A former Louisiana congressman convicted of taking bribes will have to begin serving a 13-year prison sentence within two weeks.

Democrat William Jefferson was convicted in 2009 but has been free on bond while appealing his case. The case drew headlines when FBI agents found $90,000 cash hidden in Jefferson’s freezer.

Last month, a federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., upheld all but one of the 11 counts on which Jefferson was convicted. At a status hearing Friday in federal court in Alexandria, the judge ordered Jefferson to turn himself in to U.S. Marshals by May 4 to serve the sentence.

“If they don’t play by the rules, I will be in court in Baton Rouge. I will be seeing them to take their depositions,” said John Wolfe Jr., the only Democratic candidate running against Obama to yet win any delegates.

In March, Wolfe walked away with more than 15 percent of the vote in three of Louisiana’s seven congressional districts.

That’s enough to entitle him three delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. in September, according to party rules.

So far, party officials have declined to comment on whether they would release the delegates Wolfe is entitle to and haven’t been at all helpful with his inquires in securing them, he said.

Wolfe has given Louisiana Democrats until 5 p.m. Thursday to cough up the delegates or he will see them in court.

The Times-Picayune reports on the situation:

It would appear that Wolfe is the first candidate other than Obama to win delegates to the convention at which the president will be renominated. But the party leadership has refused to confirm that, although its rules say that any candidate who received more than 15 percent of the vote in any congressional district — as Wolfe did in three of the state’s seven districts — is entitled to a proportional share of that district’s pledged delegates.

Wolfe said the party, despite numerous inquiries, has not told him whether he needs to hustle up some delegate candidates pledged to his candidacy by Thursday’s 5 p.m. deadline or risk losing the delegates he won in the primary when the delegates themselves are chosen at May 5 Congressional District caucuses.

Wolfe said he had a telephone conversation Tuesday with state party Executive Director Renee Lapeyrolerie that left him knowing no more at the end of the conversation than he knew at the beginning.

Wolf came in second to the president in Saturday’s Louisiana Democratic primary and has spent less than $5,000 on his presidential bid, the Times-Picayune reports:

If all goes according to Hoyle, after the Louisiana secretary of state’s office certifies Friday the results of the Louisiana presidential primary, the state Democratic Party will determine that a Chattanooga, Tenn. attorney by the name of John Wolfe Jr. is eligible for at least three delegates to the Democratic National Convention in September. If so, Wolfe will have outdone the likes of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, whose $64.8 million 2008 campaign netted him one delegate, or Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has no delegates to show for his $20 million 2012 campaign.

Obama also lost a delegate earlier this month to Oklahoma anti-abortion activist Randall Terry.

Former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson was convicted in 2009 on 11 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, bribery, money laundering and racketeering. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison. …

The 65-year-old Jefferson, a Democrat, was convicted of soliciting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for using his influence to broker business deals with government leaders in Africa. In 2005, the FBI videotaped Jefferson accepting a briefcase filled with $100,000 in cash. Most of that money was later found hidden in pie crust boxes in Jefferson’s freezer.