Philadelphia
Addressing the court, the West Philadelphia Democrat expressed regret for some of the decisions he had made and how his conviction had affected his co-defendants and constituents, but stopped short of fully acknowledging his guilt.
“The investigation and the trial has been the most disappointing event in my now 60-year life,” he told U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III. “I’ve helped tens of millions of people and that has nothing to do with the fact that I have been found on the wrong side of these questions by a jury.”
Bartle, however, called Fattah’s crimes “astonishing” and “extremely serious” — especially for an elected official representing one of the poorest congressional districts in the country and one whose own income put him among the “1 percent.”
He ordered Fattah to report to begin serving his sentence Jan. 25.
“You abused the trust they placed in you time and time again,” he said of the voters who elected Fattah 11 times to represent them in Congress. “Your flagrant behavior undermines the confidence of the citizenry in all public institutions.”
Fattah’s sentence fell below the 17 to 22 years recommended by federal prosecutors but remains the second-highest prison term ever received by a member of Congress — capped only by the 13 years former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., received in 2009 for soliciting millions of dollars in bribes.
“That’s about as good as we could have expected,” Fattah lawyer Albert S. Dandridge turned to tell a courtroom packed with supporters and family members moments after the sentence was imposed.
Fattah himself betrayed little emotion after the hearing, but thanked his lawyers and the crowd for their support.
The sentence capped off what has been a tough year for Fattah, who lost his first primary in two decades to U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Pa., just days before his trial began and resigned two days after the verdict under pressure from his colleagues.
His wife, former WCAU-TV news anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah, though not charged in his case, saw her career end this year after she was linked to the sham sale in 2012 of her Porsche convertible — a transaction prosecutors said was intended to cover up a bribe to her husband. She sat in the courtroom on Monday typing away on an iPad during the hearing.
His son, Chaka “Chip” Jr., was sentenced to five years in prison in February in a bank and tax fraud case tied to loans he fraudulently obtained to fund a luxury lifestyle.
But while the younger Fattah’s crimes stemmed from his extravagant taste in fancy cars, clothes, and apartments, most of the congressman’s misdeeds centered on money he owed creditors after a disastrous 2007 bid to become mayor of Philadelphia.
Addressing the court on Monday, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Gibson said that the ex-congressman’s trial proved his willingness to sell out his office and his constituents over and over again.
He stole from some of the same causes for which he sought credit, including the education nonprofit he raided to repay an illegal $1 million campaign loan from the mayoral campaign.