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e ~N, ame" * ” -etrveTV sic % b n Pri 2 Editorial Charlotte. NC 2G Telephone 704 374 3854 Jeffersan a Broaticasting THE FBI AND ABSCAM Broadcast Date: PM 10/17/80 The FBI’s handling of the Abscam investigation has raised some serious questions. One of the biggest is, were the eight members of Congress lured into a trap? There is no excuse for public officials who take bribes. Yet the way the cases were built generates undeserved sympathy for the defendents. The Justice Department says the FBI did not set out to target specific Congressmen. Rather, the investigation evolved from a search for some stolen paintings. In the course of that investigation, informers told the FBI they could buy influence from public officials. As the Justice Department puts it, the Bureau did not back away from the case. No one can blame the FB) for following up on hot leads. What disturbs us is the use of middlemen to draw Congressmen into the net. There are some troubling questions the FBI needs to answer: —Were the approaches to Congressmen based solely on the belief of informers that the men would accept bribes? —Was there evidence that any of the lawmakers had taken bribes in the past? —Did any of the Congressmen come soliciting bribes on their own, without being approached? How many others were tested, but refused to accept bribes? We have no reason to question the evidence used in the first two cases that have come to trial. We can’t disagree with the verdicts returned by the juries. And, as we said, there is no excuse for public officials taking bribes whether or not they were entrapped. But, our Editorial Board believes the American people are right to wonder about the way these eight members of Congress were caught. The FBI should come up with the answers. , Invitation to respond has been sent to FBI Director William H. Webster _ over DAB A GIX - Editorial Board: Larry M. Harding, Chairman, Vice President/Public A airs. Russ Ford, Public Affairs Editor. Wallace J. Jorgenson, President. James G. Babb, Jr. Executive Vice President. Cullie M. Tarleton, Vice President/Radio and Managing Director WBT/WBCY. John A. Edgerton, Vice President and Managing Directo. WBTV. Gerald W. King, Vice President and Treasurer. Frank F. Bateman, Vice President/Engineering. Ray Gooding, Commun 84-5 Srant-r WETAWRCY Tommt Jones, Vice President and Personnel Manager. Ken Koontz, Community Affairs Director, WBTV. Joseph B. Young, Vice President/Research. Doug Mayes, Public Affairs Correspondent. _____-EHCLASURE._. .o . ee ener teem ee teen hatched ania a alee tahoe belted ee edd eheel aan Cee etna anaee eaeee