-40%
"South Carolina Congressman" John Jenrette Signed FDC Dated 1930 Mueller COA
$ 211.19
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Description
Up for auction"South Carolina Congressman" John Jenrette Signed FDC Dated 1930 .
This item is certified authentic by
Todd Mueller Autographs
and comes with their Certificate of Authenticity.
ES-6347E
John Wilson Jenrette Jr.
(born May 19, 1936) is an American former
politician
from
South Carolina
, best known for his involvement in the
ABSCAM
corruption scandal, and being the husband of
Playboy
model
Rita Jenrette
. He served in the
U.S. House of Representatives
as a
Democrat
from January 1975 until December 1980. He was convicted of accepting a
bribe
in the
FBI
's
Abscam
operation. Jenrette was born in
Conway
,
South Carolina
in 1936 and grew up in
Loris, South Carolina
. He graduated from Loris High School, in 1954. He then earned a B.A. at
Wofford College
in 1958. After graduating from
law school
at the
University of South Carolina
, worked as a city attorney, then a judge, as he attempted to reach higher office. Jenrette was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives as a
Democrat
in 1964, where he represented his native town of
Myrtle Beach
. He retired from the state house to run for a seat in the U.S. House in 1972. Jenrette defeated seventeen-term Congressman
John L. McMillan
in the primary, but lost the general election to
Republican
Edward Lunn Young
. Undaunted, Jenrette again ran for the same seat in 1974. In part because of the extreme unpopularity of Republican
Richard Nixon
and the
Watergate scandal
, Jenrette won. Jenrette, a
liberal
, seemed out of place representing his rather
conservative
waterfront congressional district. However, he was locally well-known, and the
South Carolina Republican Party
was not especially well-organized at the time in that part of the state. Jenrette easily defeated Young again in 1976 and was unopposed in 1978. Jenrette is most famous for two things during his days as a Congressman. First, he allegedly had sex with his then-wife,
Rita Jenrette
, behind a pillar on the steps of the
Capitol Building
during a break in a late night session of Congress. (The comedy group "
Capitol Steps
" take their name from this escapade. Second, he was charged with and convicted of accepting a ,000
bribe
in the FBI sting operation known as
Abscam
which was conducted in 1980. He was recorded saying he had been given a cash bribe by an associate. Jenrette was sentenced to two years in prison, of which he served 13 months.
His wife, Rita, separated from him in January 1981 and the two divorced later the same year. Jenrette was defeated for reelection in 1980 and resigned from Congress on December 10, just days before the end of his term. He subsequently ran a public-relations firm called Lehuguenot, Ltd.,
[6]
in his native
Myrtle Beach
, and developed property in nearby
Cherry Grove
.