The wife of ex-Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D., Ill.) went to prison Tuesday to serve time for illegally spending $750,000 in campaign funds on lavish furs, coats, and other items.
The Associated Press reported:
Sandi Jackson, herself a former Chicago city councilwoman, presented herself at the Federal Prison Camp at Alderson in West Virginia to begin serving a one-year sentence for filing false income tax returns, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said in an emailed statement. She starts her prison term one month after her husband completed his 2½ year sentence on a fraud conviction for the illegal spending. The judge who sentenced both of them in 2013 after they reached plea deals with prosecutors allowed the Jacksons to stagger their sentences in a concession to their two school-aged children.
According to court documents, Sandi Jackson used campaign money to purchase a $1,500 cashmere cape, a $1,200 mink parka, and a $1,500 fox fur, among other things. She and her husband also purchased $9,600 worth of children's furniture with campaign funds.
Jackson will serve her sentence in the same prison that held famed homemaker Martha Stewart when she was convicted for obstructing justice about a decade ago.
The ex-congressman, who is the son of civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, resigned from Congress in November 2012.