Jesse Jackson Jr.: The money trail

February 20, 2013 (WASHINGTON)

"It's not a proud day," Jackson Jr. said as he left court. "I let everybody down."

Prosecutors say Jackson used campaign funds on trips to Disney World, to manicure his lawn with tools from home depot and to purchase elk heads from Montana.

Prosecutors say he confessed to using his campaign credit card in a variety of schemes that were sometimes simple other times sophisticated.

"Jesse Jackson Jr. had the drive the ability and the talent to be the voice of a new generation but he squandered that talent," said U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. He squandered that talent and exchanged that instead to satisfy his personal whims and extravagant life style."

We now know the details of that illegal and extravagant life style. It was all laid out Wednesday by federal prosecutors.

Among some of the items more than $60,000 spent at restaurants, nightclubs and lounges.

Approximately $31,000 was spent on personal airfare and more than $17,000 at tobacco shops, while $15,000 was spent at ABT Electronics and nearly $10,000 at Best Buy.

Then in 2008 there were five purchases at Antiquities of Nevada totally more than $19,000 for celebrity memorabilia from Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Lee.

"Jesse Jackson purchased $1,500 on a porcelain piece from a Chicago museum he told the FEC he was using to rent a room for fundraiser," Machen Jr. said.

Then there was the Martha's Vineyard holistic retreat in 2008 at cost of nearly $6,000.

More than $8,000 was spent at All Children's Furniture and more than $3,000 at Little Lamb Scholastic.

"It's important to remember the victim they are the American people who placed their hopes and dreams in then as political officials," said Machen Jr.

The U.S. Attorney General says this prosecution should serve as a cautionary tale to those who set aside ideals and integrity for personal gain.

Sentencing for Jesse Jackson Junior is scheduled for Friday, June 28.

Sandi Jackson Is expected to learn her fate Monday, July 1.

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