JACKSON, Miss. — The mayor of Mississippi’s capital stated Thursday that “he’ll proceed to deal with the enterprise of town” after he pleaded not responsible to prices associated to allegations of a bribery scheme which have additionally led to the indictments of a outstanding district lawyer and a former City Council president.
Flanked by roughly two dozen supporters on the steps of a federal courthouse in downtown Jackson after his arraignment, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba stated he would stay in workplace.
“I’m not responsible, and so I can’t proceed as a responsible man,” stated Lumumba, a Democrat who’s in his second time period and final month introduced plans to run for a 3rd time period.
The allegations stem from what federal prosecutors have described in court docket paperwork as an effort additionally involving Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens and not less than two City Council members to assist builders get approval for a proposed resort undertaking close to town’s conference heart.
The metropolis’s efforts to get a resort close to the venue, which included taking out a multimillion-dollar mortgage in 2008 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, stretch again nearly twenty years. It confronted a June 2025 deadline to finish the undertaking, in accordance with the federal indictment outlining grand jury prices towards Lumumba, Owens and Banks.
Recent “builders” from Nashville, Tennessee, in touch with native officers and looking for to construct the resort have been truly undercover FBI workers, in accordance with the indictment, which was unsealed Thursday.
Owens is alleged to have “facilitated” inappropriate bribe funds to Lumumba, former City Council President Aaron Banks and Angelique Lee, who resigned from her council seat and pleaded responsible in August to conspiracy to commit bribery, in accordance with the indictment.
One of the “builders” approached Owens, a Democratic prosecutor who additionally owns a cigar bar in Jackson, in August 2023 about potential actual property alternatives in Jackson, in accordance with the indictment.
Owens later advised each “builders” that he had “a bag of f—— data on all town councilmen” that allowed him to “get votes authorized,” in accordance with the indictment.
The indictment alleges that in April, Lumumba, Owens and a relative of Owens’, Sherik Marve Smith, took a visit on a non-public jet to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, “paid for [by] the FBI on behalf of the builders.” Smith pleaded responsible to a federal bribery cost final month, in accordance with NBC affiliate WLBT of Jackson.
Authorities allege that through the journey, Lumumba, whereas on a yacht, accepted $50,000 “hid” as 5 $10,000 marketing campaign donations from builders and instructed a metropolis worker to maneuver up a deadline for events to submit proposals for the resort undertaking, in accordance with the indictment and a information launch. Authorities have stated they captured the alternate on video and audio, and the indictment consists of screenshots from the recording.
Banks, who was not on the journey, is alleged to have requested for $50,000 in alternate for his assist.
Federal authorities have accused him of accepting not less than $10,000 in money in an envelope from Owens.
“Banks and Owens understood that the cash was being paid in alternate for Banks’ future vote(s) to approve the Developer’s proposed improvement undertaking,” the indictment says.
Owens is accused of accepting not less than $115,000 and the “promise of future monetary advantages,” the Justice Department stated in a information launch. The FBI searched Owens’ enterprise and his workplace on the Hinds County Courthouse in May.
“Leaders who’re awarded the general public’s belief ought to be specializing in the wants of the Jackson neighborhood, not seeking to line their very own pockets and profit themselves,” Todd Gee, the U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of Mississippi, stated in a information launch Thursday.
Banks, a Democrat representing town’s sixth Ward, didn’t reply to an NBC News reporter’s request for remark as he walked out of the courthouse with supporters. He pleaded not responsible Thursday.
Four years in the past, Owens’ workplace introduced the primary prices in one of many largest instances of public corruption in Mississippi’s historical past — the misspending of not less than $77 million in welfare funds meant to assist residents in one of many nation’s poorest states. At least seven folks have pleaded responsible in relation to the scandal.
“This indictment is a horrible instance of a flawed FBI investigation,” Owens advised reporters after he pleaded not responsible Thursday.
“We assume the reality has to come back out — that cherry-picked statements of drunken locker room banter is just not against the law,” he added earlier than he departed along with his authorized staff in a black SUV.
Owens didn’t point out what statements he was referring to. At instances, the indictment quotes him utilizing profane language in his alleged dealings with the builders.
“I don’t give a sh– the place the cash comes from. It can come from blood diamonds in Africa, I don’t give a f—— s—,” Owens stated at one level, the indictment alleges. “I’m an entire DA.”
In one other occasion, he’s alleged to have used a profane time period in describing what he buys in response to calls for.
A trial has been set for Jan. 6 — 4 days after the qualifying interval for town’s 2025 mayoral election opens.