Nation IN BRIEF : TENNESSEE : Lawmaker’s Fraud Trial to Start Today
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Rep. Harold E. Ford, the only black congressman in Tennessee history, goes on trial in Memphis today on charges he took $1.5 million in fraudulent bank loans in return for mobilizing his political machine behind a candidate for governor. Ford, 44, an eight-term Democrat, has proclaimed his innocence since his 1987 indictment on 19 counts of bank fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to defraud the government. He accuses the government’s chief prosecutor in the case of racial and political motivation and of waging a personal vendetta against him. If convicted of all charges, Ford faces 95 years in prison.
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