Johnson has come under scrutiny for county development deals worth millions of dollars that have gone to people with ties to the county executive. Several of those people had little or no development experience or were given no-bid contracts, according to government records.
