Saturday, May 06, 2000
Traficant: FBI corrupt
Affidavit from informant says he was a target
By M.R. Kropko
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND — U.S. Rep. James Traficant on Friday made public a sworn statement from a man who identified himself as a former paid FBI informant and who said Mr. Traficant is the FBI's investigative target.
In the same affidavit, the man said an FBI agent asked him to kill a police detective.
Mr. Traficant, D-Ohio, who said during his re-election campaign that he expects to soon be indicted, has accused FBI agents of breaking the federal racketeering law.
“But what's even worse, they suggested to one of their field operative informants that he should commit murder. Ladies and gentlemen — murder,” he said in a brief statement Tuesday on the House floor.
Mr. Traficant made public the statement of James A. Kerchum, of Girard, in northeast Ohio's Trumbull County. Mr. Kerchum identified himself as a paid informant for the FBI and a participant in the Mahoning Valley Corruption Task Force, which has been helping the FBI and Justice Department make criminal cases against public figures and others.
Mr. Kerchum identified those in the Justice Department, FBI and Ohio's Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation with whom he worked as a paid FBI informant from February 1998 until April of last year.
“Congressman Jim Traficant was the FBI's number one target” because he won acquittal in 1983 on federal charges and became “an embarrassment to the FBI,” Mr. Kerchum states. He also alleged that the FBI offers a special class to agents “on getting Jim Traficant.”
Mr. Kerchum said in his affidavit that during the period he was a paid informant an FBI agent asked him to kill a Girard police detective. Mr. Kerchum did not describe why the request was made or how he responded to the request.
FBI agent Robert Hawk in Cleveland said Friday the FBI is aware of the Kerchum statement that Mr. Traficant released and has no comment on it.
Mr. Kerchum could not be reached for comment.
The Tribune-Chronicle in Warren reported last year that Mr. Kerchum was convicted of a federal firearms offense.
According to the newspaper, Mr. Kerchum was a critic of Girard's police department and was a member of the Trumbull County Civilian Oversight Commission, a watchdog group.
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Traficant: FBI corrupt
