CLEVELAND — U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. is seeking to overturn his conviction on corruption and bribery charges, saying a judge violated his rights by restricting testimony of his witnesses.

        The Ohio Democrat was convicted April 11 of taking bribes and kickbacks from businessmen and his own staff after a raucous trial in which the fiery congressman insisted on serving as his own lawyer. Sentencing is scheduled June 27.

        The charges against Mr. Traficant carry a possible maximum sentence of 63 years and nearly $2 million in fines. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Mr. Traficant is likely to get less jail time, probably less than 20 years, according to legal observers.

        In a motion filed in U.S. District Court late Monday, Mr. Traficant said the verdict should be overturned and a new trial convened because of errors made by U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells.

        Bill Edwards, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said Tuesday his office will file a written response to Mr. Traficant's motion and won't comment until then.

        Mr. Traficant argued — as he repeatedly did during his trial — that Judge Wells improperly restricted the testimony of his witnesses.

        Judge Wells prevented several of Traficant's witnesses from testifying before the jury because they were providing only secondhand accounts of events or were reporting statements made to them by other people.

        Such hearsay testimony is barred unless it meets one of the specific exceptions set out in the rules of evidence. On several occasions, prosecutors were able to introduce hearsay evidence after showing they had met the exceptions in the hearsay rule.

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