{"id":16272,"date":"2016-01-12T00:17:35","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T00:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/?p=16272"},"modified":"2023-09-16T00:24:33","modified_gmt":"2023-09-16T00:24:33","slug":"former-rep-renzi-leaves-prison-asks-for-new-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/2016\/01\/12\/former-rep-renzi-leaves-prison-asks-for-new-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Rep. Renzi leaves prison; asks for new trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY JACQUES BILLEAUD<\/strong>
\nASSOCIATED PRESS<\/p>\n

PHOENIX<\/strong> \u2014 Former U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona left federal prison Friday after serving three years for corruption, money laundering, and other charges.<\/p>\n

He was set free just ahead of his scheduled Saturday release date. Renzi\u2019s attorney, Kelly B. Kramer, declined to comment on his client\u2019s plans after prison and said he didn\u2019t know any details of the former congressman\u2019s life behind bars.<\/p>\n

Renzi was convicted in 2013 of conspiring to use his congressional post to make companies buy his former business associate\u2019s land so the associate could repay a debt to Renzi.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors also said Renzi looted a family insurance business to help pay for his 2002 campaign, but he was not convicted of illegally using money from the firm. He was found guilty of filing false statements with regulators after failing to use premiums collected from nonprofit groups to buy policies.<\/p>\n

Renzi represented Arizona\u2019s 1st Congressional District, which stretches from the Arizona-Utah line to the outskirts of Tucson, from 2003 to 2009. He was credited with bringing federal dollars to the district, trying to improve housing on the Navajo Reservation and helping line up grants for a genetic research center in Flagstaff.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t seek re-election in 2008 while facing charges.<\/p>\n

Renzi began serving his sentence at a federal prison in Morgantown, West Virginia, and completed it at a federal Bureau of Prisons facility in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

Though he is nearly a free man and an appeals court has upheld his convictions, Renzi is pursuing a new trial in another appeal, alleging that a key witness against him changed the substance of his testimony after the FBI said he could be compensated for his cooperation.<\/p>\n

Kramer said the purpose of the appeal is to clear his client\u2019s name and seek justice after an unfair trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t believe in the United States that criminal convictions stand when the government violates those basic obligations,\u201d Kramer said.<\/p>\n

Renzi\u2019s lawyers say prosecutors failed to disclose that the ex-congressman\u2019s former associate who testified for the government was told he could receive payments. The attorneys say they learned about the possibility of a reward more than a year after Renzi started serving his sentence.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said other witnesses and evidence backed up the ex-associate\u2019s testimony.<\/p>\n

Renzi\u2019s attorneys made similar arguments a year ago when they unsuccessfully sought a new trial. His latest appeal seeks to overturn that decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY JACQUES BILLEAUD ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOENIX \u2014 Former U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona left federal prison Friday after serving<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16274,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16272\/revisions\/16274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}